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The December bon-appetit cover is always a little intimidating. This year was no different – the peppermint meringue cake with chocolate buttercream looked fabulous, but seemed like a lot of work. I decided (wisely) to break it up into stages, making the meringue ahead of time, the buttercream, and then finally the cake and assembly.

The meringues were a bit of work, everything else was fairly straightforward (again stages were key). The chocolate buttercream was a bit too rich – if I do it again I would “cut” the bittersweet chocolate with a little more semi-sweet. And the result ? The cake was fantastic to look at. I liked it ( almost loved it), my mother-in-law loved it. Andrea only liked it – she thought the meringues were too sweet. I don’t think I will make it again ( unless it’s a bout having something impressive to look at). It was just “good” but not worth the amount of effort required.

 I’m almost at a close for the year… this is my 12th recipe – one of my next posts will be a retrospective on the year, and set the stage for next year.