Lucky for us, the debut of Baking Chez Moi happened close to the holiday season, which provided the perfect excuse to choose Gingerbread Buche de Noel as one of our first recipes from the new book. This roulade involves several components, but is relatively easy to put together in stages. I followed the recipe to the letter and ended up with a dessert that had a huge wow factor, both with its appearance and with its flavor. The lightly spiced cake is filled with an essentially unsweetened cinnamon cream cheese filling, then coated with billows of marshmallowy meringue. Chunks of candied pecan finish the cake off, giving it a rustic appearance. Such a great collection of contrasts and flavors: the spiced cake, the tangy cream cheese, the sweet meringue, the crunchy candied nuts.
The only issue I had with this cake was not getting quite the amount of volume I wanted from the egg whites as I was whipping them. I think the problem involved using the stand mixer; its whisk just doesn't get quite deep enough into the bowl to generate volume for a small amount of egg whites. (Actually, I will confess that there were two issues with this cake, but the second one involved securing a serving plate for it, an endeavor that required stops at three stores. On the other hand, I now have a perfect dish for presenting and serving a roulade.)
All in all, though, I really love everything about this cake: It's a project but so worthwhile to undertake.
13 comments:
You are correct that this cake does have that "wow" factor. I too had to move my cake from one plate to another to make it fit. I almost broke my cake moving it. You do have the perfect dish for serving this cake. An excuse to make it again. Happy holidays.
I usually make a chocolate Buche de Noel, but this is a new favorite! It's delicious and beautiful.
I feel your pain with the serving plate - I ended up using a long Tupperware dish, which was OK because I had to transport it. Your buche looks wonderful!
You have the perfect dish for this beautiful dessert and yours turned out great. I think I'll try a chocolate version next time (only because I gravitate, always, towards chocolate).
Your cake looks beautiful and the plate is perfect for it!
I have to agree with you on the volume of the meringue and the stand mixer. Fluffier would have been so much better! Love that you found the perfect dish for the log.
Have a great holiday, Chris!
Perfect platter for that lovely cake.
Love your new plate and the cake looks perfect on it. I'm sure you'll be using it again.
looks like it was tasty, and nice plate. :)
Your new plate is just right! I also transferred my bûche from plate to plate and only today I found a cake stand which might actually have been the perfect thing! I'll probably decide to make this again!
This dessert was a definite show stopper! Perfect for the holidays! Yours looks quite pretty!
I gave my cake a "branch" to solve the length issue (even though it ended up looking like a lopsided heart).
Beautifully done.
Your buche looks great! I like that you didn't ice the ends -- it lets you see all the rolls prior to cutting. And I read your post before I made it myself, and made sure that I had a proper plate, so thanks for that!
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