"I have to help you make a what?" I can still hear my mother's agonized shriek all those years ago, when I broke the news to her that I had volunteered to bake a cake in the shape of a log for my French class holiday party. Like a typical pre-Martha Stewart American, she thought the idea of a log-shaped cake sounded silly, unappetizing and daunting. But in France, this cake, called "Bûche de Nöel," is a ubiquitous dessert served at the Christmas Eve meal (a.k.a. "the réveillon," as Madame Frey explained). The jelly roll-like cake, filled with a complementary jam or cream and covered in chocolate frosting, was initially created in the late nineteenth century by Parisian pastry chefs who were inspired by the traditional Yule logs that burned for good luck on Christmas Eve.

Because I've learned over the years that my mother's baking ability doesn't extend beyond experimental chocolate chip cookies, I now understand why she depended on her favorite sous-chef, Betty Crocker, to make my Bûche de Nöel. But I will never understand how she mistakenly bought pink angel food cake when I told her Madame Frey's specific instructions to use chocolate sponge cake because 1) logs are brown (duh), and 2) sponge cake is moist and rolls easily since it is made with egg yolks. As a result, the dry, airy sheet of cake made with egg whites broke into large pieces when I rolled it. With globs and globs of canned chocolate frosting, my mother stuck the cake together, creating a lopsided, goopy mess.

This was not the only kitchen catastrophe. By the time I walked through the door to French class, I carried a cotton candy-colored cake filled with grape jelly and covered with a mountainous range of chocolate frosting. Rather than looking like the genteel, log-like cake filled with raspberry jam and adorned with candied cranberries, currants and marzipan mushrooms that Madame Frey had described, my cake resembled a mutilated Tootsie Roll. Luckily, the extra clumps of frosting made up for the jerry-built design and horrid color combination, and Beginning French loved my creation.