Long ago, the winter solstice was celebrated with bonfires honoring the god Thor and reminding the people that the sun and warmth were again on the way, even during the darkest hours of winter. The tradition was carried on in private homes with the burning of the Yule log, often a piece of the family’s Christmas tree. The log was intended to burn all night from December 24th on into the 25th, and the ashes were often saved for the year and used in medicines and poultices. As the populations in Europe grew and smaller homes were built without fireplaces, the French began to replace the real log with roulades of cake and icing, decorated with “mushrooms” of meringue and “pine cones” of sugar work. You have to love the French. Not many people will look at something as common as a log, and think “I can make that into dessert!”
This holiday season I made a Buche de Noel and it was not only beautiful but tasted great and was fun to create. I recommend the cake recipe from Martha Stewart (the first recipe of hers I have tried), the leave and berry design of King Arthur, and the addition of leave sugar cookies (a recipe for no fail sugar cookies I will soon share). See the pic above....Yumm!
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