A traditional French Christmas is not complete without a buche de Noel or Yule Log. Every year I look forward to checking out what the celebrity pastry chefs and houses have come up with, as they each year try to outdo each other in terms of design, originality and taste. This year I especially love Pierre Herme's homage to Coco Chanel, pictured below.

Apparently it is a limited edition and can only be found in Tokyo. Though it doesn't look Christmassy, it still maintains the classic buche lines and of course the chocolate which remains traditional.

On a more masculine note, you have Christophe Michalak's red car buche, which doesn't appeal to me at all but which is still worth mentioning and viewing because it is so unusual. Michalak is an award winning pastry chef and the residing pastry chef of the Plaza Athénée in Paris, and you can see the car plate says "Plaza."

My buches are decidedly more classical-not to mention rough around the edges. I opted for chocolate and chestnut, as I adore chestnut and I like to use seasonal ingredients rather than summer fruit like raspberries and such. Out of the four buches I made over the past two weeks, none really came out as I wanted... The first pair I made with a chestnut pastry cream (crème patissière) filling which was delicious but somehow my ganache started to fall apart so the texture was not what I wanted.

As a result, I decided to frost the third one with a chestnut flavored whipped cream instead. I liked the overall result better, as the cream was lighter (okay, airier) than the ganache.

For my fourth and last buche I wanted to experiment with a mascarpone chestnut filling and a honey chocolate ganache. This time the ganache was divine, but the filling fell apart! At least I know how to construct my next buche...

Last night my friend threw a party and had enlisted me to help with the food (among other things, I prepared gravlax, one of my favourite party foods, pictured above). We were expecting about forty people and about thirty showed up. Most of the people had already eaten; as you can expect, we had plenty of food left over. One of the guests put it bluntly: "there are usually only chips and unhealthy things at these events." Not in the Philippines. Back there, if you are invited at 7pm somewhere, you can be sure there will be tons of food, all the more during the holiday season. Filipinos love to eat and hospitality equals loads of different types of foods. Going to a party where nothing but chips are served is absolutely unheard of. People are rather trying to outdo each other in terms of the most lavish spread. Things are different here in Europe, at least in France. I remember going to a friend's birthday party once and I was excited about the food we would have. We were served some cold appetizers to begin and i was saving my appetite for the main course, when all of a sudden it was time for dessert! I will not be one to judge which is the better of the two, probably a healthy in between is best… except for celebrations, where abundance is still de rigueur as far as I am concerned. Only problem is, there are so many things to celebrate all year round!

This week I made my first tres leches cake and I was very happy with the result. My daughter liked it so much she asked me to make it for her birthday (five months from now). It is basically a génoise or spongecake moistened with a condensed milk syrup and topped with whipped cream. In my head I had it confused with Dulce de Leche cake which blew my mind at Momofuku Milk bar in NYC, which is more of a layer cake with dulce de leche in between the layers...

The tres leches cake at Peruvian restaurant Mama Wasi comes close to the one I made, though it was a bit too soggy in my opinion. Their empanadas are really tasty though, perfect for a quick hot meal with this freezing weather, especially with their extra spicy hot sauce!

Resources:

Momofuku Milk bar 251 e 13th st new york, ny 10003 http://milkbarstore.com

Mama Wasi rue de Lausanne 22 Geneva http://www.snackmamawasi.com

It's been a year and two months since my last entry in my last blog, I am sure you all remember Thrilla in Massila, and have been waiting impatiently for its continuation! In the past fifteen months, this foodie temporarily swapped her kitchen whites for office attire and pumps, but is now back on track. Why the title? My first few blogs were always linked to a place (Baguio, New York, Marseille), but given that my peregrinations have not slowed down, making this latest born geographically unattached made sense. By the way, thanks so much to Chester from NYC, who inspired the name! I think it perfectly represents what I wanted to share. A few cues I took note of, firstly, more pics, okay, more recipes, well, this is not really a recipe blog, I think the net is replete with excellent ones...so pass on that one. So to begin with, my activities of the day, gingerbread house building...

...and saving a perfectly delicious, slightly over-cooked cake from disgrace by slicing off the dark bit...

...with the frosted cake on a pedestal, ready to be enjoyed!