Buche de Noel, pt. 2

In a rush to replace my buttercream, I hastily piped the castaway chocolate-marred meringue into mushrooms. They went into the oven alongside my pristine white mushrooms, just for the sake of experiment. The straight-up meringues gradually dried, crisped, and ultimately bore a texture reminiscent of packaging material. The chocolate meringue dried almost instantly on the outside, yet retained a soft gooey center even as the plain mushrooms turned to hockey pucks. These delicious mushrooms reminded me of a French macaroon, without the chewy grit of ground almond. A week later (as I gave in and polished off the last of the mushrooms) they were still gooey inside.
The crowning bit of decor is this mini Totoro, a shoutout to Studio Ghibli (and to my girlfriend, who loves Totoro). I warmed up a wad of marzipan and wrapped it around a hunk of Valrhona gianduja. Dried cranberries went in the top for ears and the whole thing got dipped in dark chocolate and rolled in confectioners' sugar. The eyes are disks of milk and dark chocolate. It came together haphazardly, in between other steps of cakemakery, but was delicious nonetheless. We cut 'im open and compared him to a Mozartkugel. Totoro, unsurprisingly, was the winner.