Recipe: Buche de Noel from Aroma Cafe

Aroma Café Pastry Chef Didiere Pellerud is busy baking Buche de Noel cakes for the holidays. The cakes are part treat and part art.

Pellerud began his training as a pastry chef at the age of 15 in Saint-Tropez, France.

He has learned from the best pastry chefs in France, including working at Bechard Patisserie in Aix en Provence, and Lenote in Paris. And owned his own bakery in Saint-Tropez in for 14 years.

Recipe for Chocolate Buche de Noel:

Sponge cake:

• Sugar 240g
• Maizena 40g (corn starch)
• Flour 190g
• Baking Powder 15g
• Eggs 9
• Chocolate 25g
• Oil 10g
• Milk 25g

Chocolate Mousse:

• Manufacturing Cream 1L
• 500g chocolate
  
  

Directions for Sponge cake:
Mix all of sponge cake ingredients for at least 10 minutes to get the dough to rise. Spread mixture on a baking sheet (should be 1/2" thick maximum). Bake in preheated oven at 325 degrees for 10 minutes.

Directions for Chocolate Mousse:

Stir whipping cream and chocolate until desired texture is obtained.

Directions for building Buche de Noel:
Layer mousse onto sponge cake and roll by hand. Frost outside and add decorations as you desire.

If you don't have the time to make your own, you can always let Pastry Chef Didiere Pellerud bake it for you. Stop by Aroma at 909 Prospect St.