French sweets

A traditional French dessert served after Christmas dinner is the Bûche de Noël, it is a sponge cake rolled at filled and coated in chocolate icing, but before we do that, we cut of a small slice of the end and put it on top of the cake, and after we put the icing on, we take a fork and brush it all over the roll to add some texture to it, making it resemble a log!  The origin of this tradition comes from the large log  that was burned in fireplaces as a part of traditional Christmas celebrations. It was sometimes an entire tree trunk with one end burning inside the fireplace, and the rest of the trunk sticking out into the room. The log was carefully selected for the occasion, and carried in the main room to provide maximum lasting and reassuring warmth. It must have been quite an event!