Aya arranging flowers for the table. The centrepiece is meringue mushrooms on snowy rocks on a silver tray, meant to look like an icy pond.
Candied orange peel, dipped in chocolate.
Roast quail with chestnut and cranberry stuffing. Zucchini and kale gratin (Tian) in the background.
The whole menu.
Aya made many stems and caps from meringue in a good mix of sizes. She tried to match the number of caps with the number of stems and didn't mind at all that some stems were bendy. They came in very handy later. Visions of Dr. Seuss at this point.
Keith poked holes in the base of the caps using a dentist's pick which we plan to return some day.
We spread warmed chocolate on the undersides of the caps and carefully inserted the stems. The chocolate held the stems in place when it cooled.
We dusted the buttercreamed log with cocoa before sticking the mushrooms on in groups. The bendy stems worked well on the sides of the cake. The mushrooms were given a light dusting of cocoa for colour.
We dusted the whole cake with just enough icing sugar to cast little shadows under the mushrooms.
The "rotten log" was served along with Liz's classic Christmas cake, candied orange peel dipped in dark chocolate, pears poached in mulled wine and the remainder of the buttercream and mushrooms.
