Buche de Noel

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I carefully watched the video and I just did it two days ago and the buttercream turned out to be lumpy or churned looking. I don't know why the recipe said switch to using the paddle when whipping in the butter when the video shows using the same whisk. Although I only whip butter at room temperature in a short time, it turn out to be so churned looking not shiny and smooth, and as soon as I added the brandy and coffee in, it turned out even more lumpy. It tasted too buttery. I will find other techniques. I don't like when chefs are not being true as they act like they do.

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This cake is really a treat. It has become an essential part of Christmas in our house (and its preparation now defines my Christmas eve. I add a bit of cocoa and some extra instant espresso to the buttercream frosting to intensify the flavor and darken the color; some "streaks" of extra cocoa on the log make it even more visually appealing. I do buy the marzipan pre-made; it's much cheaper and easier than starting from almond paste.

My husband wishes it didn't have to be Christmas for me to make this cake.

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I thought this recipe was pretty good. The cake had a good texture and flavor, but it's not a rich, dark chocolate. The coffee buttercream was REALLY strong and flavorful, which kind of over-powered the more delicate chocolate flavor of the cake. Overall, I liked it, but told everyone who ate it that it was a coffee-flavored cake and not the chocolatey, mocha-y flavor I had expected. It was still a big hit at the Christmas dinner table!

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Flavor was solid. However, don't make the buttercream. It's a lot of work for something that's not really so worth it. The color isn't dark enough. Just sub for your favorite chocolate icing and add some mocha powder or espresso.

The cake was gone in the blink of an eye.

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This looked like it would be difficult. Watch the video. Don't over bake. A real hit! I was scared I couldn't do it as I am not a baker. I was wrong. I also watched other videos on making maripan mushrooms. Fun. I will do this every year. :

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I make it every year, this year I made three - it's fabulous - it's very important not to overcook the genoise or it will be dry, I sprinkle a chocolate brandy on the cake - it's always a big hit

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I made this for Xmas Eve, and thanks to all of the reviews I read in advance, it turned out fab! Not that it wasn't an adventure; I'd set aside a whole day to try this. I ended up making two cakes, as the first came out dry. I expected that based on the reviews, so I wasn't too upset. The second one came out slightly dry, but workable. I’ll only bake it for 6 mins next time (in a conv. oven. I also added 1/4 cup of add’l cocoa to up the chocolate flavor (it worked. For the buttercream, I substituted Bailey's Irish Cream for the rum/brandy and it was delicious. I also added 2 tbs of cocoa to the Bailey's/espresso mixture prior to adding it. Note that 1 batch of the buttercream isn’t enough; I had to double it. In all, it was a definite success and I got rave reviews. I gave the recipe 4 stars because of the tweaking needed to make it work. The videos on this website were invaluable for every step, and if you're going to try this recipe I HIGHLY recommend watching them first.

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It didn't have the dark color I expected either in the cake or the frosting but the flavor was certainly there. I added 2 tbs cocoa to the butter cream along with the other adds (rum and espresso powder which gave it a little more chocolate flavoring and lightened up that butter! Wow-- before I added it just tasted like a stick of butter. Needed more butter cream-- had to make two recipes to make it work. I would skip the almond paste and go right to marzapan-- almond paste was too difficult to work with. Without a doubt one of the best tasting cakes I've ever had-- no kidding.

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I was so excited to make this cake for Christmas, but was disappointed with the end result. I followed the directions exactly and the cake was dry, and relatively light in flavor, while the buttercream tasted good, but in a way tasted just like a stick of butter. The ingredients were really expensive! And overall it was too time consuming. Making marzipan was fun, but next time I will choose a different recipe overall. It tasted good and everyone enjoyed it, but for the time and money it didn't have the 'wow factor'.

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I love reading reviews and since this cake had such great reviews I thought for sure it would be worth the effort. I have to say I was a little disappointed. I followed the recipe exactly as shown and my final product looked very much like the picture but the cake tasted dry (I would suggest maybe 8 or 9 minutes. The filling tasted good but there wasn't enough so I had to make some additional buttercream for the outside. The video instructions were excellent and I love that I learned some new tricks. Everyone loved how the marzipan decorations looked. This was a good cake, but I don't think the taste of it is worth the cost of making it. The two ingredients that I had a really difficult time finding were the instant espresso (I only found it at one grocery store and it was $5.99 and the dutch process cocoa (also only found it at one grocery store and there was only one brand which cost $13.99,