Sugar Bean Bakers: { Red Velvet Bûche de Noël }

Friday, December 21, 2012

{ Red Velvet Bûche de Noël }

Let me start off by saying, this is not how this is supposed to look.

Long about September, I asked my friend Darla (of Bakingdom), if she'd ever made a Bûche de Noël (also know as a Yule Log Cake). She'd made plenty of roulades (cake rolls), but never an actual Yule Log.

She suggested that we both do one in December & link to each others recipes.

Guess what... it's December.

Now, I've known this was coming up for over 3 months now, but, did I do anything about it? No.

The day before this recipe was supposed to go live, I'm running frantically around my kitchen trying to make sense of myself.

You'll remember I posted yesterday that I am currently sick.

So, yeah. Sick. Frazzled. Procrastinator.

That's me.

The recipe I chose to follow was also a little more complicated than I planned on. I mean, it wasn't hard, but man, dirty dishes everywhere! It was a bowlaplooza in here.

I finally got everything made, mixed, and in the oven though.

I thought then that it seemed a very small amount of batter for my jelly roll pan, but what can ya do? I followed the directions.

After the roll came out, I noticed how unevenly it had baked. My fault for not smoothing it good enough, I guess.

And man! Was it thin. Most roulades are thicker, but, I'd followed the directions sooo...

But, it doesn't look like the photo on the site.

.....

What can I do but proceed though? So, I added my cream filling and let chill.

Then I took it out and man, was it whimpy.

Onward!

So, I frosted it.

Meh. Looks ok.

Not right, but ok.

It seriously was not until 2 hours after I'd finished it that I realized what had happened.

I have a large sheet pan. That is what I used.

Doh!

It's about 2 inches longer AND wider than the standard jelly roll pan.

Yeah, that explains it, folks.

So, your first step is using the correct pan. Your roulade will work out much better than mine.

However, here is what I did.

Red Velvet Cake Roll

I followed this recipe from Hershey's

My filling was this one, that I use ALL the time

And my icing was Cream Cheese, get that here.

I wanted my log to look like Birch, so after I drug a fork through it to get the bark look, I added a bit of chocolate glaze ( or a bit melted from a can will do, you only need a teensy bit). I barely dipped the ends of the tines in, then I drug it through the icing.

My decorations are Marshmallow Fondant,

it is too, too, too much fun to play with. It's totally grown up, edible play doh.

(The Bean is obsessed with it (eating it, that is).

When he asked what it was made of, I said, "Well, marshmallows- so, sugar. Then you mix in sugar, then you knead in sugar, and for good measure, you dust it with sugar!"

Is there any wonder he loves it? Pure sugar, folks.)

Lastly, I dusted everything with powered sugar and pure cane sugar for a bit of sparkle.

You can definitely fill roulades with a multitude of different things.

Or, you can fill it and not frost it.

Just make sure you use the right pan.

Here's the thing though. Still tasted good.

Still looked pretty.

That works for me.

Next time, I wanna make a Pink Velvet Roll though!