Better than a buche de Noel.
Photo: Micklethwait Craft Meats/Instagram
This slablike dessert, made by Micklethwait Craft Meats pastry chef William Ankeney to celebrate the Austin smoked meat spot’s second birthday, takes the proverbial cake in terms of innovation. It’s got red-velvet crumb in place of the beef’s smoke ring, what looks like cocoa instead of bark, and all the fatty bits are done up in frosting for a nice marbling effect. Oh, and there’s also a helping of lean and moist ends baked right into the thing, which was served and sliced on butcher paper. It’s a sure bet that someone toiling away in a rundown state fair kitchen somewhere long ago already pioneered barbecued meat cakes, but this one is particularly brilliant, and certainly a lot cooler than your standard bûche de Noël.
