We took our Buche de Noel to my mother’s Xmas day feast, where 12 of my immediate and extended family gathered to celebrate the holidays.
While it was quite good, it was not in the traditional style, and we were actually a bit disappointed. A traditional Buche is a chocolate sponge cake slathered with ganache, and then rolled into a log shape. Our Buche was more of a solid log of chocolate mousse — great for chocolate freaks, but a little sweet if you were anticipating some cake to lighten things up.
Next year we’ll try the Buche from Patisserie Delanghe, which is right around the corner from Boulangerie Bay Bread, and didn’t have the huge line at 8:30am on Xmas Eve.
Delanghe did our wedding cake, and is an outstanding French bakery in their own right. They just don’t do breads, or much besides desserts, actually. But their desserts are outstanding.