This was my first challenge and it was hosted by Lis and Ivonne, the founders, and the recipe chosen by 'em was for a Yule Log, which was basically genoise and swiss meringue buttercream. Anybody who remembers my first attempt at meringue buttercream would understand why I was abit nervous. My genoise was just fine. I spread chocolate ganache over it before rolling it up, and decided to tackle the buttercream the next day. It turned out that I was both, luckier and otherwise in comparison to my last time.
The buttercream was fine till I decided it looked runny and refrigerated it for a while (special thanks to Helene of Tartelette for all the tips for buttercream gone awry). What came out was a deflated curdled mass. Whisking it didn't help. So I tried melting 25% of it and adding it back to the lot and whisking again, it did get slightly better, but only slightly. I was tired and frustrated and was quite sure I didn't want to have another go, starting from the beginning, so I just put the curdled mass in a mixer grinder along with icing sugar and pulsed it. Viola, it got better, I added some more icing sugar and pulsed some more, and the buttercream came together! I thanked my stars! Though it wasn't light and fluffly but it was atleast spreadable!
The buttercream was fine till I decided it looked runny and refrigerated it for a while (special thanks to Helene of Tartelette for all the tips for buttercream gone awry). What came out was a deflated curdled mass. Whisking it didn't help. So I tried melting 25% of it and adding it back to the lot and whisking again, it did get slightly better, but only slightly. I was tired and frustrated and was quite sure I didn't want to have another go, starting from the beginning, so I just put the curdled mass in a mixer grinder along with icing sugar and pulsed it. Viola, it got better, I added some more icing sugar and pulsed some more, and the buttercream came together! I thanked my stars! Though it wasn't light and fluffly but it was atleast spreadable!
Since I didn't get the time to take pictures while making, am posting a few of the finished thing which was liked by all! So here it is, with a few marzipan mushrooms and some cocoa.
