Could this be the richest and most luxurious Daring Bakers challenge yet? If not, can we agree that it certainly comes close? It’s the kind of chocolate dessert you might find listed with cliched words like “indulgence” or “oblivion” tacked to the end of it.

This month’s challenge is brought to us by the adventurous Hilda from Saffron and Blueberry and Marion from Il en Faut Peu Pour Etre Heureux. They have chosen a French Yule Log by Flore from Florilege Gourmand.

If you’re wondering, hang on, a yule log .. didn’t we make one this time last year? Well, I thought the same too, but was put right when I read the definition of a French yule log.

As it turns out, this yule log, or Buche de Noel, is somewhat akin to an ice-cream cake, or a frozen version of the typical buttercream-laden yule log we are more familiar with. Mine consists of flavours that pretty much adhere to the original recipe. The layers are almond dacquoise, dark chocolate mousse, vanilla creme brulee, hazelnut praline, dark chocolate ganache and icing. A great choice of dessert for this time of the year, I think, because of the warm weather here in Sydney.

Not that warm weather would deter me from baking. After a few forkfuls of this wonderful dessert, I think ‘Chocolate Ooh’ might even be a nice addition to that list of cliched words. Or maybe ‘Chocolate Blessing’, because I’m thankful for having managed to find a little time this month to make this challenge. I’m grateful because the alternative would mean never having had the opportunity to experience this pure Chocolate Sensation. This Chocolate Bliss. This Chocolate Epiphany of textures, from ultra smooth mousse to crunchy praline and toothsome ganache. This Chocolate Happiness.

If you have been sufficiently tempted enough to make it, you might want to search for the recipe on the hosts’ blogs (thanks, guys!), or from the blogs of other DB members.

I say this every year, but I swear, I swear next year is going to be different. Next year I want more balance between life and work. Next year, I don’t want to feel panicked about not having done any Christmas shopping or cooking, because I’m pretty much working right up to Christmas Eve. Next year, I want to find time to write Christmas cards, especially to those friends who always send us one but never get any in return. Next year, I’m going to buy gifts at least one month ahead.

Okay, maybe the last one is a bit of a stretch, but I think the rest of it is pretty achievable.

2008 has been a pretty manic year for me. Thankfully, there have been a few things (and people) to keep me going inbetween the hectic work schedule. In no particular order :

TV shows I’ve loved :

1 Entourage
2 MadMen
3 Damages
4 Match of the Day
5 Dead Set

Favourite albums this year :

1 Boxer by The National (2007)
2 In Rainbows by Radiohead
3 Fleet Foxes by Fleet Foxes
4 Alas I Cannot Swim by Laura Marling
5 Oracular Spectacular by MGMT
6 19 by Adele

(with a special mention to two oldies but goodies, Appetite for Destruction by Guns ‘n’ Roses and Siamese Dream by The Smashing Pumpkins)

Favourite films :

1 There Will be Blood
2 No Country for Old Men
3 The Dark Knight
4 Before The Devil Knows You’re Dead
5 Gone Baby Gone
6 Lust Caution
7 Juno
8 Persepolis
9 Wall-E

This is also the year of :

-The thermometer. Between Katrina and myself, I think we have gone through at least seven in the past six months alone.

Next year, I also want to find the time to attend our apartment building’s annual Block Party, instead of making macarons for them but not actually turning up!

(At the risk of getting panned again, I still have to say, I’m currently really enjoying the Scissor Sisters’ version of Comfortably Numb, over the original Pink Floyd version. So there.)

Now, onto some macarons..

A friend recently went cherry picking in Young, and arranged to drop by yesterday with a kilo bag of sour cherries, and joy of joys, some jam she had made. Time permitting, I hope to transform the fresh cherries into a juicy cherry pie. I’ve never made cherry pie before, can you believe? (And have always wanted to, ever since that song by Warrant, which really had nothing to do with pie, did it..). First thing I need to do is get a cherry pitter though. We pit a lot of cherries at work and I can attest to the fact that it’s one of the messiest jobs ever. Not sure how such a simple job as removing stones from a small piece of fruit can transform your work bench into Cherry Wars 2008.

Since I knew she would be visiting, I spent part of the morning baking some macarons as a gift in return. I was experimenting with flavours, and came up with strawberry with white chocolate and sheeps milk yogurt, salted vanilla caramel, chocolate truffle, and “carrot cake”. The more successful ones went into a box for her.

This morning I woke up to The National and Everything But the Girl, and feeling somewhat in the mood (Christmas shopping be damned), thought of a macaron dessert, using the leftover shells and fillings. So here is : macaron with salted vanilla caramel, chocolate and black sesame. The black sesame component is an Adria recipe for a sponge that cooks in 20 seconds in the microwave, and is the airiest and tastiest bit of sponge cake ever. B calls it “that mould”. To be fair, it looks like a cross between roof insulation, a loofah bath sponge and the aforementioned mould.

The overall dish was inspired by this picture of B that Mike took during their last visit to Tokyo:

I love how dark and mysterious it is. Captured like characters in a Wong Kar Wai movie.

My macaron dish probably doesn’t look as mysterious, but if anyone wanted to know the story behind it, I’d have to say, well, it all started with this girl who dropped by with a bagful of cherries..