BûCHE DE NOëL (CHRISTMAS YULE LOG)

Steps:

• Preheat oven to 375 degrees.
• Put the eggs, egg yolks and sugar in a mixing bowl. Set the bowl over a pot of boiling water. Beat the eggs and sugar together until the sugar dissolves. This will result in a cake with a finer texture. Remove the bowl from the heat.
• With a mixer at high speed, beat for 15 minutes until the mixture is very pale.
• Sift the flour, and fold into the egg mixture. Stop mixing as soon as all ingredients are well blended.
• Line an 11-inch-by-16-inch jellyroll pan with wax paper, and butter and flour the paper. Spread the mixture over the wax paper. Place on a baking sheet and bake for 10 to 12 minutes, or until the cake shrinks slightly from the sides of the pan.
• When it is done, remove the cake from the baking sheet and turn it upside down onto a flat surface that has been covered with wax paper or parchment. Cover the cake with a damp cloth and let it cool. This will keep it flexible enough to roll.
• To make the dessert syrup, combine the corn syrup, Grand Marnier and water. Mix thoroughly.
• To make the butter cream, simmer the sugar with the water in a small saucepan until it reaches 250 degrees on a kitchen thermometer.
• Meanwhile, beat the egg yolks at medium speed in a mixing bowl. Then add the boiling sugar little by little. Continue beating until the mixture is cool, about three to five minutes.
• Add the butter and continue to whip the mixture at low speed for seven minutes. Then add Grand Marnier.
• With a pastry brush, brush the dessert syrup on the side of the cake to which the paper was attached. Spread three-quarter of the butter cream over the surface of the cake. Roll the cake very tightly and refrigerate for one hour.
• To decorate, cut two one-inch slices off one end of the cake. Place them on the log to simulate two sawed-off branches. With a pastry bag fitted with a star-shaped nozzle, cover the top of the log with the reserved butter cream. Refrigerate until ready to serve.