Gingerbread Buche De Noel

Sweets this time of year take on all kinds of whimsical shapes: cookies cut into stars, stockings and gingerbread men, candy canes, peanut butter balls ... or logs covered in frosting. Yes, really — logs. Not real logs, of course — these are holiday cakes, rolled and frosted to look like a yule log and known as buche de Noel. Sometimes the cakes are dotted with little meringue mushrooms or edible holly leaves. While the cake may not be on every American's baking list, cookbook author Dorie Greenspan says it's iconic in Europe.

"It's really traditional in Europe and has been for years," she says. "But boy, oh boy — in Paris, it's news-making."

Greenspan, the author of Baking Chez Moi, lives part-time in Paris, and says pastry is fashion in the City of Light. Every year before fall fashion week, pastry chefs gather to show off their most dazzling buche de Noel creations.

  here is the recipe