Sunday, December 28, 2008

December Daring Baker's Challenge


This month's challenge is brought to us by the adventurous Hilda from Saffron and Blueberry and Marion from Il en Faut Peu Pour Etre Heureux.They have chosen a French Yule Log by Flore from Florilege Gourmand.

Thank you Hilda and Marion, it sure was a hell of an experience making this cake!

The most important thing I learned about this dessert is that it was NOT made for the tropical climate. REALLY. 5 minutes after I removed it from the freezer after freezing overnight, it looked like this:



So, let me run through the layers here. From the top, dark chocolate icing, raspberry mousse, vanilla creme brulee, Feuillete insert with cornflakes, dark chocolate ganache, and finally almond dacquoise. Decorated with some coloured buttercream icing flowers and leaves.


I have to say, some of the layers are absolutely drop dead gorgeous, like the mousse, the dacquoise, and the ganache. But, altogether, I just don't think they go very well. It is a real killjoy to slide through the icing and the mousse only to hit the rock hard creme brulee and feuillete, and then to have to hack through them, destroying the bottom layers in the process.
I definitely would not make the cake in its entirety again, but for a super decadent treat, I can imagine myself making the mousse, then ribboning the ganache through it to make raspberry dark chocolate ganache ice cream. YUMMMMMMMY.

14 comments:

Jo said...

Love your flavours and the raspberry sounds delicious. The piping looks lovely as well.

Deeba PAB said...

What beautiful flavours you chose. And the buttercream frosting is very pretty too...well done!!
Hope you have a wonderful new year. Cheers Deeba

Anonymous said...

really pretty,love your decoration! I went for the fruity mousse too!

Rosa's Yummy Yums said...

Well done! I love the pretty decorations!

Cheers,

Rosa

Hilda said...

Great job on your log! we hoped it would work out for people in warm climates since it is a frozen dessert but it must be really hot there right now. Glad you at least liked some of the components. Happy New Year!

Anonymous said...

I agree with you completely about the Creme Brulee layer. However, the rest was divine! I thought I lived in a humid place! Your flowers are beautiful. Great Job and Happy Holidays!

Dewi said...

what a beautiful decoration you have on the log. Good job.
Elra

Anonymous said...

I love the flower/leaf decorations!

Happy holidays to you and yours! :)

Gfron1 said...

Ha! A bit of heat and humidity does evil things to this one doesn't it?! Yours is beautiful nonetheless! great job.

Mrs Ergül said...

I like the little flowers dotted along the edge! how lovely!

Baker at Law said...

I like the look of the pink flowers on your log. Very cute and a good contrast against the dark chocolate. Great job! Happy New Year.

Anonymous said...

The piping on top is just lovely! I'm glad that you were up to the challenge, even in such a warm climate. :)

Maggie said...

The piped on flowers look wonderful and even though it caused you trouble I envy you your warm weather. We're in for several more months of below freezing weather here.

Unknown said...

The mousse was my favorite part too. Nice job on your log, I'm sorry the weather didn't cooperate.