Daring Bakers: Yule Log!

This month's challenge is brought to us by the adventurous Hilda from Saffron and Blueberry and Marion from Il en Faut Peu Pour Etre Heureux.They have chosen a French Yule Log by Flore from Florilege Gourmand
Now let me tell you i have always wanted to make a yule log.. however i had no idea there was more than one (aka the rolled up cake one). So yes seeing this recipe which has no fewer that 6 subparts seemed like a lot of faffing about.. and a hell of alot of chocolate.. and i love chcoclate, so i choose to make my final icing white and my fuiellet.. aka rice crispies with white chocolate too! All in all it was a great success, minus the pate a bomb sugar syurp burn on my hand! here is the photo progression...

First the Daquaise.. i made the regular almond meal variety

Then the Creme Brulee.. wow what a difference a vanilla pod makes.. first time using one they are amazing!

Here's my pate a bomb.. i m always worried about these, i'm not too comfortable with sugar syrup yet and think there was still some stuck to the side of the bowl, but it managed to get pretty fluffy.. (we have our own hens, so the yolks are so vibrant they are really hard to make white!

Ouch! my burn from a drop of sugar syrup on my hand...

Here's the log ready for its icing! in hindsight I'd probably even off the sides to make the icing have an easier time.
Finally the finished Yule Log! It was delicious, though next time I'd make more layers not chocolate as it could be over powering that mousse! I'd also probably run the rice krispies through a food processor as my layer was pretty much un cuttable!

Also 30 min. in the fridge was not nearly long enough to thaw this out.. the creme brulee layer still tasted icy. (even after an hour at room temp) i left the leftovers in the fridge overnight and had after lunch and then all the layers were perfect!