Gingerbread Buche de Noel

I was away for Christmas so I made the Buche de Noel from Dorie Greenspan's Baking Chez Moi yesterday for New Year's Eve.

The buche has four components:  praline, cake, filling, and frosting.

I was a bit concerned about pulling the sugar syrup off the stove at the right time.  I followed the directions as written and the praline worked out fine.  I used walnuts instead of pecans.

This was the first time I have used my stand mixer.  I knew I needed to use it for the cake because the egg mixture is beaten for awhile.

I wasn't worried about the cake because I have made a rolled cake before with no problem, but it did not turn out very well this time.  As the photo shows the cake broke when I rolled it.  I baked it the minimum time listed in the recipe.  I don't know why it was so dry and fragile.

The filling is a simple mixture of cream cheese, butter, cinnamon, and chopped praline.

The frosting was the most fun to make.  I have never made a cooked frosting before.  The sugar and water was cooking and cooking and then suddenly it was the right temperature.  Again I just followed the recipe's directions and the frosting turned out beautifully.

The break in the cake made it look more like a real log.

Here is the buche, icing slightly damaged in transit, ready for our celebration.