Merry post-Christmas! I hope you had a wonderful time, wherever you were and whoever you were with. Personally, our family didn't really celebrate Christmas this year, which isn't that unusual considering that none of us are even slightly religious. We just came back from Leavenworth, which is a mock Bavarian town in central Washington. Even though Seattle is usually rainy and miserable during the holiday season (I think I've only had a "white Christmas" once in my lifetime), everywhere east of the Cascade Mountains always gets a ton of snow every year. We and some family and friends spent several days in Leavenworth, during which we went snowshoeing (fun, but bone-chillingly freezing) and ate hot pot three times in two days. Ironically enough, we did not eat any food that was remotely Bavarian or Christmas-related.
I did, however, bake a bûche de Noël this holiday season. I'm in French 200, and the entire French class had a "fête de Noël" before winter break, on a Tuesday evening. There was a bûche de Noël contest - how could I resist? The Sunday afternoon before the party, a friend of mine (who will be known as C) came over and helped me bake the cake. I didn't have a 10x15 jellyroll pan, so we used a 12x17 pan and crossed our fingers. C sifted powdered sugar and the like while I whipped egg whites and folded Meyer lemon zest into the chocolate whipped filling (on a whim) and melted chocolate and butter for frosting. I usually don't bake with other people, finding it rather a pain, but I was really grateful to have another pair of hands in the kitchen with such an involved task. By about 4:30 PM, we had a decent-looking log, pretty but plain. We were pretty satisfied with ourselves, and I stored the cake in the fridge.
Chocolate mushrooms, which C bought from the Asian grocery store. |
However, I had to go to my violin lesson, which was right before the party. I couldn't drive home to pick up the cake after my lesson - what should I do? So, of course, I had to bring the decorated cake to my violin teacher's studio. I looked a sight, with a giant tree trunk-shaped cake perched on my knees as I waited in the lobby. I explained the situation to my teacher, who then had to take a picture on his smartphone.
I finally arrived at the French party, bûche de Noël in tow, and we sang French carols and had a white elephant gift exchange. There were seven or eight other cakes at the party, which everybody sampled and voted on. I was maybe not surprised, but still happy to find out that C and I's cake won "best tasting". Considering all that I went through for a mass of chocolate cake and frosting and whipped cream, the cake certainly tasted great to me.