At age 10, we saw our first roulade, as Aunt Leonore was rolling up a whipped cream-filled walnut roll for Thanksgiving. (Traditionalists, don’t worry: It was one of a half dozen dessert choices our family would dig into. The groaning board was groaning indeed.)

This recipe for Crushed Toffee Pumpkin Roll (roulade) brought back that memory of long ago and made us ask: Why is it always pumpkin pie? Why not a pumpkin cake?

Thanks to Golden Blossom Honey for this recipe. You’ll find many more recipes at GoldenBlossomHoney.com.

If you enjoy making this roulade, consider making a bûche de Noël for Christmas.

How about a pumpkin roulade for Thanksgiving. Photo courtesy Golden Blossom Honey.

Roulade (pronounced roo-LODD) is the French word for a rolled cake, what Americans think of as a “jelly roll.” There are numerous recipes for roulade, including many options for the famous, festive bûche de Noël, a Christmas cake that’s traditionally decorated to look like a log with meringue mushrooms, marzipan acorns and other garnishes.

Baked in a sheet pan (jelly roll pan), a delicate sponge cake or other cake is rolled with and filled with buttercream, fruit or fruit purée, ganache, jam, lemon curd, nuts, whipped cream, etc.

Ingredients

For The Cake

For The Filling

 
Cake Preparation

1. PREHEAT oven to 375°F. Spray a 15x10x1-inch baking sheet with vegetable spray.

2. SIFT flour, cinnamon, ginger and allspice into a small bowl. In another bowl, using an electric mixer, beat egg yolk, sugar and honey until thick. On low speed beat in pumpkin and dry ingredients.

3. BEAT egg whites and salt in a separate bowl with clean beaters, until stiff. Fold egg whites into pumpkin mixture in two additions. Spread batter evenly on baking sheet and cook for 15 minutes or until cake tests done.

4. PLACE a sheet of wax paper dusted with powdered sugar on counter top. Turn cake out onto wax paper. Roll up cake in wax paper starting with the longer side; this prevents sticking. Allow cake to cool seam side down.
 
Filling Preparation

1. POUR rum into a small pan and sprinkle with gelatin. Let stand until gelatin softens, around 10 minutes. After gelatin has softened stir over low heat until gelatin dissolves.

2. BEAT chilled whipping cream and 3 tablespoons of powdered sugar in mixer until peaks form. Beat in gelatin mixture. Fold in pieces of toffee.

3. SPREAD filling over cake. Starting at the long side, roll cake using the wax paper as a guide if needed. Place seam side down on a platter and sprinkle powdered sugar over the top. Slice and serve.

A Moscow Mule is a more familiar drink: vodka, ginger beer and lime, often served in a copper mug.

The Kentucky Mule substitutes bourbon for the vodka and is appropriate for Thanksgiving: an American-made spirit for the most American of holidays.

KENTUCKY MULE RECIPE

Ingredients Per Drink

A Kentucky Mule. Photo courtesy Del Frisco’s.

 
Preparation

1. FILL a glass with ice. Add bourbon and lime juice; top with ginger beer.

2. GARNISH and serve.

WHY IS IT CALLED A MULE?

“Mule” and “buck” are old-fashioned names for a family of mixed drinks that include ginger ale or ginger beer and lime or lemon juice.

Adding lime to a Dark ‘n’ Stormy creates a Rum Buck (also called a Jamaica Buck or a Barbados Buck). You can have a Gin Buck (a.k.a. London Buck), a Bourbon Buck (Kentucky Mule), a Tequila Buck or a Whiskey Buck.

A buck is the male of a number of different animals, including the antelope, deer, goat, hare, mule, rabbit and sheep.

Buck cocktails have been around for as long as ginger ale. The Gin Buck was a popular summer cooler during the Roaring Twenties (1.5 ounces gin, 4 ounces ginger ale, juice of half a lemon or lime).

The Moscow Mule was invented in 1941 by John G. Martin of G.F. Heublein Brothers, Inc., a spirits distributor; Rudolph Kunett, president of Heublein’s vodka division; and Jack Morgan, President of Cock ‘n’ Bull Products (which produced ginger beer) and proprietor of a restaurant of the same name, on Sunset Boulevard in Los Angeles.

According to one citation, the three friends were in the Chatham Hotel bar in New York City, and wondered what would happen if a two-ounce shot of vodka—then a relative novelty in the U.S.—was combined with ginger beer and lime. Four or five drinks later, the new cocktail was christened the Moscow Mule. (Source: Wikipedia)

The name “Moscow” was conferred in honor of the vodka. In terms of why “Moscow Mule” instead of “Moscow Buck”: We can only imagine that they liked the alitteration.

What’s the difference between a pie and a tart? There are several; you’ll find them at the end of this article.

The filling, with tangy cranberries, rich pecans, and seductive white chocolate, promises to be memorable.

You can buy a premade, refrigerated pie crust or make your own tart crust. Take a look at this chocolate tart crust, which is a nice pairing with the white chocolate filling.

WHITE CHOCOLATE PECAN TART RECIPE

Ingredients

Crust

White chocolate cranberry tart: a Thanksgiving fantasy. Photo courtesy Pillsbury.com.

 
Filling

 
Optional Garnishes

1. PREPARE. Place cookie sheet in oven on middle oven rack; heat oven to 400°F. Spray sheet of foil (large enough to cover pie) with cooking spray. Place pie crust in 10-inch tart pan with removable bottom as directed on box for one-crust filled pie.

2. FILL. Layer cranberries, pecans and white chocolate chips in the crust.

3. BEAT. In large bowl, beat eggs with wire whisk. Beat in brown sugar, corn syrup, flour and orange peel until well blended. Pour over layered cranberry mixture.

4. BAKE. Place tart on cookie sheet in oven; bake 35 to 45 minutes or until crust is golden brown and filling is set in center. After 25 minutes of baking, cover tart with foil, sprayed side down, to prevent excessive browning. Cool completely, about 2 hours. If desired, servewith whipped cream. Store in refrigerator.

THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN A PIE & A TART

We’ve written a whole article on the differences between pies and tarts. Here are some highlights:

In centuries past, terms were used more casually than they are today. Hence, we have Boston Cream Pie, which is a cake; cheesecake, which is a pie; and other modern misnomers. We’ve seen the biggest names in the industry use the terms incorrectly on their websites.

Now that you know the difference between a pie and a tart, pass it on.
  

What we got: coffee mousse served in a coffee cup, topped with real milk foam and served with a side of beignets, deep fried choux paste (think small fritters). It was a delicious and memorable sight gag.

Because we gave up deep frying for the New Year, we never got around to recreating the recipe. But recently, we made a simpler version of it, thanks to inspiration from Patrón XO Cafe liqueur, Ciao Bella’s Triple Espresso Gelato and the donut maker at our local farmers market.

If you want a smaller dessert, use an espresso cup instead of a coffee cup. And if you want to serve this to kids…depending on their age, they can taste a bit of liqueur. If not, leave it out of their portions. They’ll still get a kick from “coffee and donuts.”

Scoop coffee ice cream into coffee cup and top with coffee liqueur. Photo courtesy Ciao Bella Gelato.

Ingredients Per Serving

1. SOFTEN ice cream and swirl liqueur through it. If you’re going to add whipped cream, you can level the ice cream in the cup. Otherwise, return the softened ice cream to the freezer and then scoop it into the cup. Place ice cream-filled cup in freezer. (Alternative technique: Pour liqueur into the bottom of the cup, then add ice cream and pour more liqueur over the top.)

When ready to serve…

2. TOP with optional whipped cream and serve with a plate of donuts.

PATRON CAFE LIQUEUR
With the popularity of the Espresso Martini (and don‘t forget the White Russian and other coffee cocktails), more coffee liqueurs have hit the market. Patrón uses its famous silver tequila a base for Patrón XO Cafe, although there’s no discernible tequila taste—perhaps a bit of agave on the finish.

At 70 proof, it is higher in alcohol than most coffee liqueurs. To some people that in of itself is a selling point. We like that the higher proof makes it less sweet and syrupy than other coffee liqueurs.

Patrón XO Cafe has a brother, Patrón XO Cafe Dark Cocoa, which marries the flavors of chocolate and chocolate.

Discover more on the Patron website, which has 40 cocktail recipes using the liqueur.

Put your “Thanksgiving hat” on: It’s time to get ready for the next leg of the fall/winter holiday trifecta.

We somehow ended up on the website of London-based Sarah Hardy Cakes and were beguiled by this cake that looks like a raw turkey.

Thanksgiving is an American holiday; Ms. Hardy made her turkey cake last Christmas as a treat for her family last. The cake is a spiced orange and rum cake with a butter cream and marzipan “skin.”

While Ms. Hardy produces the most exquisite wedding cakes and other special occasion cakes, she occasionally goes quirky. She has an impressive portfolio of “anatomical cakes”: a heart, a lung cake with emphysema and a spinal column.

It’s a cake! Photo courtesy Sarah Hardy Cakes.

Slicing the turkey [cake]. Photo courtesy
Sarah Hardy Cakes.

She was asked by the museum to create the cakes for an exhibit after winning last year’s Cake & Bake Show in London.

A great creative exercise, or a waste of amazing cake? We’d have to vote for both.

Exhibit visitors could purchase a gift box of white chocolate vertebrae with dark chocolate ganache filling, showing progressive osteoarthritis; or a gift box of prostate truffles, showing healthy and cancerous prostates with ginger, darkest chocolate and toasted nuts.

Amazingly, Sarah is an untrained baker; her background is as an artist and sculptor. She started making cakes as a stay-at-home mom.

London bound? Visit Sarah Hardy Cakes at 27 Thorpe Crescent, London, England. See her beautiful work online at SarahHardyCakes.co/uk.