Bûche de Noël {gluten-free, low-carb, all natural}

by sparkle | Jan 8, 2024 | Snack and Dessert Recipes

Bûche de Noël – A French Christmas Tradition

At sparklesandsprinkles.blog, we love French, and we don’t want to let being gluten-free and avoiding refined sugar stop us from enjoying French treats, especially at Christmas! This decadent cake is all natural and fruit-sweetened.

We love making this cake each year at Christmas time, and we often put a candle in the cake and sing Happy Birthday to baby Jesus on Christmas day.

If you have made other recipes from sparklesandsprinkles.blog, you’ll notice that this one is not in our typically kid-friendly step-by-step photo format. This is really a cake that is best suited for adults or teens to make (but we have some tips on how children can help).

If you have young children who need a lot of attention, it’s probably best to have someone to watch them while you make this cake… and set aside a good few hours to make it. (We’ve learned this from experience!)

The good news is, this cake can be made ahead and frozen, so if your Advent and Christmas season is busy, making it early is a great idea. We also love it that the Christmas season lasts for so many days… if we are busy before Christmas, we make this cake after the 25th of December, and enjoy it on one of the 12 days of Christmas.

There are a few steps that little ones might like to join in on… mixing the dry ingredients of the cake, mashing the banana, and the final step – using a fork to make the frosting on the cake look like rough tree bark.

Please note that there are 3 different sections of ingredients and instructions for this recipe (the cake, the filling, and the frosting), please look at all of them in advance as you gather ingredients and plan for time to make the cake. Enjoy!

Cake

1/2 cup coconut flour
1 Tbsp psyllium husk powder
2 Tbsp cocoa powder
2 tsp. baking powder
6 eggs – separated
3 whole eggs
1/4 cup heavy cream
2/3 cup mashed banana (if you mash 2 large bananas, some can be used for the cake and some for the filling)

Steps:

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.
Line a rimmed baking pan (about 12″x17″ – we like this half sheet Nordic Ware pan) with parchment paper.
In a small bowl, mix together coconut flour, psyllium husk powder, cocoa powder, and baking powder. Use a spoon to break apart any chunks of coconut flour, so the mixture is smooth. (Alternatively, put the mixture through a sieve – we have not done this, but it could be helpful.) Set aside.
Take out the bowl for your electric mixer, plus another bowl. Separate 6 eggs, pouring the whites of the eggs into the electric mixer bowl and the yolks of the eggs into the other bowl. Crack 3 more eggs, pouring both the yolk and the white of these 3 eggs into the bowl that contains the 6 yolks. (See photo below for help.)
Using an electric mixer, beat the 6 egg whites until still peaks form. Transfer the stiff egg whites to another large bowl (as you will need your electric mixer bowl for the next step).
Pour the bowl of 6 egg yolks and 3 whole eggs, the cream, and the mashed banana into your electric mixer bowl. Using an electric mixer, beat together the egg yolks and whole eggs, cream, and banana.
Add the coconut flour mixture and beat well.
Add in 1/3 of the stiff egg whites to lighten the batter. Beat again with your electric mixer.
Fold in the remaining egg whites gently by hand, using a silicone spatula.
Spread the batter on the parchment-lined pan, forming a very thin rectangle-shaped cake.
Bake for 15 to 17 minutes. Be sure not to overbake the cake, or it will crack when rolled.
While the cake is baking, it’s a great time to wash your electric mixer bowl and beater, as you will need this to be clean to make the filling.
Once the cake is baked, remove it from the oven.
(Note: For steps 14 to 17, watch our video on how to roll the cake.) While the cake is still warm, cover the cake with another sheet of parchment paper, and place a damp tea towel (run the towel under water, then wring out the towel so that it is damp, but not dripping wet) on top.
Place another baking sheet over the damp tea towel. Hold the two baking sheets together on the sides, using pot-holders, and flip the cake upside down.
Remove the baking sheet that is now on top, and slowly peel away the parchment paper. Place that same parchment paper back on the cake. Cover with another damp tea towel.
Roll up the cake (along with the tea towels and parchment paper) to form a log. Roll the cake starting from a short side, which will make a thick/wide log, rather than a skinny/narrow log. Allow the rolled- up cake to cool. (You will be unrolling the cake, filling it, and rolling it up again in a later step.)

Filling

1 cup heavy cream
1 to 2 tsp. instant coffee
4 to 8 oz. mascarpone
2 T maple syrup (or mashed banana to taste)

Steps:

Combine instant coffee granules (more for a stronger flavor, less for a subtle flavor) and heavy cream. Whip the cream with an electric mixer until it is the consistency of whipped cream (but not so long that it turns to butter). Transfer to another bowl if you only have one bowl for your mixer.
Place 4 to 8 oz. mascarpone in your electric mixer bowl. Beat until fluffy. Note: We have found that sometimes mascarpone becomes fluffy when whipped, and sometimes it becomes runny. If it becomes nice and fluffy, you could use a full 8 oz. container of mascarpone in this filling.
Add the fluffy mascarpone into your whipped cream little by little, stirring to combine (if your mascarpone became runny when whipped, be sure not to add too much, as the filling should not be runny).
Add maple syrup (or some mashed banana) into the mixture. Stir gently. Taste the mixture and add more sweetness if desired.
Gently unroll the cooled cake. Remove the top parchment paper and towel. Spread the cake with filling.
Carefully roll the cake again (without the parchment paper and towels). Place on a large oblong serving tray. Refrigerate for 2 hours or more. (In a pinch, you can skip the refrigeration time, and go directly to frosting the cake. Alternatively, you could stop at this step one day, and finish making the cake another day. Whatever works best for you… Christmas is meant to be a time of joy and rest!)

Frosting

3.5 oz 85% dark chocolate bar
2 tsp. freshly zested orange rind.
1 cup heavy cream
4 oz full-fat cream cheese, softened
3 to 6 drops orange essential oil

Steps:

Melt the chocolate in the microwave (check after 1 minute, and add more time as needed).
Use a zester to zest about 2 tsp. orange rind. Add to melted chocolate. Stir and allow to chocolate to cool.
Whip the cream until whipped cream consistency. Add the softened cream cheese and essential oil (more for a stronger flavor, less for a subtle flavor). Whip again.
Add the melted chocolate mixture to the cream mixture. Whip again until well combined.
Remove the cake from the refrigerator. Frost with frosting.
First spread the frosting on smoothly, then use a fork to add lines, making it look like rough tree bark. This is a great step to have children help with… and of course someone needs to finish off any frosting left in the bowl or on the beaters!
Many embellishments can be added to a
Bûche de Noël – so use your own creativity to make it your own… or a google image search for inspiration. It can be fun to cut of a portion of the log and place it on the side of the main log to look like a branch.
Enjoy your cake! The cake can be served immediately, refrigerated and served up to a few days later, or frozen and served weeks later. We find the flavor becomes richer waiting a day or so to eat the cake… but it’s delicious right away as well.

We want to thank lowcarbyum.com for helping us to have a good starting point for our gluten-free and low carb recipe. We have made tweaks to the recipe from lowcarbyum to make it work better for our family (including making it fruit-sweetened), but we would not have known where to start without the lowcarbyum recipe. Merci!

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Other links may or may not be affiliate links. We provide links because we have found these products or services beneficial, and we think you might too.

Make your own Santons de Provence

by sparkle | Dec 1, 2023 | Craft Tutorials

Come learn about Santons de Provence, a beautiful French Christmas tradition. Then make your own French-inspired nativity scene with a little clay, paint, and creativity!

The idea of a nativity scene began with Saint Francis in Italy in the 1200s. He brought together real people and animals to create a living nativity. Churches over the years have displayed large nativity scenes.

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Life_Saint_Francis_of_Assisi_Franciscan_monastery_in_Katowice_Panewniki_furta_04.jpg

Painting of Saint Francis found on wikimedia.

When there was a revolution in France in the 1700s, it was sometimes not possible for people to go to church. The French people started making small nativity scenes for their homes.

In the 1800s, Santons de Provence began to become famous in the south of France. Santons (meaning “little saints”) are commonly made of clay and painted by hand.

Lavender field in Provence found on wikimedia.

France with Provence in red found on wikimedia.

Provence landscape image found on wikimedia.

Santons de Provence nativity scenes include not only the Holy Family, but also many other people (such as a baker, a teacher, a doctor, a mom and her child, and countless other people).

Santons de Provence remind us that we are all called to come adore the Christ Child in the manger.

Our family’s Santons de Provence collection began with baby Jesus, Mary, Joseph, and a donkey, and over the years it has grown. Each year we add a new figure or two. Sometimes the added figure relates to our life that year, for example a mother and a child when a new baby was born in our family, and an apothecary during the COVID pandemic. Our scene also includes Saint Francis, as he is a dear saint to our family and to remember that he began the idea of nativity scenes.

Having a Santons de Provence collection is a beautiful Christmas tradition. Our family looks forward to setting out the scene each Advent, and the first thing we do on Christmas morning is to come to see that baby Jesus has been placed in the stable.

If you are interested in starting your own collection, and planning a trip to France is not a possibility, there are a number of online stores that sell Santons de Provence. We have ordered Santons from Santons de France USA for many years.

If you would like to create your own Santons de Provence-inspired nativity scene, keep reading to learn about a few ways to create your own nativity scene.

Ready to create your own Santons?

Santons de Provence are typically made from clay, so for authentic but simple material for making your own santons, we recommend terra cotta color air dry clay. Once it dries, the clay can be painted with acrylic paint. You may want to use clay tools for more detailed work.

Despite air dry clay being a more authentic material, we have found that using Model Magic makes for a project that avoids mess and also creates sturdy figures (ready for little hands to play with!). Here is a link for a class pack of Model Magic (in our family, we love having this on hand for many fun projects), but small packages are also available.

Toothpicks may be helpful to support the clay as it dries and to add details or texture.

Model Magic can be painted after it dries with watercolor paint. Any watercolor paint will work, but higher quality water color may work best. If the figures are small, fine-tipped paint brushes will be helpful for details.

Part of the fun of making your own Santons de Provence inspired nativity is that figures can be created that are special to you and your life. For example, our 11-year old loves bunnies, baking, and playing the guitar, so she created some new santons to add to her collection this year inspired by these loves. Making a patron saint figure would also be lovely. Of course making your own santons does not mean they need to look exactly like Santons de Provence, you can create your own style, as our daughter did.

Before making your own Santons de Provence inspired nativity, you might enjoy watching some authentic Santons de Provence creators at work in France. We’ve gathered up a collection of videos below that show the creators at work. The videos are in French, so if you are new to French, just watch (and perhaps you’ll recognize a French words too!). You’ll be able to see the great variety of santons that are made. You’ll also see that santons are made using a molds in order to mass produce many of the same type of santon. However, the molds are produced from originally sculpting a santon out of clay, so for making your own santons, you will not need a mold… just create your own originals by sculpting your clay.

We hope you enjoy making your own Santons de Provence-inspired nativity scenes, or perhaps start an authentic Santons de Provence nativity collection to add even more joy to the Christmas season!

Joyeux Noël !

Que Dieu vous

bénisse!

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Make a city plan like L’Enfant

by sparkle | Oct 3, 2023 | Craft Tutorials

Have you ever thought about the fact that someone had to design and plan the cities where we live? In this post, we share with you a little history of the designer of our nation’s capital, Washington, D.C. His name? Pierre Charles L’Enfant.

pierre l'enfant statue in u.s. capitol building

We wish we could have found a great picture book for children to learn about L’Enfant (like the one we found about Jean-Jacques Audubon), but as we could not find one, this post is full of pictures and little snippets that tell the story of the intriguing life of Pierre Charles L’Enfant, a Frenchman with a great love of America.

After learning a little about L’Enfant, we’ll show you a fun art project to plan your own imaginary city, using L’Enfant’s methods. You can even learn some French city words, with our free chart, as a nod to L’Enfant’s native language.

And, if you are up for an adventure, we suggest some places in the D.C. area you can visit which honor the designer of our nation’s capital – scroll to the bottom of this post to find these fun places.

A few little notes… This post was inspired by reading Grand Avenues by Scott W. Berg – it’s a history book, but it is written like an enthralling novel. I would recommend it to adults reading this post, especially those with a penchant for French and a love for Washington D.C. For children, or those wanting a quick snapshot, our post should be a nice place to start. Pictures in this post are mostly public domain images. In many cases, clicking on the images will lead to the source of the photos if you want to dive deeper. Okay, let’s learn about L’Enfant…

Who was Pierre Charles L’Enfant?

Major Peter Charles L’Enfant, redrawn from woodcut (Library of Congress)

Pierre L’Enfant was born in France in 1754. His father was employed by King Louis XV as a royal artist. Pierre L’Enfant studied at the Royal Academy of Painting and Sculpture. One of his contemporaries was Jacques-Louis David, who became a famous artist.

academie royale de peinture et sculpture

Vue perspective du Sallon de l’Académie Royale de Peinture et de Sculpture au Louvre (1778)

Painting by L’Enfant of West Point, 1782 (Museum of the American Revolution)

Pierre L’Enfant’s family was close with the famous playwright Beaumarchais (author of plays such as The Barber of Seville and The Marriage of Figaro). Beaumarchais encouraged a group of young men at the time to travel to America to help to fight against the English in the American Revolution. L’Enfant did not have military training, but he wanted to come to America to join in the fight for American independence.

Soon after his arrival in America, L’Enfant met George Washington. George Washington was impressed with L’Enfant, especially with his artistic abilities. L’Enfant was asked to draw a military manual for General Baron von Steuben. L’Enfant was also asked to create the medallions for the Society of the Cincinnati. Later, L’Enfant took on a bigger project, redesigning Federal Hall in New York City.

L’Enfant’s drawing for Steuben’s military manual (Muesuem of the American Revolution)

When the Revolutionary War had been won and it was decided that the new country should also have a new capital city, L’Enfant was determined to be the designer of this great city. George Washington thought that L’Enfant was the one who had the genius for this job.

“Since my first knowledge of [L’Enfant’s] abilities in the line of his profession, I have received him not only as a scientific man, but one who added considerable taste to his professional knowledge; and that, for such employment as he is now engaged in, for projecting public works, and carrying them into effect, he was better qualified than any one who had come within my knowledge in this country, or indeed in any other…”

(Letter from George Washington to David Stuart, as quoted in Grand Avenues, pages 136-137)

L’Enfant explored and surveyed the land that would become Washington, District of Columbia. Then L’Enfant meticulously designed a grand city to be built there. At the time, Georgetown was a little village and most of the area that would become Washington D.C. was farmland and forest.

Unknown author – Library of Congress Geography and Map Division

From his tireless study of the land, his vast imagination, and artistic talent, L’Enfant created a plan for the new capital city. He created his plan on 2 pieces of handmade paper (joined together to be 2 feet by 3 feet), using pencil and watercolor for the images, and many styles of calligraphy for the descriptions.

L’Enfants hand drawn plan for Washington, D.C. (public domain image)

L’Enfant had a fiery personality, however, and sometimes offended the other people working in government at the time. Interestingly, the plan that became engraved and publicized had the name of one of L’Enfant’s helpers, Ellicott, who had copied and slightly modified L’Enfant’s plan. L’Enfant was enraged that after all of his hard work, his name was not the one on the published plan. Due to disagreements and financial difficulties, the plan for D.C. was slow to become a reality.

About 100 years went by without much progress on the grand plans for Washington, D.C., then L’Enfant’s original plans were unearthed by Frederick Olmsted, Jr., a highly acclaimed architect. The McMillan Commission then attempted to more fully understand L’Enfant’s plans. The commissioners even traveled to Paris to see where L’Enfant grew up and what might have inspired his plans.

Finally, L’Enfant’s plans for a grand city for our nation’s capital began to be realized.

The McMillan Plan for the National Mall

Perhaps it is because of L’Enfant’s original plans and the McMillan Commission’s work in carrying out his plans that Paris and Washington D.C. have some similarities, among them, grand diagonal avenues, long grassy esplanades, French Second Empire and Beaux-Arts style buildings, and ornate bridges. Let’s take a look…

Map of Paris in 1774

L'Enfant's plan for Washington, D.C.

Paris - Champ de Mars

D.C. - The National Mall

Paris - Opéra Garnier

D.C. - Eisenhower Executive Office Building

Paris - Pont Alexandre III

D.C. - Arlington Memorial Bridge

Photo by Tim Evanson from Washington, D.C., United States of America

Ready to plan your own city?

L’Enfant used large pieces of handmade paper for his plan. For your plan, you will need large pieces of watercolor paper, watercolors, paint brushes, and pencils and/or pens.

L’Enfant spent a great deal of time exploring the land on which he planned our nation’s capital, deciding, for example, what buildings would look best on hills and what areas should be near water. To add even more fun to your imaginary city plan, it could be fun to spend time wandering in a country or farm area, and imagine how that piece of land could be turned into a city or town.

Once you have some ideas, start to sketch them out on your paper with pencil. Label your map in pen or pencil and add some watercolor (perhaps blue for rivers, green for parks, etc.). You could also add explanations about your map, using pen or pencil, or even try calligraphy as L’Enfant did. Decide on a name for your city, and give your map a fancy title.

If you are interested in learning French while making the city, feel free to print a copy of our French City Word Chart. Though L’Enfant made his map with English labels, it could be fun to label your map in French, L’Enfant’s native language.

If you need help with pronunciation of these city words, you could try Narakeet. Simply select French as the language, type the French word, and listen to the pronunciation.

Ready for a L’Enfant in D.C. fieldtrip?

L’Enfant was at first not honored for his great work in designing our nations capital, but now we can find a number of places around Washington, D.C. that remind us of L’Enfant’s contribution to our country. Let’s explore…

L'Enfant Plaza with metro and train stops

Photo by Tim 1965

Statue of L'Enfant in the United States Capitol Building

The statue of L’Enfant in the Capitol is quite new, installed in 2022. Watch a video of the instatlation. The statue is tucked in a quiet alcove… a big thank you to our wonderful tour guide who took the time to show us this statue, though it was not part of the standard Capitol tour.

L'Enfant's tomb in Arlington National Cemetery

L’Enfant’s remains were transferred to Arlington National Cemetery about a century after his death. His tomb overlooks the capital city he designed.

Freedom Plaza in D.C.

At Freedom plaza one can walk on a stone inlay that depicts a portion of L’Enfant’s plan for Washington, D.C. (photo from wikimedia)

Is it possible to see the original plan created by L’Enfant? Unfortunately not. We read in Grand Avenues that “The only known copy of a plan for the federal city in L’Enfant’s own hand to survive into the twenty-first century rests in a refrigerated chamber in the Geography and Map Division of the Library of Congress, where it is off limits to the public because of its brittle condition and the extreme fading of its pencil lines” (Grand Avenues, pages 185-186).

In addition to the places which specifically honor L’Enfant, you could walk in L’Enfant’s footsteps by visiting Mount Vernon (where L’Enfant met with George Washington to talk about his city plans) and Georgetown (where L’Enfant stayed while exploring the land that would become Washington, D.C.).

If you are interested in seeing the artwork of L’Enfant’s contemporaries, who were also gifted artists, consider a visit to the National Gallery of Art, looking for the works of Jacques-Louis David and John Trumbull.

We hope you have enjoyed learning about Pierre Charles L’Enfant, and creating and exploring on your own!

If you love learning and creating, consider subscribing to our email updates. Simply click here to subscribe. At sparklesandsprinkles.blog, we post learning ideas and recipes, and have a penchant for all things French.

Bonne journée! Have a great day!

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Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Muffins {gluten-free, low-sugar}

by sparkle | Sep 29, 2023 | Breakfast Recipes, Snack and Dessert Recipes

Enjoy these healthy gluten-free pumpkin muffins with a cup of tea or coffee for a treat on a cozy fall day!

For this recipe, we simply modified our healthy gluten-free cupcake recipe. If you would like the kid-friendly, visual instructions, follow our cupcake recipe, with these modifications:

reduce Greek yogurt from 2 to 1.5 cups
use 4 Tbsp. maple syrup
add 1 cup canned pumpkin puree
add 1 Tbsp. pumpkin pie spice
add 1 tsp. ground cinnamon
add 1 cup dark chocolate chips or mini chocolate chips

P.S. We love light buckwheat flour for gluten-free baking. Light buckwheat does not have the strong taste of regular buckwheat, and it has a nice light color. We order our light buckwheat directly through Bouchard Family Farms (with a quantity discount), but if you would like to try just one bag, it is also available on Amazon.

Enjoy!

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