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Sunday, December 23, 2007

Yule Be Surprised

This is my third Daring Baker challenge and, given the previous drama in my kitchen, I was surprised how little drama accompanied the Yule Log recipe. The Yule Log recipe was chosen by the fantabulously brilliant founders of the Daring Bakers, Lis of La Mia Cucina and Ivonne of Cream Puffs in Venice.

The Yule Log recipe was divided into three parts:

1) Decorative Mushrooms - meringue or marzipan
2) Genoise - cake
3) Buttercream Icing

I chose to make mushrooms out of marzipan. The opportunity to pretend to play with clay was too great to resist. When I was mixing the icing sugar, almond paste and corn syrup my poor blender groaned to a halt. After I chiseled out the half mixed marzipan, I kneaded it by hand. The marzipan turned out silky smooth and ready to roll. In order to make the mushrooms, I had to wait until my family was out of the house; otherwise everyone would have wanted to play with the marzipan.
The genoise was straightforward but cooked much faster than the time indicated in the recipe. It was done at 8-9 minutes. It was a bit dry as a result, but this could have been corrected with a syrup or liquor.

The last part of the three part recipe was the buttercream icing. This was the big technical challenge for me. I delayed long enough to hear of the other Daring Baker's challenges when their icing was runny or curdled.

But every Daring Baker should take a bow! A big thank you to all the adventurous and early bird Daring Bakers. Because of your experience, expertise and willingness to educate the group, my buttercream was perfect.

Smooth, silky, tasty....

That success can only be credited this great group of Daring Bakers because I had absolutely no experience with this icing. But I loved the buttercream icing and would definitely make it again. My version of the buttercream icing included squares of baking chocolate but no liquor (as this seemed to curdle many a Daring Baker's icing). I dusted the entire confection with cocoa and shared with good friends. A big thank you to all the Daring Baker's and to Lis and Ivonne, the hostesses this month.

Merry Christmas to everyone!

23 comments:

Karen Baking Soda said...

Cute as a button mushrooms! Love the frosted look of your log, well done!

Anonymous said...

Nicely done! The mushrooms look so real.

Meryl said...

So pretty! I love your dusting (powdered sugar?)--wish I would have thought of it! My buttercream didn't go nearly as well, and I think some "snow" might have helped it!

Jennifer said...

mmmmmmm yum! what a nice looking cake!!! :) your mushrooms are sooo cute! :)

Beth G. @SweetLifeKitchen said...

It looks delicious!! Beautifully decorated :O)

Lunch Buckets said...

Beautiful! Cute mushrooms too, love the fat little stems :)

Peabody said...

So glad you had an easy go with the challenge! Looks great.

Lis said...

Aww I love your lil mushrooms - so cute!

You did another fantastic job - as you always do. =)

Happy holidays!

xoxo

Cheryl said...

I love the shape of your mushrooms, so much better than mine.

Anonymous said...

That's a lot of mushrooms! So cute and dainty! Great job!

glamah16 said...

Merry Christmas. It looks so nice. Yes that marzipan is fun to play with.Great hoilday stress reliver.

Dolores said...

What a glorious yule log you've created. Congratulations on a successful holiday.

I hope you had a joyous holiday, and I wish you and your family health and happiness in 2008.

Julius said...

What a lovely bûche de Noël. I like how you shot it with the outdoor winter scene in the background.

Happy Holidays!

Julius from Occasional Baker

Unknown said...

cute mushrooms!

Deborah said...

I love the marzipan mushrooms! I wish I would have tried them out. I agree about the buttercream - I'm glad I waited until the end, because I really learned a lot from everyone else. And mine came out great the first time!

Jenny said...

Well of course you had no problems with the buttercream - I had all the problems for all the Ottawa Daring Bakers combined! hehehe
Nice work, your log looks great.

Helene said...

That last picture with the snow in the background is just gorgeous! Glad everything went smoothly!
Hope you had a wonderful Christmas!

Anonymous said...

What perfect little mushrooms!! Glad that your log was drama-free!

Henny A. said...

Your yule logs looks adorable! I love how all the mushrooms turned out. Congrats!

Gabi said...

Lovely Yule log the mushrooms are so silky looking!
Hope you have a fabulous 2008!
xoxo
Gabi

Rosa's Yummy Yums said...

Gorgeous! I love the picture with the snow in the background...

Cheers,

Rosa

Jen Yu said...

That looks terrific! I really love the mushrooms, they are soooo cute :) Excellent job on the yule log. Happy new year!

jen at use real butter

Canary said...

LOvely fOOd bLoG!!! glad I dropped by.. :)
Happy new year to you too...