Tuesday, December 23, 2014

Gingerbread Buche de Noel

This seemingly simple cake was quite a project! Thanks to Tuesdays with Dorie, I pushed myself to make this recipe (which I initially overlooked immediately after seeing it in Baking Chez Moi because it looked too complicated for me).  This cake turned out to be more fun to make than I thought!  There were 4 steps to this cake: 1) Praline; 2) Cake; 3) Filling; and 4) Frosting.


Step 1: Make Praline.  I like eating candied nuts, but I had never made my own.  It wasn't as hard as I thought it would be.  Just heat up your sugar/water, and add in the nuts!

These smelled so good as I spread them on the silpat...

So I chopped them into different sizes, trying my best not to eat them all before I got to use them in the cake. Praline, check!

Step 2: The cake. This cake was the most intimidating part for me. It's a sponge cake that's rolled up. Two things scared me: 1) I was afraid that I would not be able to turn the cake out nicely without it tearing in half; and 2) I was afraid that the cake would crack as I rolled it.  Thankfully neither happened.

Whipping the eggs was fun to watch.  It's amazing how much the size of the batter increased.

This was the prep for the first scary task...

I was so nervous about turning the cake out, I forgot to take a picture of the cake when it came out of the oven. It was a beautiful sponge cake with lots of holes on top!  I was so relieved when the cake came out in one piece.

I rolled the cake very carefully when it was still hot. Cake, check.

Step 3: Filling.  The filling was very quick to make. Just dump everything into the mixer!

Can't get any easier than this! Filling, check.

Time to unroll the cake and spread on the filling! 

...then time to roll it back up...
Step 4: Frosting.  It was pretty much an Italian meringue. Frosting, check.

There were guests over for dinner this night so before this went on the dining table, I dressed it up with more pralines.

Gingerbread Buch de Noel!

Gingerbread Buche de Noel recipe on page 86 of Baking Chez Moi.

9 comments:

  1. Great step-by-step pictures! Time consuming, yes, but definitely not difficult. I hope you had a great holiday, Ryan.

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  2. Don't you love it when something turns out EXACTLY like it is supposed to, despite fears. I have learned to TRUST DORIE!! She never fails me. Cake looks great.

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  3. Wonderful process shots and a beautiful cake! I had great fun with this challenge as well.

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  4. Your rolled cake looks great and really even. It's wonderful when something that is so much effort has a great result.

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  5. Your buche turned out beautiful. I enjoyed your photos all along the process.
    Have a wonderful New Year!

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  6. Daunting is definitely the word for this recipe but Dorie's great directions and suggestions made it all possible. Wonderful photos--I seldom seem to be able to take pictures during the process of baking!

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  7. You took more photos than I did along the way! The volume of the cake batter was kind of miraculous, wasn't it? Your cake came out beautifully!

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  8. I know, so time-consuming...but delicious! I hope your guests enjoyed it! (And I wanted to eat all the pralines too. :)

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  9. Not eating the all the nuts before they went on the cake was the hardest part :-)
    Happy New Year!

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