Gingerbread Buche de Noel—Tuesdays With Dorie—Baking Chez Moi

Wait—before the year is over, I must post about this Tuesdays With Dorie recipe we made in the group over Christmas!  I’m a little late on posting it.  The date was for the Tuesday before Christmas, but I wanted to make it for Christmas Eve, so didn’t get it posted—until now—all the sudden it’s New Year’s Eve!  I did make this for Christmas Eve and I must say, though it was a huge labor of love and there were many steps to follow, I have learned that with Dorie’s recipes, if I do just that—follow all directions, the recipes always turn out great.  That said, I followed all the steps perfectly, except I decided to try making it gluten free and used organic cane sugars. 

Oh, look, two skinny little ends cut off.  I had to taste them for quality control!

I had high hopes that since the cake only called for 3/4 cup of flour that changing it to a gluten free flour blend would probably be okay.  I was going to retype the recipe as I made it, but I really didn’t change anything except the flour (I happened to have some Pamela’s Gluten Free Baking Mix, so that is what I used) and I used organic cane sugar and organic brown sugar.  All the many involved steps to the recipe were not changed at all.  And though I say it was a labor of love and there were what seemed like many steps involved, it was SO worth it.  I would certainly make this cake again for a special occasion.

The gingerbread flavor was not too strong, so I think this cake could be made year round.  And even if it was a strong ginger flavor, I would not be against making this in the summer if I really felt like it.  ; )

The cake roll worked perfectly—that’s always a worry that it will not roll up nicely.  This rolled perfectly with not even any cracking.  The filling is a nice cream cheese/butter filling that isn’t sweet at all and then the delicious egg white/sugar syrup frosting is a perfectly sweet addition to the cake.  Also loved the pecan praline crunch that was in the filling and on the top of the cake. 

This cake was my big holiday splurge and I won’t tell you how many pieces of it I ate (not all in one sitting).  I took the cake to a family Christmas Eve celebration and it was well liked by everyone who ate some of it.  Nice thing about those big family get-togethers—so many desserts that I was able to bring a little bit of the cake home to enjoy later.

I wish you all a wonderful, Happy New year!  Thanks for still sticking around here with me.  It’s almost been seven years since I started my blog and while I’m not in it for the fame and money, I love sharing with my readers the happiness I get from baking and sharing with all those around me.  While how often I blog has changed over the years and even the kinds of things I blog, I’m happy you’re still here.  I wish you all health and happiness in the new year!

You are in luck if you want this recipe, it can be found on the internet from some of the promotions done with Dorie’s new book.  You can find the recipe HERE.  I think you should just get Baking Chez Moi!  My link at the top for Tuesdays With Dorie has everyone else in the groups’ posts for their Buche de Noel cakes.  Check them out!  We’ll be starting the year out more healthy with some granola bars, coming soon! 

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Peppermint Angel Food Cake Roll—12 Weeks of Christmas Treats

Peppermint Angel Food Cake Roll

This is it, Friends—Week 12 of the 12 Weeks of Christmas Treats.  I chose to share with you this great cake I’ve made twice this week for different Christmas activities.  It was a hit both times.  Wish I could take credit for this, but I can’t at all and didn’t even really change the recipe for the one in the December issues of Taste of Home magazine.  You need to go get the recipe that was submitted by Suellen Calhoun. 

It was certainly easy to make.  The cake is made with a boxed angel food cake mix and spread into a large baking pan that is lined with parchment paper.  After the cake is baked and just barely cooled, you remove it from the pan, remove the parchment paper and roll up the cake to cool completely.  Once the cake has cooled, it is unrolled and spread with whipped topping, then drizzled with hot fudge sauce and sprinkled with crushed peppermint candy.

Ready to roll!

At this point, I put the cake in the refrigerator and didn’t cover it with more whipped topping until just before serving it (you could use real whipped cream, too—I followed the recipe and went for easy).  The whipped topping also has peppermint extract added to it. 

This is a perfectly minty, holiday treat!

The pictures of the sliced cake doesn’t  look that great (to me), because I snapped a few pictures of some that were leftover the next day after the first party.  There were so many desserts to choose from that the whole thing wasn’t eaten that night.  The peppermint would look better photographed when it is first served. ;)  When I made the cake just yesterday for another occasion, it was all gone from the dessert table before I even got my dinner.  It was a much bigger group.

Please go find this cake at Taste of Home.  I love the magazine and the website is great.  The Lime Shortbread with Dried Cherries I posted last week are from the same issue of the magazine.  If you aren’t subscribed to Taste of Home, you should be—or at least join their free membership online.

This is it—I said that already, huh?  I have a number of other recipes (ones I actually came up with myself) that I want to get posted before the holidays.  That’s my goal.  Time really is crazy this time of year.  We’ll see what I can do.  In the meantime, Happy Baking and Happy Holidays to everyone!

Thanks for allowing me to be a part of the 12 Weeks of Christmas Treats go to our host, Brenda at Meal Planning Magic.  So many wonderful treats from everyone!