Week Nine: The Showstopping Yule Log

Do you watch The Great British Baking Show? I certainly hope so. If you don't, you ought to. It's on PBS (in America) and there are currently four seasons streaming on Netflix. 

British TV, in general, is a delight; from Monty Python to Fawlty Towers to Coupled to a zillion reincarnations of Doctor Who to Sherlock to Downton Abbey (my Winter Break binge) to Call the Midwife, it's all gold! But this show is particularly wonderful and a really under-appreciated TV food market: nice people making nice things. 

The premise is home bakers compete to win title of Best British Baker, not for a bazillion dollars or crazy fame, but an etched cake stand. The challenges are daunting and difficult but the people are so freaking nice. No one is sabotaging; they waste no time with alliances, mudslinging or the other dramatic bullshit we see on 99% of competition shows (I'm looking at you, Cutthroat Kitchen...which I also enjoy); it's all about hard work and supporting each other. 

Each episode includes three challenges: 

1. A signature bake where they have to meet x criteria (like make 48 identical biscuits aka cookies) but they can choose flavors etc.
2. A technical challenge where the splendid judges/British baking heroes, Mary Berry and Paul Hollywood, provide incredibly vague instructions for the bakers to replicate classic dishes (make a jam, make a batter, bake...= jaffa cake)
3. The showstopper, again with x criteria (a gingerbread centerpiece that is at least a foot tall with four separate pieces) where they are expected to go above and beyond any level of sane baking

These challenges never cease to amaze me - beyond that British baking is steeped in so much (delicious) history - but also because of the wide range of skills needed to produce these beautiful, flavorful dishes. And this week, we made our own showstopper. 

It's something I've only really seen in the past few years, and have only tried twice - with a clearanced Walmart version last year and an annual tradition at The Hop Ice Cream Cafe - but have been too terrified to try to make: bouche noel aka yule log, or according to Great British, a roulade.

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It's Week Nine and I am legit over this. So over it, in fact, I enlisted a guest baker this week - the Hubs. I never thought I'd get sick of cake, but...here we are. 

Looking at the calendar, it
looks like we missed a week,
 but eff it. I've made and eaten
 nine stupid cakes.

To recap the last two months' cakes: 

Week 1: Coconut Cream Poke Cake 

Week 2: Carrot Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting 

Week 3: Orange Chiffon Cake with Candied Zest 

Week 4: Upside Down Banana Toffee Cake 

Week 5: Maple Bundt Cake 

Week 6: Little French Fudge Cakes

Week 7: Tomato Soup Cake 

Week 8: Sufganiyot 

Week 9: Chocolate Yule Log  as found in Kraft's Food & Family

A yule log is basically a Little Debbie Swiss Roll disguised as a log. Sounds delish, right? Ok, maybe not, but they're so stinkin' cute! I've seen them covered in ganache with wood grain "carved" in, or white icing + cocoa powder and stencils to make birch trees, or detailed piping. The log-o-flauge can be quite time consuming, but that is second only to the tedious nature of the cake itself. 

I remember making a jelly roll cake once as kid, I was maybe 13. It stuck to the towel, cracked and was overbaked, total disaster; and I haven't made once since....speaking of which, does it really count that I've made another, since I had J do it? Dang. 

But this recipe isn't as daunting as I'd feared. The cake was a fairly standard sponge recipe, and it cooked for less than 10 minutes. The rolling was a bit nerve-wracking, but since it was iced and covered in chocolate "bark," cracking could be easily forgiven, if not just hidden. 

It looked AMAZING on our table. It was very realistic (for a cake masquerading as a log), and despite my perfectionist, artist husband's comments about how he'd done his grain incorrectly, I thought it was perfect! 

The recipe even included instructions for a yule log's perfect companion - mushrooms! They are mushrooms made from jumbo marshmallows. Fair warning, however: you will be so tongue tied you'll call both marshmallows and mushrooms the wrong thing for days (I've had to retype the last two sentences several times already). 

Another tip, enjoy the cute rolled up precious log while you can. Because you have to hack the hell out of it to cut a slice. Just like Paul Hollywood butchers the edible art on Baking Show, you'll need to be ruthless and just murder your beautiful log. But it's so tasty, from the soft cake to the sweet filling to the delicious bark, you'll have little time for regrets about knife skills. 

After last week's disastrous attempt to make something from an unfamiliar, daunting ingredient/process (dry active yeast) which yielded an absolute failure, it was wonderful to see another equally scary recipe turn out so beautifully. Perhaps it had something to do with my exceptional guest baker? 

I wouldn't kick him (the tall one) out of the kitchen...
I frequently kick the little one out, however.

One week left to go in the ten weeks of cake, dear readers. And as happy as I'll be to say goodbye to the bizarre year that was 2017, I'll be equally happy to stop baking, researching, writing about and eating cake...for awhile. 

More Bang for Your Buck at The Dollar Tree

Today I made my pre-Christmas grocery list and because I was dying to get in the holiday spirit even more, I added the items needed to make some of our favorite Christmas staples, plus some good food gifts.

I knew I wanted to make my boss his favorite linzer tart cookies, they were a big hit last year and his sweet tooth has only gotten more ferocious in 2014.

The old fashioned apple stack cake I made for Thanksgiving was requested again for our employee potluck on Wednesday.

There's no rain in sight, so the humidity is just right for J to make the old family recipe for delectable peanut butter fudge.

And it's just not Christmas until we break out two of my mom's classic recipes - peanut butter sandwich cookies (gluten-free and only 4 ingredients!) and spiced hard candy.

Mom's hard candy takes a certain touch - no candy thermometer used here, just the "feel" of the molten sugar - and is not for the faint of heart. We used to make batch after batch after batch when I was a kid and I'd pass it out to all my classmates and teachers. But as often happens, time got in the way of tradition and we haven't made any in years. So we had to initiate J into the cinnamon candy cult. 

At the "hard crack" stage

Cooling on a marble slab on our coffee bar (more on the "Dream Kitchen" later)

Our final product!

All of these projects made for quite the grocery list of ingredients, tools and containers. And I knew today's haul had the potential to be a bank-breaker; but we were able to save a ton at our local Dollar Tree.

I've been a devout customer since I started getting an allowance as a tween and realized I could buy 10x more tacky, glitter makeup there than at Wal Mart (the early '00s was an awkward time for girl fashion). But I was completely converted in college when DT started renovating their stores to carry a wider variety of higher quality goods - that were all still a dollar. I don't know if it was a stroke of genius or by necessity (what with the recession forcing more people to shop on a budget) but stores expanded to offer more food (even frozen items!), party supplies, bake wear and huge seasonal departments. Our town just renovated their location within the past two years and I couldn't be more grateful. 

DT offers great savings for so many aspects of my life: 

• As a DIY wreath maker, I'm able to get good quality silk flowers and wire ribbon for, you guessed it, a dollar. 
• I still write letters and the stationary at the Tree is wonderful and truly inexpensive; greeting cards are 2/$1! They even carry shipping supplies for when I send care packages to my adorable nieces.
• Their kitchen department carries a number of handy items, from decent dinnerware to utensils perfect for taking to the office to disposable aluminum pans in a variety of sizes (these are perfect for pot lucks!); and even legit cake pans. 
• I can't say enough good things about their food section. You can get name brand items for only four quarters! Most of the items are full-sized and obviously, a great deal - like cans of Hunts crushed tomatoes, bags of walnuts or packs of Hormel pepperoni. But, some of them are in smaller portions and are incredibly helpful for cooking-for-two or new recipes. For example, J's fudge recipe only needs 3 T of corn syrup, so there's no point in buying a giant bottle of Caro that will just make everything sticky; DT carries a little 8 oz. bottle. 
• And the seasonal section is filled with adorable containers. Tins, snack bags, pails and boxes - for all your Christmas goodies! Just look at what we bought for our hard candy. Plus, I bought a snowflake-themed cardboard box for cookies. 

Today, we were able to buy over a third of the items on our list (plus some extras) at the Dollar Tree for only $16!

If you're looking to save some money, or just looking for quality, adorable items for almost any occasion, pop in to your local Dollar Tree and explore! You'll be amazed at how much you can get for your money... but also how quickly you'll fill your cart!

Merry Christmas and Cider!

Two of our goodies from this years' LEGO Friends and Star Wars advent calendars 

We just finished our second family Christmas celebration - cookie swap on Sunday and dinner tonight - with at least two more to go - country breakfast and afternoon snack binge tomorrow. This is a super busy time of year what with the shopping and the parties and other obligations, but we're blessed to have so many people to visit and things to do.

We want to wish you and yours a wonderful holiday season for whatever you celebrate and with whomever you make memories with. We hope that you take the time today, tomorrow and every day - holiday or not - to slow down and take the time to be with, talk to or think of the ones you love. And  of course, to cook, share or eat something delicious.

In the spirit of the season and general deliciousness, I'll share the recipe for the hot spice apple cider (also called wassail) we took to tonight's event. This beverage is a great seasonal drink - it just tastes like the holidays - with cloves, cinnamon and citrus. Like most of my recipes, it's very customizeable to your palate - use more or less spice as you'd like. It's a good make-and-take beverage too; we made ours hours in advance and reheated and kept it piping hot in our Crock Pot.

Merry Christmas from our family and table to yours!

Hot Spiced Apple Cider

Ingredients:

1 gallon apple cider

1 c citrus-y juice (orange or pineapple; this time we used 50/50)

3 T brown sugar (+/- to taste)

8-10 whole cloves  (+/- to taste)
1 orange sliced in circles
1 T cinnamon (+/- to taste)
1/2 t ground nutmeg  (+/- to taste)

Method:
Pour all ingredients into a large pot and bring to a rolling boil. Continue boiling for at least 15 minutes (we boiled ours for about 20); the longer you boil it, the stronger the flavors will be. Strain and serve.

Note: I kept my orange slices intact and then put them back into the Crock Pot when we arrived; it made for a very pretty presentation.