Sweet | The Rambling Epicure

What to Eat in France: Bûche de Noël

Published by Jonell Galloway + Sunday, December 20, 2015 Permalink 0

What to Eat in France: Bûche de Noël, or Yule Log, Traditional French Christmas Dessert

The Yule Log, or the bûche de Noël, “an elaborate creation consisting of a rolled, filled sponge cake, frosted with chocolate buttercream to look like tree bark and festooned with meringue mushrooms, marzipan holly sprigs, spun sugar cobwebs and any other sort of edible decoration,” is the traditional choice of Christmas dessert in France. It comes in many flavors and pastry chefs and home cooks alike let their creativity go wild.

Poinsettia Christmas yuletide log cake, traditional French Christmas dessert

distopiandreamgirl via Foter.com / CC BY-NC-ND

Rosa’s Musings: A Good Old British Dessert With A Modern Flair: Spicy Damson Plum Roly Poly

Published by Jonell Galloway + Tuesday, October 4, 2011 Permalink 0

by Rosa Mayland

Summer fades; the first cold, Northern air
Sweeps, like hatred, through still days –
The August heat now gone elsewhere,
To Southern, bird-filled coasts and bays;
Amid constricting vales of cloud,
A pale and liquid Autumn sun
That once beat down on an empty plain
And may again. And may again.
— Trever Howard, Autum

Lately, I’ve been in an unusually nostalgic, and in a rather morose state of mind. No matter how much I love autumn and look forward to cooler weather, seasonal mood swings always hit me hard when the summer ends. I guess it is something natural/biologic which each of us experiences to a certain degree. This time though, the “blahs” hit me a little harder than usual and I guess this is partly because last week, on the 13th of September, my English grandmother would have celebrated her 85th birthday, that is if she had not passed away last March…