Christmas Day preview...

[rivka]

Yay. Just yay.

It's been so incredibly hard to leave this castle hidden away in the box, instead of getting it out to play with right away. Especially after my folks gave Alex an extra set of little medieval figures that match the castle, when we celebrated with them last weekend. They've been a very popular toy already, and so I can only imagine how much more fun it will be to have the castle to go with them.

It folds open so you can reach the interior spaces, which include a dungeon.



There's a working drawbridge, and a separate working portcullis that cranks open slowly and then, if necessary, slams down quickly.



Look at all the gorgeous little painted details - the banners, the ivy, the brick detailing. It's got just the right mix of inspiring features and leaving-it-to-your-imagination. I love it.

The baking report: I kept struggling with how to describe this dessert to people without invoking a Little Debbie Swiss Cake Roll. But in fact, of course, it's a buche de Noel, made with gingerbread instead of chocolate cake. Also? It's the most challenging thing I've ever baked.

It would've been a great recipe for someone who had two separate stand mixers, or perhaps an ultra-high-powered hand mixer. That person might even have finished it in the 45 minutes that Food & Wine estimated it would take. For someone who kept having to scrape things into separate bowls and wash the mixer, it took... a lot longer.

I think it's going to be good. I kept running into challenges: the rimmed baking pan I thought was 12x17 was 10.5x15; the little bulb of fresh ginger I bought didn't grate up to as much as I thought it would; when it came time to unmold, my biggest cutting board turned out to be slightly smaller than the gingerbread.

I should've taken a picture of the gingerbread batter before I baked it, because it was the most ridiculously light and foamy thing I've ever seen. Honestly, it looked like it could've come out of a spray can, and yet it had all those lovely substantial gingerbread-spice scents to it. And damn me if it didn't unmold perfectly from the pan, just as the recipe assured me it would.



The cream filling was made in two separate parts: in part one, I beat some softened cream cheese with cinnamon and gelatin dissolved in water, and in part two I whipped creme fraiche with confectioner's sugar. When I folded them together at the end, they didn't really 100% fold together; the result was kind of lumpy. Maybe they'll meld beautifully in the fridge, or maybe the filling will just have unexpected nuggets of cream cheese.

After the filling went on the gingerbread, I just rolled it up like I'd roll a towel. The gingerbread cracked. A lot. I don't think there's any way it could not have cracked, but maybe I did something wrong? Or maybe not, because - as you can see in the top picture - the cracking sort of heightens the "in the right light, and after a few drinks, I could look kind of like a Yule log" effect.

The last step of the recipe is to wrap the whole thing tightly in plastic wrap and refrigerate it for several hours - in this case, overnight. I think just by wrapping it I tightened down the outrageous puffiness you see in the first picture above, and I expect it will firm and compact a bit more as the cream filling soaks into the gingerbread a bit.



I hope it's good. The whole house certainly smells good. And just constructing it gave me quite a sense of accomplishment. But obviously the ideal would be for it also to taste good. We shall see.

Merry Christmas!

Comments

[tassie-gal.livejournal.com]

WANT! (both the roll AND the castle!)