Friday, December 22nd, 2006
Nog ‘N Log Blog
This is how I remember Christmas in my hometown: By July, radio stations would start playing Christmas songs on the airwaves. Early September, people would start hanging holiday lights in their front yard, backyard, around the tallest tree in their property, around the house and even on their rooftops. Star lanterns of different vibrant colors and sizes adorn almost every house - a traditional Filipino Christmas symbol. Festivities would start early in December, including my sister, Em’s birthday; Noche Buena (a late night dinner after the Christmas eve Catholic mass) on the 24th; Christmas breakfast, lunch and dinner parties; hometown fiesta on the 26th and 27th; New Year’s eve dinner either at my parents’ house or at my dad’s parents’ house. We welcome the new year with firecracker blastoff (that lasts for at least 5 minutes) at our residential cross street.
Here, Adam and I keep our tradition of spending these most special times with our families. Tradition is one of the things he and I hold dear. This year, we had our holiday gift exchange with my sisters a week before we travel to the northeast. So, I wrapped the presents early and put them under the tree, cleaned our place and made our dessert to be eaten after the exchange and also submitted as my entry for SHF (Sugar High Fridays founded by The Domestic Goddess) #26 hosted by Danielle.
I made a more elaborate and traditional dessert this time than last year’s - Bûche de Noël (boosh duh noh-ehl). Also known as the yule log, this traditional French dessert cake is shaped and decorated to resemble a log and served during Christmastime. This delicious log cake was derived from the pagan tradition of the Celts who would burn logs as a symbol of the rebirth of the sun celebrating the winter solstice. It is made of génoise or sponge cake filled with chocolate buttercream, rolled to form a log and covered with more chocolate buttercream. The frosting is normally ridged to resemble the bark (but I sprinkled mine with chocolate shavings instead) and garnished with meringue mushrooms. I finished my dessert with a dusting of confectioner sugar. Paired with a good cup of eggnog, we ended our gift exchange with smiles on our faces and holiday spirit in our hearts.
Chocolate Notes: I used Chuao Chocolatier 73.5% dark chocolate for the buttercream frosting. Leftover chocolate pieces of Santander’s Colombian (single origin) with 70% cacao were used for the chocolate shavings.
on Friday, December 22nd, 2006 at 2:43 pm:
Beautiful!
on Tuesday, January 2nd, 2007 at 4:31 am:
[…] Now, on to the entries! They are posted in the order in which they were received. Cranberry Mousse Kevin from Seriously Good Swan Raspberry Eclairs Cenk from Cafe Fernando Painted Sugar Cookies Elf from Kosherblog Mäuseköpfe Brigitte from Küchendunst aus Singapur Mom’s Peanut Brittle Andrea from Andrea’s Recipe Box Orangettes Gerda from Dinner for One Orange & Cardamom Mentine Ales from Preserveless Raspberry and Mascarpone Mousse Verrines — Verrines de framboises et mousse à la mascarpone Bea from La tartine gourmande Nog ‘n Log Blog Alwyn from Tsokolate! […]