BY SALOME KHORAVA AND JAYDEN JUNAID
On Friday December 16, the French club hosted their 10th annual Buche de Noel baking contest. Twenty-five students participated by Buche de Noel, which is French for “log of Christmas,” a French cake that is rolled with frosting inside.
French Club advisor Madame Malhi explained the popularity of the event. “It’s a lot of fun and kids love to bake, so this is one way for them to showcase their talent,” shared Malhi. “It’s also fun to criticize other cakes.”
Attendees got the privilege of tasting the cakes and voting for their favorite ones. “It was a difficult choice, all of them looked and tasted amazing,” said freshman Kayla Keavney. “Judging was my favorite part.”
Many bakers faced challenges while making their cakes, but, in the end, the cakes came out very tastey. “We ran into a couple of difficulties along the way,” said junior Rani Shah. “The biggest challenge was timing. We had to be so careful not to overbake or underbake the cake.”
Because the Buche de Noel must be rolled up to make it look like a log, bakers need to know some tricks to make it work. “When it comes out of the oven, roll it right there, and then let it sit and let it cool down,” explained Mahli. “That way, it will have a shape, and it will not crack because if you try to roll it when it is cold, it will crack.”
Sophomore Skylar Awan invested serious time and effort to pull off one of the winning cakes. “The process of making the log cake was stressful at first. This was my first time making the cake, and I had grand expectations for myself in the beginning. My family still enjoyed it, and it tasted great, so I pushed forward,” said Awan. “In the end, I made two yule cakes to combine and incorporated lessons I learned with my trial cake into the final cake.”
First place winner Maria Petrova also experienced difficulties while making her cake. “As soon as the cake came out of the oven I had to check if it was over or underbaked, and if it was perfect, I would begin to roll it,” said the junior. “It was also very time consuming because I had to chill the cake in the fridge for about an hour. My cake began cracking and my frosting was melting.”
Many of the students that competed in the French Buche bake-off were inspired from the British bake-off and took ideas from the internet and social media. Petrova explained, “I searched for images of the log cakes on Google and then put my own twist on it to make it look more realistic.”
The Buche de Noel event served up fun for everyone involved once again. “I loved going to cake tasting,” said freshman Ericka Simolien. “It was one of my favorite school events so far.”
Posted on 1/23/23
Photos by Jayden Junaid
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