Makin Yule Log

Lily blinked and looked up from her nest on a pillow atop a table nearby as Heidi scratched its head on her way to the kitchen, her other arm full of some flowers; and Lily shifted to better watch the Cossetling.

"I have to turn those flowers into syrups then I can make the Yule Log to enjoy....There's this recipe I've been wanting to try." Heidi spoke softly as she set the flowers down on the kitchen counter. "First, get the syrups started then I can infuse the flowers...." Heidi muttered as she set out four pots on the stove, got water heating up and cups of sugar waiting nearby; she got started on snipping her flowers down to proper sizes for infusions with their own bowls nearby.

Lavender, Rose, Hibiscus and Honeysuckle. She worked on pulling only best quality out and striping them down to smaller sizes for easier infusions and tossing them all into their bowls. Once her water had heated up and sugar had been stirred in to dissolve, she poured them all over her four bowls to infuse.

Then she began to work on making her strawberry-flavoured sponge cake, carefully mixing in the batter with her strawberries she had left in fridge overnight covered in cloth while it mixed with sugar to create delicious macerated mix for intense flavour in the cake. Especially as she did not plan in using sliced fruit in the filling.

Once the batter was put into oven to bake, Heidi double checked the infusing syrups and strained them out into their containers once she felt enough time had passed. By this point, Lily was hopping around kitchen while avoiding tripping her up. Somehow. With containers set aside, Heidi knelt down to scoop her Lapito up into her arms for some loving.

"This cake will be delicious, Lily. I'm sure of it. Strawberries and Lavender should pair very nicely together...." Heidi smiled as she kissed Lily's head before setting her back down after a while so she could get the filling started.

The filling was very simple and quick; heavy cream, powdered sugar, some salt, homemade vanilla extract and mascarpone cheese mixed together throughly. It was set aside for a bit as Heidi pulled her cake from oven to cool on counter for a bit before she could pre-roll it to set the shape as it fully cooled.

"Oh. I forgot I need to make ganache to decorate the log...." Heidi clicked her tongue in annoyance as Lily hopped around in amusement. One chocolate ganache as well as small bowl of lavender syrup prepared later, Heidi was unrolling the cake log and setting it on counter so she could drench it with wash of lavender syrup using a brush before covering it in the filling she had made. Then the hardest part was to come: rolling the log back up and hope it doesn't break on her!

"Wish me luck!" Heidi chimed as she began to roll the log up. There were some snags but she was successful in rolling it all way up without issues. Success!

Now to decorate it! Using a piping bag, Heidi carefully piped in wood grain pattern using the chocolate ganache to cover the log before sprinkling a very light coat of powdered sugar over top. Then it was garnished with two leaves of basil.

Perfect! It looked delicious! Heidi was quite proud of her work and Lily certainly agreed if the noises it was making was any indication.

"Let's bring this over to Cree so we can feast together, yeah?" Heidi smiled as she stepped back from the yule log as well as the messy kitchen.

"....But first. Kitchen need cleaning up" Heidi groaned with a soft laugh.