Classic Buche de Noel by Caitlin Dysart: Taste of France

Classic Buche de Noel by Caitlin Dysart is a stunning French dessert made of sponge cake rolled with a whipped crème fraîche and covered with a chocolate frosting. Bring a taste of France to your holiday table!

I was keeping the recipe of this Classic Buche de Noel in a secret to make it for the New Year’s Eve. Although Buches de Noel are typically served for Christmas, I changed the tradition (a bit) and made it for the New Year Holiday. First of all, this year we spent Christmas in Las Vegas where I could not bake at all as you can imagine. Secondly, I fell in love with the creation of chef Caitlin Dysart once I found her recipe some time ago and immediately planned the cake to be baked for the New Year’s Eve.

Here we go… It was so much fun to make meringue mushrooms, although I have already made them, following a RECIPE of chef Philippe. However, mushrooms invented by chef Caitlin Dysart are a bit “exaggerated”: the mushroom stems are of different length bring that “unusual” stunning effect to Classic Buche de Noel.

Once Classic Buche de Noel is served on a table, just one look at this creation will have your guests oohing and ahhing in admiration. If you want to gather their “Ohs” and “Ahs”, save the recipe for the future and make it.

Ingredients:

For meringue mushrooms:

• 3 egg whites
• 150 g sugar
• 100 g icing sugar
• 3 1/2 tbsp cornstarch
• red food coloring, as needed
• melted chocolate, as needed

For the cocoa sponge:

• 2 egg yolks
• 2 egg whites
• 150 g sugar
• 65 g all-purpose flour
• 2 tsp cocoa powder *
• 1/4 tsp salt
• icing sugar, as needed

For the rich chocolate frosting:

• 2 tbsp cocoa powder *
• 2 tbsp warm water
• 6 tbsp butter, softened
• 3 tbsp icing sugar
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 170 g dark chocolate

For the whipped crème fraîche:

• 215 g heavy cream
• 215 g crème fraîche
• 50 g icing sugar
• 1/2 tsp vanilla extract *

For assembling the cake:

• marmalade or jam, as needed

Instructions:

To make meringue mushrooms, heat the oven to 200 degrees F/ 95 C.

In a bowl, sift the icing sugar and cornstarch. In the separate bowl of a stand mixer *, whisk the egg whites till they are mounted. Gradually add the sugar and continue to whisk till the meringue is glossy. Gently add the icing sugar/cornstarch mixture into the meringue and mix with a spatula.

Place the meringue in a pastry bag * with a medium-sized plain tip. Prepapare two baking sheets covered with the parchment paper *. Pipe straight lines (mushroom stems) of the length 2.5 – 7.5 cm, shaping the end of each line as a fine point (you will be using this point to assemble the mushrooms later).

Then pipe the mushroom caps: pipe meringue mounds of different diameters (1.2 cm – 2.5 cm) to the thickness of 0.5 cm. In order to make red caps, add the red food coloring to the third of the meringue and pipe red meringue mouds. Bake the meringue for about 2 hours.

To assemble the meringue mushrooms, make a hole into the bottom of each cap with the use of the knife’s tip. Place a drop of the melted chocolate into the hole and attach/insert a stem. Place ready mushrooms on a baking sheet and allow the chocolate to set.

To make the chocolate sponge, heat the oven to 350 degrees F/175 C. Place the egg yolks and 1/3 of the sugar in a bowl and whisk with a stand or electric mixer * till the mixture becomes whitish.

In a separate bowl, beat the egg whites till they are mounted. Gradually add the remaining sugar and whisk till the glossy meringue is obtained.

In another bowl, sift the flour, cocoa powder * and salt. Add half of the dry mixture to the egg yolks/sugar mixture and mix gently with a spatula. Add half of the meringue into the main preparation and mix.

Fold in the remaining dry ingredients.

Finally, add the rest of the meringue.

Spread the sponge dough in a baking sheet covered with the parchment or in a silicone mat Flexipat. Bake for about 5–7 minutes.

Take the ready sponge out of the oven and sprinkle with the icing sugar.

Place a sheet of the parchment paper * on top of the hot sponge and flip it over. Peel the parchment paper * or the silicone mat off of the cake. With the help of the parchment paper *, roll the sponge from top to bottom, starting from the long side. Place the log aside to cool down.

To make the whipped crème fraîche, place all the ingredients in a bowl and whisk till the cream is obtained. Refrigerate.

To make the rich chocolate frosting, stir the cocoa powder * into the warm water in a small bowl and set aside. Beat the butter, icing sugar and salt with an electric or stand mixer * for 3 minutes.

Melt the dark chocolate in a bain-marie or microwave and let it cool to the room temperature. Add the melted chocolate to the butter/sugar mixture and whisk. Finally, add the cocoa mixture and beat again.

To assemble Buche de Noel, unroll the sponge. Spread a thin layer (0.5 cm) of the whipped crème fraîche on top of the sponge and even with a bent spatula *. Spread a line of any marmalade or jam along the long edge of the sponge…

and re-roll again.

Spread the chocolate frosting over the cake and spoon the frosting out with the back of a tablespoon.

Decorate the top of Buche de Noel with meringue mushrooms. Refrigerate the cake. Trim the edges of Buche de Noel before serving in order to create the neat edges.

Happy baking and enjoy!

Tips:

• Make meringue mushrooms in advance in order to shorten the time of the cake preparation.
• Replace the crème fraîche with yogurt, sour cream, ricotta or mascarpone.
• Experiment with decorations of your choice.

The recipe is taken from http://edibledc.com/. It is re-written by me, but the authorship of the recipe belongs to Caitlin Dysart. All posted pictures are mine.

Have you tried this recipe or would you like to make it? Just speak to me, leaving a comment below. I love hearing from you!

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