Buche de Noel

As I promised, our first Christmas cake is here :)

I chose a Buche de Noel (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bûche_de_Noël) as our first family Christmas cake.  The cake was inspired by one of my friends who made a similar cake last year. Buche de Noel is a famous Christmas cake in Japan.

When I decide to bake a particular item, I normally start looking for a recipe from CookPad (cookpad.com), the most famous Japanese cooking recipe website.

Japanese desserts typically have less sugar and are not as sweet as American desserts. Most importantly, they have fewer calories than American desserts :)

The Buche de Noel recipe starts with making a sponge cake.

I used this recipe from CookPad (http://cookpad.com/recipe/214995)

Ingredient

6 Large eggs

90 g Sugar

60 g All purpose flour

Whipped cream (I used heavy cream)

Strawberries

Recipe

1. Preheat the oven to 356 degree F (180 degree C)
2. Separate egg yolks and whites into two different bowls
3. Add half of sugar into yolk bowl and mix them until the mixture turns light yellow color.
4. Add flour and mix them until the mixture get smooth
5. Next, whisk egg whites and make meringue.  When egg whites get stiff then add the rest of the sugar and mix well.
6. Add the 1/3 of egg whites into the egg yolk mixture and mix with a spatula
7. Add rest of egg whites into the mixture and mix more.
8. Cover a 30” x 42” baking sheet with parchment paper
9. Put the mixture into the oven and bake for 10-12 minutes.  Cook it until the surface turns golden blown.
10. Remove the sponge cake from the oven and let it cool
11. When the sponge cake is cooled, spread a thin layer of whipped cream on baked side. The side with cooking sheet on will go outside.  Make sure not to put whipped cream at 1 last inch
12. And then place sliced fruits on the whipped cream

13. Start rolling the cake from the cream side (In the picture, I started rolling the cake from the bottom side)

14. Cut the rolled cake into desired size and put icing (I used whipped cream dyed with food colors to make it look like a log)
15. Sprinkle cocoa powder to cover the cake
16. Next prepare strawberry Santas (http://cookpad.com/recipe/305701) I draw eyes with a black gel pen, but you can also use a chocolate chips, black sesame seeds, or puppy seeds.
17. Decorate the Buche de Noel with the strawberry Santas

The most difficult part of making this cake was that I couldn’t put cocoa powder on sides of the cake evenly.

If you look at my cake carefully, there is a lot of powder on the top of the cake but not as much on the sides.

It might have been easier if I used chocolate icing instead………

Overall, I loved how it turned out and Matto loved it, too :)

It is tasty!!!

Wish you all a Merry Christmas and eat a LOT ;)