cost-benefit fail / cordon rose chocolate christmas log

As the holidays are upon us, I thought it would be timely to try the Cordon Rose Chocolate Christmas Log (page 197).  This traditional buche de Noel consists of the Chocolate Cloud Roll (page 138), Perfect Whipped Cream (page 253), and Dark Chocolate Ganache (page 269).  The first step was to bake the chocolate cloud roll, which is a flourless, souffle-like sheet cake.  The color of the batter was much lighter than I expected. Initially I thought maybe I hadn't added enough chocolate, but (as detailed later), based on taste, there was more than enough.

 

After the cake was baked and cooled, the log was assembled by spreading one recipe of whipped cream over the top of the sheet, then rolling up the cake using the foil beneath it.  The log was then refrigerated overnight.  To decorate the buche, one end was cut on the diagonal and placed atop the log to form a branch stump.  Chocolate ganache was then spread over the log and scored with the tines of a fork to simulate bark.  I did feel that the ganache was too firm when I spread it, and it crumbled quite a bit when raked with the fork, making for a messy and less realistic effect.  Powdered sugar was sprinkled over the top to look like a dusting of snow, and a few meringue mushrooms were added for effect.  Overall, I think this cake was not really worth the effort.  I felt that the taste was too bitter (maybe mix semisweet with the bittersweet chocolate next time) and definitely not sweet enough. It also did not roll as well as I expected, although it crumbled more than it cracked.  Because the cake was so crumbly and the ganache was too hard, this was a beast to frost.  Pieces just kept falling off, and the crumbs would mix in with the ganache. The cut ends of the cake were also messy because of all the crumbs (I managed to get the top surface of the stump to look okay, but that's about it).

Ratings:

Overall - 5

Crumb - 7 / it is, indeed, light and reasonably moist; it crumbles easily when rolling, though

Flavor - 6 / with the whipped cream and a sprinkling of powdered sugar, it is just barely sweet enough; the cake itself tastes too bitter for my liking.

Appearance - 5 / the color is too light, and the texture is too crumbly to make for a great presentation

Ease of baking - 3 / very labor intensive to make (esp with only one mixing bowl...)

 

Details:

Bakeware - 12"x17" jelly roll pan

Oven temperature - 350 degrees

Bake time - 17 minutes

Notes - the ganache was allowed to cool for several hours and was placed briefly in the refrigerator for 15 minutes to firm to frosting consistency before spreading.  This may have resulted in it becoming a little too firm, as it was a bit difficult to spread and became somewhat crumbly upon dragging the fork through it.  Use caution when cutting the cake, as it crumbles easily and thus disrupts the nice swirl effect of the roll.