Brilliant: Stump de Noel

I had a little chuckle two years ago when Food + Wine magazine featured a "stump de Noël" (a cheeky twist on the classic Bûche de Noël). The stump cake had been made for a feature by the folks behind the Brooklyn bakery Baked. So, when I saw a Stump de Noël Bundt Cake Pan in the Williams-Sonoma I knew exactly where they'd found the inspiration for the cake mold. Upon closer inspection, I saw that Williams-Sonoma is also offering a cake mix from Baked to make their version of the cake. I was pleased to see that they'd given a nod to original creators of the stump de Noël.

I am planning to make my own classic Bûche de Noël this year, and I even swore to myself that I'd attempt the meringue mushrooms -- I'll let you know how it goes!

UPDATE (Dec. 2012): With the holidays around the corner, this post has popped up again as a popular post. Unfortunately, the pan is no longer available. A representative from Nordicware tells me the Stump De Noel pan was an exclusive with William Sonoma, which is now discontinued. It looks like there are a few used ones floating around on e-commerce sites, if you're still looking for one. Or you could follow the directions to make the original (more complicated) version by Baked.