I'm Bûched

Last week we had a big Christmas party for the group we're travelling to Paris with in January. Because we're going to France, I had to do some French holiday food, and what says French and Christmas better than a Bûche de Nöel. So, I've never made a Bûche de Nöel before, so I asked my French friend Marie-Laure, consulted the Internet, and Martha Stewart, and came up with this:

I used Martha's cake recipe, but then used my own chocolate custard as a filling, and my favorite chocolate buttercream for the frosting. I was pretty pleased not only with how it looked, but how it tasted. I'm not sure how authentic it was, but I was happy, and for anyone who knows me, my satisfaction with my baked goods is hard to come by. I was especially pleased with my marzipan mushrooms, which were molded like playdough and then painted with dark and white chocolate under the caps and then sculpted into gills with a toothpick. Oh yeah, and then they are lightly brushed with cacao powder to make them look "earthy." I have Martha to thank for that little exercise in anal-retentive torture. But they sure looked pretty.

And because I'm such a baking overachiever, I had to make my own chocolate dipped madelines...

...and apple almond tarts.

Like I said, after all that baking over achievement, I'm Bûched.