Bûche de Noël (Yule Log) from Charlotte

Bûche de Noël by Charlotte 

Today I asked Charlotte if I could post her plat de résistance from Christmas, as part of our French theme.

Charlotte says:
"I don't know exactly why they (the French) make it but is a traditional dessert for Christmas.  I made a bûche de Noël because I made one with my friends for my French class in school to give to teachers, and I wanted to make a better one for my family for Christmas.  I have always thought they were cool but my mom said they were too much work, but when I showed her what I made with my friends she agreed we could make one for our Christmas!"   --- Charlotte

Colleen (her mom) said:

"So Charlotte had to make a bûche de noël as an extra credit project for her French class.  She seemed to think it was not that hard so she made another one with my help.  We used a more challenging recipe.  We started to go off road fairly quickly.  Fingers crossed it tastes good - we sunk a lot of chocolate, cream and eggs into the project.  It was fun regardless.  We used a recipe from the The Joy of Baking, and made a ganache from Williams-Sonoma Holiday Baking.  And made decorations out of almond paste.  And added some coffee powder to the filling to get to a mocha moment.  The cake did start to crack when we tried to roll it up.  I would probably try a different recipe next time to see if we could find a cake that is easier to work with.  But cracks are easily covered with ganache and filling."  

Afterwards, she says " Ours was very chocolaty. Choco cake mocha filling and dark chocolate ganache. With marzipan decorations. Very good. We got recipe from Joy of Baking with ganache from Williams-Sonoma Holiday Baking. We added one packet instant decaf coffee from Starbucks to recipe for filling. And we did double recipe of ganache. It bakes quickly and you can make in about three hours. With all the prep and decor.  "  --- Colleen

Ted says:  " I can personally testify that this dessert was beautifully executed and amazingly good.   -- Uncle Ted

Links for the recipes and Colleen's notes:  Buche de Noel by The Joy of  Baking, click here but add one packet of Starbucks instant coffee powder to the filling to make it mocha and a packet of Whip it stabilizer to the filling.  Did not refrigerate for an hour.  And powdered sugar.  Dark chocolate ganache, click here.  But add 1 T. corn syrup to make the ganache glossy.  And double it. 

Thanks, Charlotte! 

B