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Now come the fun part. It's time to frost the Yule
Log Cake.
 
Jean François prepared 2 pastry bags filled
with buttercream
icing, one plain, one hazelnut flavored. You can use any flavor
you like, but you will want icing that is somewhat darker in color
than the other. He took the white icing and went down the length
of the cake piping random little blobs. These will later become
knotholes on the log, so don't pipe them in too symetrical a fashion.
 
He then took the hazelnut icing and piped it in long,
flat strips along the length of the cake. When it come to the "knotholes"
just pipe the frosting right on top of them, as shown in the photo
above.
 
Jean François then used a small spatula and
somewhat smoothed out the icing, eliminating the lines left from
the pastry bag tip. He then used a small plastic comb tool that
is usually used to texture paint. You can find this tool inexpensivley
in hardware stores. The comb is used to create the log's texture
by lightly swiriling it through the icing.
 
To further make the icing resemble wood, Jean François
took a smaller comb tool, dipped it in melted chocolate and lightly
brushed it randomly over the cake as in the photo above left. The
photo on the right illustrates how he created the "knotholes."
Jean François warmed the blade of a sharp knife (use hot
water but dry the knife first), then simply sliced off the top of
the bump that was first piped onto the cake. This left a two-toned
knothole on the log.
You could stop right here, transfer the log to a plate
and serve. To see how
a true artist like Jean François Houdré serves his
Yule Log Cake, follow this link.
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