Buche de Noel (Yule Log)

It is now time for one of the fanciest things I know how to make: a buche de Noel.  And I've made plenty of them.  We used to make these every year around this time in high school for French Club, so this recipe also brings back fond memories.  Well, on to it!

The first things you're going to need are 1 C flour, 1/4 C cocoa powder, 1 tsp baking powder, 1/4 tsp salt, 3 eggs, 1 C granulated sugar, 1/3 C water, and 1 tsp vanilla.  You're also going to want to grease a 15 x 10 x 1" jellyroll pan, line it with waxed paper, and lightly flour it and preheat your oven to 375 degrees.

In a medium bowl, sift together your flour, cocoa, baking powder, and salt and set it aside.  And actually sift it together, too; you want to make sure you don't have any flour or cocoa lumps in there.

Before going in the oven

In another bowl, beat the eggs until they're thick and creamy, then beat in the sugar, 1 tablespoon at a time, on high speed.  Beat in the water and vanilla.  Now fold in the flour mixture with a large rubber spatula (this is why you don't want any flour lumps).  When that's well blended, pour it into your prepared jellyroll pan and bake it for 10 minutes, or until the center springs back when touched.

Mmmmm...towel cake....

While that's in the oven, get a clean dish towel (one you don't plan on using for anything else again), lay it flat on the counter, and dust it lightly with confectioner's sugar.  When the cake is done baking, invert the pan onto the towel and carefully peel off the waxed paper.  Then gently roll the cake up in the towel like a jellyroll and set it on a wire rack to cool for a while.

While your cake is all bundled up and cooling off a bit, it's time to make some cream filling to go inside it!  For this, you'll just need three things: 1 C heavy cream, 1/2 C confectioner's sugar, and 1 tablespoon of either instant coffee (what my recipe actually calls for) or cocoa powder (what I actually use since coffee is not my thing).  I recommend using a glass or metal bowl for this and also putting said bowl and your beaters in the freezer for a little while to chill.  It just makes the whipped-cream-making go faster.  The entirety of the directions for this part of the recipe are as follows: "Beat until stiff."  Go ahead and leave your juvenile comments below.  I have a picture of what this looks like when it's done, but I don't think I'll post it.  It really will be pretty self-evident when you've beaten it enough.  Put it in the fridge when you're done while you make this next part.

We of course are going to need some frosting for this cake.  So, get out 1/4 C butter, 2 ounces of unsweetened chocolate, 2 C confectioner's sugar, 1/4 C milk, and 1/2 tsp vanilla.  Melt together your butter and chocolate.  If you do this in the microwave, I recommend microwaving for about 20 seconds at a time, then stirring around your chocolate, and microwaving for another 15-20 seconds.  It shouldn't take much more than a minute total.  Beat together your sugar, milk, and vanilla, then slowly (or dump it in all at once, like I do) beat in the chocolate.  It'll seem like it's too runny right now, but after it cools a bit it'll thicken up.

Ok, now it's time to put this thing together!  Very carefully unroll your cake.  You don't want it to break.  Spread your chocolate whipped cream on the cake, carefully roll it back up (without the towel this time, which I would hope would go without saying, but you never know), and put it on your serving plate.  Cut off about 1/2 to 1" of one end of the cake, cut out the middle coil, and reform the rest into a smaller coil and stick it on the top of the cake.  This also makes a good opportunity to taste test your masterpiece (hey, you've got to do something with that leftover bit you cut off and you need to make sure your cake is good!).  Now frost that cake!  After you get it frosted, if you want to make it look more "barklike", run a fork along it.  And you're done!  It is now ready to bring to either your library coworkers or the staff of your favorite sushi restaurant down the street from your place of work.  And yes, those are your only two options.  But it could still use a little something extra...something like... MERINGUE MUSHROOMS (see?  I told you there was a point to that recipe)!  Ah, there we go!

And it magically jumped onto a different plate!

You can also sprinkle some confectioner's sugar over this for "snow", but wait until you're ready to serve it since it'll dissolve into your frosting.  I'd also wait on the meringue mushrooms until then.  The cake needs to be refrigerated (because of the whipped cream), which you don't want to do with your mushrooms.  If they get even a little damp, you'll have a bunch of mushy mushrooms, and no one wants that.

Welp.  That's about it for this recipe.  It may seem a little long and complicated, but it's really pretty quick.  The total amount of time it took me, starting with pulling ingredients out of the pantry and ending with putting the finished cake in the fridge, was just under two hours.  So give it a shot for your next holiday party.  You might just impress someone!