Holiday Sweets & Treats Class: The Buche de Noel!

For a while now the Fine Chocolate Society has been running baking classes for its members.  Each time it’s a challenge and a pleasure to think of new creative themes for the class. In the past we’ve done simply a Chocolate Baking Class and a very hands on Cupcake Decorating Class. This time I decided that since Christmas is fast approaching, a Holiday Baking themed class would be perfect.

Since the Holiday season is all about friends and family, I chose recipes that could either be served at a fancy Christmas dinner or at a casual Christmas party.  The recipes ranged from the technically challenging Buche de Noel with its Genoise and Swiss Meringue Buttercream to the simple but scrummy Cranberry Pistachio White Chocolate fudge.  We also made the Rose Cake, Gingerbread Cookies and Royal Icing (a Christmas classic!) and delicious homemade Chocolate Peanut Butter cups. Stay tuned for a few of these recipes as for sure I will be making these treats again for my own friends and family.

Both myself and the fantastic Freya taught the class, and I can’t thank her enough for her hard work, genoise prowess and optimism that kept me sane throughout the endless hours of preparation!  But we also couldn’t have done it without our helpers Sarah and Gemma, who kepted us from drowning in a pile of dishes.  Thanks also to Frank George, for his expertise on genoise and buttercreams. Lastly, thank you to Ben, Anna and Kiki their support and taste testing – after all, we all know that quality control is very important! ;)

Here are a few pictures from the baking class. Enjoy and hopefully see you at our next delicious class!

The ingredients all measured out and ready to go!

Freya Gabbutt - queen of genoise!

Me icing the Buche de Noel with the rich Chocolate Swiss Meringue Buttercream

Phil doing a quality control taste test! ;)

Me demonstrating how to pipe buttercream roses onto our crumb coated chocolate cake.

Everyone got to pipe a rose onto our gorgeous cake.

Thanks again to everyone who helped out and also to everyone who attended the class. You make it a pleasure to teach and I can’t wait for the next class!