Chocolate Peppermint Bûche de Noël

I’ve made a Bûche de Noël every Christmas for several years. This year however, Christmas came in a flurry of parties and house guests, and before I knew it, our yuletide cake was looking more and more like a bûche d’hiver (winter log).

Since we were breaking with tradition anyways, I decided to change things up a bit with a peppermint version. While this may not seem strikingly original to most, my minty suggestion was met with raised eyebrows and a heavy dose of skepticism.

The base for this cake is the same as in a previous post, so I’ve only given the barest of instructions. The mascarpone cream is a stabilized whipped cream, and my go to filling/icing when I want something light and not too sweet. My original plan was to add crushed mints or candy cane to the cream filling, but it turns out that candy canes are hard to find in the middle of January! Instead, I mixed in a handful of red and pink sprinkles that melted into little dots of colour.

Chocolate Peppermint Bûche de Noël
Adapted from Food and Wine

Ingredients
7 egg yolks
7 egg whites
¾ cup sugar (12 Tbsp, divided)
½ cup unsweetened cocoa powder, sifted to remove clumps
1 ½ tsp vanilla
1/8 tsp salt
1/8 tsp cream of tartar (optional)

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 375F (190C).
2. In a large bowl, whip egg whites and salt until soft peaks form at high speed. Add 6 tbsp of sugar and cream of tartar and beat until stiff and glossy.
3. In a large bowl, beat yolks with 6 tbsp of sugar at high speed until the mixture becomes pale yellow and fluffy (about 3-5 minutes) leaving a ribbon trail when the beaters are lifted. Blend in cocoa powder and vanilla. 
4. Using a spatula, fold 1/3 of the beaten egg whites into the yolk mixture, then fold in the remaining egg whites until no streaks remain.
5. Spread the batter evenly on the parchment paper lined rimmed cookie sheet/large jelly roll pan. Bake for ~15 minutes, rotating the pan halfway.
6. Turn cake out onto a fresh sheet of parchment paper. Remove the old parchment paper and dust cake with cocoa powder. Starting at the short end, roll up cake and cool for 30 minutes or refrigerate.
7. Unroll cake and fill with mascarpone cream and reroll. Ice with chocolate-peppermint ganache. Store cake in fridge.

Mascarpone Cream

100g (1/2 cup) mascarpone cheese

50g icing sugar

250g heavy whipping cream (1 cup)

Pink and red sprinkles or crushed candy cane/mints (optional)

Directions:

1. In a mixer, beat whipping cream until soft peaks form.
2. Add icing sugar and mascarpone cheese until well blended.
3. Stir in a handful of pink and red sprinkles or crushed candy for colour.

Chocolate-Peppermint Ganache
¼ cup of bitter-sweet chocolate chips (I like Ghirardelli Chocolate 60% Cacao Bittersweet chips)
¼ cup of whipping cream
¼ tsp of peppermint extract (or to taste)

Directions:

1. Place the chocolate chips and whipping cream in a microwave container.
2. Heat in the microwave for 1 minute.
3. Mix well with a spoon. At first the chocolate will look all grainy, but if you continue to stir, it will melt into the cream and be smooth. Stir in peppermint extract.
4. Let this cool to room temperature before decorating the cake.

Strawberry Fraisier

In France, the word “fraisier” can mean 2 things:

1. Several species of the genus Fragaria, a group of flower plants in the Rose family, and commonly known as “fraises” or strawberries.
2. A seasonal cake made of strawberries, crème mousseline, and sponge cake.

While I’m sure there are botanical fraisier enthusiasts out there, my personal preference is for the cake.

The strawberry fraisier is often described as a French strawberry shortcake. As the cake is best served chilled, I think it's more like an ice cream cake. 

Strawberry Fraisier

Adapted from Joe Pastry. Joe has an extensive tutorial with step by step instructions and pictures, found here and here. While the original recipe calls for an 8”x8”cake mold, you can certainly scale up or down as needed. I used the original quantities with a 6” cake frame, and made a layered trifle with the leftovers.

There are 3 major components to this cake: genoise sponge cake, crème mousseline, and the marzipan top. It’s probably easier to make these over the course of a few days, as the genoise cake and crème mousseline keep well in the fridge or freezer. However, if you are like me and believe that nothing beats a last minute, rushed project—you can do it all in about 3-4 hours, plus chilling time.

Genoise sponge cake

Adapted from Joe Pastry.

The original recipe calls for it to be baked in an ~13x18 cake sheet, which is way more cake than you will need. Leftovers can be frozen for other desserts or snacked on.

2 ounces/ 60 mL/ ¼ cup of whole milk

1 teaspoon of vanilla extract

3 large eggs and 3 large egg yolks

6 ounces/ 170g/1 cup minus 2 tbsps of sugar

3.75 ounces/ 100g/ ¾ cup of all purpose flour

1. Preheat oven to 400F/200C
2. Heat milk and butter in microwave, until butter is melted and milk is simmering, in 1 minute bursts.
3. Add vanilla to the milk mixture.
4. With a mixer, beat the eggs, extra egg yolks, and sugar until thick ribbons form and hold their shape, about 10 minutes.
5. Gently pour in the warm milk mixture and mix well.
6. Sift the flour in 1/3 at a time, folding well each time. The batter is thick, so it can be difficult to get all of the flour mixed in.
7. Pour the batter into a parchment paper lined pan and bake for 10-12 minutes until lightly golden and springy.

Crème Mousseline

Crème Mousseline is a crazy combination of pastry cream and butter, usually at a ratio of 2:1. For this recipe, I chose to go with a modified version of Ina Garten’s pastry cream for the base, as it’s a little lighter and pretty straightforward. I’ve also used her recipe as the base for diplomat’s cream.

5 large egg yolks

5.3 ounces/ 150 g/ ¾ cup sugar

3 tbsp corn starch

12 ounces/ 360 mL/ 1 ½ cups of scalded whole milk

1 tsp vanilla extract

1 Tbsp whipping cream

8 ounces/ 225 g/ 1 cup of unsalted butter

Yield: 2.5-3 cups

1. In a large heat proof measuring cup, scald milk in microwave by heating it until it just begins to bubble, about 2 minutes. Let milk cool until just hot to the touch.
2. In a medium bowl, beat the egg yolk and sugar on medium high speed for about 4-5 minutes, until thick. Reduce speed to low and add cornstarch.
3. With the mixer on low, slowly add the hot milk to the egg mixture, a little at a time so as not to cook the eggs.
4. Pour the mixture into a medium saucepan and cook over medium-high heat, stirring constantly with a spatula for 5-7 minutes until the mixture thickens. After it begins to thicken, large curd-like lumps will start to appear. When the first lumps appear, whisk vigorously for another 2-4 minutes or until the custard comes together and becomes uniformly thick, like a pudding.
5. Take the custard off of the heat. Stir in the vanilla, and heavy cream.
6. Transfer the custard to a medium bowl and add the butter. Mix on medium speed until it is fully incorporated and the custard is smooth.

Tinted Marzipan

While you can certainly make your own marzipan from almond paste, I have always just bought it premade. There are several different brands of marzipan, and I’ve had good results with Odense, as it’s smooth and rolls out well. The marzipan should be tinted and rolled out just before the cake is assembled.

4-6 ounces/ 110-170g of marzipan for a 6” cake

Gel food colouring—minty green or pink seem to be the traditional colours for a fraisier

1. Squeeze out the marzipan from the packaging.  I used about half a tube of Odense marzipan.
2. Dip a toothpick into the gel food colour and apply a few dots of colour to the marzipan.
3. Fold over and knead the marzipan until the streaks of colour blend away.
4. Dust your work area and rolling pin lightly with powdered sugar to prevent sticking.
5. Roll out the marzipan until it is about 1/8” or 3 mm thick, rotating and flipping it often so it won’t stick.
6. Using a ruler or the cake pan as a guide, cut out a square that is slightly larger than your cake. This will make it easier to assemble, and the excess marzipan can be trimmed once everything looks good.

Assembly

For a 6” square cake:

Genoise sponge cake

Crème mousseline

Tinted marzipan

Strawberries (about 2 cups)

If your cake frame is bottomless, be sure to assemble everything on the serving platter, or on stiff cardboard base that you can move.

1. Using the cake frame as a guide, cut out two 6” square pieces of genoise (for the top and bottom layers of the cake)
2. Cover one piece of genoise with a thin coating of mousseline to prevent the strawberry juices from staining the sponge cake.
3. Place the genoise, mousseline side up, in the bottom of the cake frame.
4. Wash and cut the tops off of the strawberries. Sort through the strawberries and select ones that are about the same size as they will form the border of your cake. Cut those in half lengthwise and place them cut side out along the edge of the pan.  I needed 7 strawberries for my cake.
5. Add enough mousseline to the cake to go about half way up the sides of the strawberries (~1/2 cup). Using a knife, spread the mousseline evenly over the base of the cake and against the strawberries. Make sure to fill the gaps between each berry.
6. Chop the remaining strawberries into bite-sized pieces and place in the center of the cake.
7. Cover the strawberries with more mousseline (another ½ cup or so). Make sure to spread the mousseline evenly so that all the spaces between the berries are filled and the top is even.
8. Place the remaining square of genoise sponge cake on top.
9. Place a sheet of parchment paper over the cake. Place a light weight over the cake for a few minutes to push everything down. I used a small book that was the same size as the cake.
10.  Remove the weight and parchment paper.
11. Spread a thin layer of mousseline over the top of the cake.
12.  Place the marzipan over the cake and use a rolling pin to smooth it down.
13. If needed, trim the marzipan with a sharp knife.
14.  Chill the cake in the fridge for at least 4 hours or overnight.
15. To unmold the cake, warm the sides of the mold with a hair dryer.
16. I think it’s best served chilled, but if you like a softer cake, let it warm up for 30 minutes before serving.