Buche De Noel

This year we had a great Christmas meal of ham, salmon (for those who don't eat ham), scalloped potatoes and green beans. I was in charge of dessert, so I thought it would be fun to try a Buche de Noel. Having never made a jelly roll this project was a challenge from start to finish. I wound up making a chocolate Genoise, Barefoot Contessa's vanilla pastry cream and chocolate sour cream frosting. The challenge became greater when I realized I had no powered sugar for the frosting and it was Christmas. A quick search on the Internet and I found that you can "make" powdered sugar in the blender using 1 cup granulated sugar + 1 teaspoon cornstarch ground in a blender. It did in a pinch, but the frosting was a bit grainier than I would have liked. Maybe I didn't blend long enough? Anyway, I made some meringue mushrooms and a gnome out of fondant to finish it off. Next year, I may try an orange version like this.

Owen insisted he wanted the gnome. After he bit the head off, he turned a very unusual shade of green and that was the end for both of them.