Vegan Yule Log – December Daring Bakers Challenge

Hi All, It's Jane writing today's post....  As you might imagine, the first of the month is eagerly anticipated by the over 1,000 Daring Bakers.  It is the day that month's challenge is revealed.  So on December 1st I hurried to my computer and went immediately to the Daring Bakers message board to see what was in store for us this month.  My heart sank.  A Yule Log.  Now some of you might remember, last December was my first official DB challenge, and it was a Yule Log which turned out to be my first official challenge and my first DB failure.  So you can imagine I was not eagerly anticipating recreating that nightmare again.  But, this challenge was for a FRENCH Yule Log.  And, as I learned, that's a horse of a different color.  (Speaking of different colors, please excuse the photograph.  One of our young relatives, who shall remain nameless, decided to play with a paint program.  This is the only photo to survive, and it's been "cleaned up" a bit!)

Our hosts this month were Hilda of Saffron & Blueberry, and Marion of Il en faut peu pour etre heureux, and the opened with the reassuring comments of "don't panic," and "the recipe is 18 pages long."  Just what you want to hear when trying a new recipe for a cake you've had trouble with in the past!  So looking for reassurance, I went to visit the site where the original recipe lives... The recipe comes from Flore of Florilège Gourmand , but it's all in french and je ne parle pas de français!  (Perhaps, I should have paid attention in high school!)

But reading over the recipe, I thought to myself, I can do this.  And lo and behold, a yule log was born. While I can't say I'd make this recipe again, it wasn't bad.  But it was an awful lot of work for something that wasn't spectacular.  There were six elements:

1. Dacquoise Biscuit (Almond Cake) - I simply subbed the egg with Ener-G. It tasted good, but was slightly rubbery and didn't come off the silpat in one piece!
2. Dark Chocolate Mousse - I used my standard vegan mousse recipe.
3. Dark Chocolate Ganache Insert - Easy enough... just use vegan ingredients.
4. Praline Feuillete (Crisp) Insert - I used the coconut version and subbed dark chocolate for white.
5. Vanilla Crème Brulée Insert - I used the pastry cream recipe from The Joy of Vegan Baking.
6. Dark Chocolate Icing - I omitted the water and added a bit more chocolate so that it firmed up.

And of course, the assembly required refrigeration and some attention to detail.  Again, it was an edible dessert, and was even appreciated, but my Vegan Christmas Cookies were far superior!

Don't forget to check out the DB Blogroll to see what everyone else created this month!

------

No need to read further...  This code allows me to be recognized by the Daring Baker tool that verifies whether or not we've participated in the challenge.

This month's challenge is brought to us by the adventurous Hilda from Saffron and Blueberry and Marion from Il en Faut Peu Pour Etre Heureux.
They have chosen a French Yule Log by Flore from Florilege Gourmand

Related Information:

1. Yule Log — Daring Baker’s December Challenge
2. Vegan Eclairs – August Daring Bakers Challenge
3. Daring Bakers – February Challenge
4. Daring Bakers January Challenge — Lemon Meringue Pie (Vegan Style)
5. Daring Bakers July Challenge