The hubby and I are having some friends over on Saturday, so I have been baking and baking and baking--something besides macarons! (Though I'm still baking those, too! And I tried a new technique--piping on a squiggle of different-colored batter . . . but my squiggles aren't exactly artistic.)
This year my grand ambition was to bake a Yule Log, and so I pulled out a couple of recipes last night and gave it a go. The first recipe fell flat . . . the sponge cake bubbled up out of the pan and ended up being a bit leathery and thin. It's still edible, though, and after rolling it up and chopping off the end, I ate the end pieces and found that it tastes a bit like flour less cake . . . not exactly terrible.
But the second recipe, which called the separate beating of egg whites and egg yolks, worked like a charm. The cake was fluffy, spongy, and didn't spread out at all. Furthermore, it rolled beautifully and came with a buttercream frosting recipe that was generous enough to coat both logs.
So, remembering what I learned from watching Julia Child on The French Chef, I made meringue mushrooms, coated the log, then sprinkled the log with cocoa (for color on the mushrooms) and powdered sugar (to give the effect of a light snow).
And so--ta da! I know how to make a Yule Log. :-) My baking repertoire is growing steadily larger. How about yours?
Happy holiday baking!
3 comments:
it's cute! I just thought of you as I read another macaron thing...For decorating they drizzled food colouring down the side of the piping bag before adding the batter, and it gave a similar marbling effect to what you had before. Also, on another site they took a paint brush to add the flair.
Crystal
I realized that I've never had a macaron.
I've only had coconut macaroons and they're nothing like what you're making.
I'm gonna have to go on a macaron hunt, I guess.
Yes, though you can make macarons out of coconut if you want (I have, and they're delicious), macaroons contain coconut as a matter of definition, while macarons typically are made of almond flour, sugar, and egg white. Period. :-)
Yes, you need to find some. I couldn't find any around here, so I ordered some from ebay just to see what I was aiming for! :-)
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