Never makes mistakes Never makes a cake!
1988 "Buche de Noel is my favorite cake!" Bright eyed and hopeful was the response eagerly given by my French husband, the newlywed! The flavor was a known fact; Spread chocolate on anything and it was labeled: Yann’s.
My mother had made jelly-roll cakes for my brothers and I when we were younger, was that the same thing as Buche de Noel?
18 years ago, before Internet and expatriate membership was a given at every corner in France, anything English was like having a 20/20 in Lycee! Peter Mayle was probably writing, "A Year in Provence," while I was struggling in Paris with only three words of French in my pocket of vocabulary! How was I going to find the recipe? Calling my Mom in California was out of the question given the nine hour time difference!
To make a French Christmas cake, a Buche de Noel, for my husband’s 24th birthday in September that was going to be a challenge equal to anything Napoleon had to do! Napoleon is believed to have said…That the man who never makes mistakes never makes a war. Couldn’t Yann have said brownies!
Down to the metro, direction Rue de Rivoli, destination: Brentano’s, the bookshop in Paris (since 1895) with a large English section. Certainly, they would have a cookbook in English.
On entering Brentano’s there stood an American the size of a fortress! Soft drink in hand, he was carrying on like his world was coming to an end, demanding the sales-girl, "…Don’t you understand, E-N-G-L-I-S-H! I want a map of Paris IN English! A map that says, "Big White Church on top of the Hill," none of this rue crap, you understand! Why, tell me why, can’t you folk just print a map that says street instead of rue?!" The petite sales-girl looked bewildered as she tried to explain. I left the bookshop, to embarrass to request a French cookbook in English.
Up above the markets of Les Halles, battling in our kitchen the size of a nutshell, mustering up memories of my Mother making jelly-roll cakes, gathering allies in chocolate, sugar, eggs, and flour I conquered my Waterloo! We ate cake that night!
Email if you would like my recipe for Chocolate Chestnut cream buche de Noel!
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