This year’s Bûche de Noël -birch tree (vanilla sponge with chocolate mouse filling, dark chocolate ganache icing and vanilla buttercream “bark”)

We made meringue mice and hedgehogs along with the traditional mushrooms for decoration.

Snowman Cupcakes - vanilla cupcakes with vanilla butter cream and marshmallow snowmen (from the Family Fun magazine site)

They look delicious.  Nice job.

The little meringue mice and hedgehogs are so cute!

Thanks - I make the cake every years so I like to add a new flourish to keep it interesting.  The mice and hedgehogs are big favorites with the children.  I make lots of extra just so they can sample. 

I’ve seen people use rosemary sprigs dusted with sugar as “pine boughs” - I may try that next year.

I’m searching for a great sponge-roll recipe if anyone has a suggestion.  I use the one from “Baking with Julia” and it rolls very well, but has a slightly egg-y flavor.

My favorite cake rolls are the Cocoa Souffle roll and the Chocolate Cloud roll, both from the Cake Bible.  They are very chocolate-y and wonderful in a buche de noel.

Rolled cakes are almost always sponge (egg-based) cakes because they need to be strong and flexible in order to roll them.  Although the above cakes are sponge-type, they don’t taste too egg-y.