To be a Daring Baker! I have been so excited about being brought into the fold of daring baker bloggers all over the world. I planned and plotted my first challenge. Before it was over, I would call my challenge disastrous, delightful, dangerous and delicious. Daring, it is, to be a blogging baker!
I gathered the ingredients and started early. We were planning to go to a special Christmas supper club and I had told everyone that I would bring a yule log. I didn't tell them it was a blogger challenge. I just committed to bringing the dessert.
So, the day came. I thought "genoise, schmenoise -- it's nothing more than a jelly roll cake". I guess that I stopped thinking there because I doubled the recipe due to the evite guest list for supper club increasing rapidly. When I got to the part of the recipe that says, "Scrape the batter into the prepared pan and smooth the top.", somehow I interpreted this to say "smooth TO THE TOP" of the cookie sheet. My double batch wouldn't fill 2 cookie sheets (or jelly roll pans as my Mom likes to call them - {more from Mom later}). So, I thought that maybe I didn't beat the genoise long enough. Maybe I needed to put the double batch in 1 pan to bake. It baked beautifully. I turned the cake out onto another pan.
Now, the buttercream. I wasn't too worried about it. I've made buttercream before. Mom has several cake mixes that have different flavored buttercreams as frosting. Egg whites, sugar and butter - the mixer was doing beautifully. Fluffy buttercream - yum. Then, I added the espresso powder, which had been dissolved in rum. I had doubts. Alcohol in my fluffy buttercream, won't it separate? I added it anyway. I set the mixer to beat it in. It still looked funny. Taste - very yummy. Oh well, on to the filling.
I had plans to use this caramel frosting (store-bought) to fill the cake. I pulled it out and the plastic container cracked while in the pantry. It was as hard as a brickbat. Microwave for 30 sec - still hard. What else could I use? Coffee buttercream and raspberry preserves didn't sound good to me at all. Lemon curd - no. fig preserves - no way. Ok, just use the buttercream. So, I filled it with buttercream, being sure to leave enough to frost the yule log.
On to the rolling! I helped my granny roll jelly rolls many times. This would be a cinch. I remembered that granny used to use a clean dish towel sprinkled with sugar for rolling. I started to roll. Something is not right. The genoise is too thick and already cracked with the first turn of the roll. More cracks - crack, crack for a splintered yule log and buttercream mess! Maybe I could cover it up with the rest of the buttercream.
And then, a knock at the door! Mom & Dad arrived to pick up a picture that my husband took at Thanksgiving for their Christmas card. I answered the door with a mixture of embarrassment and relief. My mom can fix any kitchen disaster. She has been known to burn the bottom off a pan and still get dinner for 12 on the table. I say, "I'm making a yule log!". Mom says, "I've always wanted to make a yule log!". Great, today is your lucky day, I think to myself.
I explain how I've ended up with a great big yule mess in my refrigerator and how I am just going to cover it with buttercream frosting to mask my great mistakes.
Of course, she wouldn't hear of it.
Mom: Where is your recipe?
Me: Daring Bakers blog.
Mom: What's that?
Me: Never mind, Mom. It's on the computer.
Mom: Why didn't you cut the double-batch genoise in half lengthwise when I realized it was too thick?
Me: I don't know. Too late now.
Mom: We'll make another genoise.
Me: Do we have to?
Mom: Of course! I've always wanted to make a yule log!
I made a single batch genoise. Mom starts juicing satsumas (seedless oranges of Japanese origin, also called mikan) for her favorite son-in-law. Satsumimosa recipe post to follow. Glass breaks all over the kitchen floor. My crystal stirrer for the martini pitcher has gotten loose, fallen to the floor and broken in a million pieces. This really makes me want to give up on the whole yule log. Mom insists that we carry on. All yule log ingredients remain safe and without glass bits.
Mom says that I didn't beat the buttercream long enough, which is why the frosting appeared to separate. Mom scraped the filling from yule mess in the frig to use as filling in the new genoise cake. Beat the buttercream more. We filled and rolled the genoise with coffee buttercream. It reminds me of granny and helping her get ready for her pokeno games.
The yule log looks pretty good. We arrange it with a piece jutting out from the main branch and it looks almost real. One problem: not enough frosting to cover the log. I explain to Mom that it would be a violation of Daring Blogger rules to vary from the recipe to frost the log. She doesn't understand any of that. I don't have another 3 sticks of butter to dedicate to another batch of buttercream, so we improvise.
I think that the frosting that we used consisted of:
powdered sugar
cocoa
butter (only one stick)
I made the marzipan while Mom put together the improvised frosting. We shaped the mushrooms and I put together holly to garnish the top of the log. We dusted the mushrooms with cocoa powder as they all fell over on their sides. We covered it with toasted almonds to look like wood chips. Off to the party!
Everyone seemed to like the yule log. It is certainly festive-looking. The next day I had a cookie swap and used my leftover log - the yule stump - as a dessert.
This is the yummy yule log that I ordered at Todd English's restaurant, Riche, a week later. I bet that they didn't have nearly as much danger and delight making their log as I did with mine.
Looking back, I'm glad that it was a disaster at first. Making my second yule log and Mom's first yule log together will be a holiday memory that I will remember for years to come.
The yule log recipe, taken from Nick Malgieri’s Perfect Cakes. Since this post is so long, I'll just link to Cream Puffs in Venice for anyone interested in getting the recipe. Please visit the blogroll, to see other blogger's attempts (hopefully, less disastrous) at this holiday treat!
