Long before the sun rose the day before Christmas Eve, Jessica Brooks and Dylan Stanfield, owners of Sweet Lamb Baking Company, were hard at work. The bakers work on seedy breads, rolled out croissants and “pain au chocolats,” frosted cakes and packaged macarons, and they raced against the clock to get their orders out by 10 a.m. so Port Townsend residents could celebrate the holidays with extra sweetness. Most known for their buttery croissants and sweet multi-flavor macarons, the husband-and-wife duo brought something special to the holiday table this year: handmade apple spice “buche de noels.” The buche de noel, also known as a yule log, is a French Christmas specialty. The cakes, which are shaped like logs and decorated like tree branches, come from the medieval European tradition of burning a yule log at Christmas time. Sweet Lamb’s buches were made of almond sponge cake rolled into a perfect swirl with a cinnamon caramelized apple filling, topped with buttercream and garnished with almond brittle bark meringue mushrooms. Dusted with cinnamon and crushed pistachio to create a mossy, bark-like texture, the whimsical yule logs look almost too good to eat. For Brooks, who began her career in Seattle at The Pink Door and Bakery Nouveau, the artistic process of creating baked goods, pastries and cakes is worth the work. “Everything that we put into it pays off when someone sees it and gets excited about it, and when they bite into it and it’s delicious, and it’s something they remember,” Brooks said. Brooks and Stanflied operate out of the shared Market Kitchen on Sims Way, but they hope to open their own space this spring. Until then, Port Townsend residents can find their goods at Finistere, Velocity Coffee, Sunrise Coffee, the Chimacum Corner Farm Stand, the Port Townsend Farmers Market or by special order. As the clock struck 10 a.m. Dec. 23 and people started to file in to collect their orders, Brooks and Stanfield delicately placed mushrooms on the cakes and carefully lifted them into their boxes. “This is when I let my creative instincts just take over,” Stanfield said as he strategically placed meringue mushrooms shaped like real chanterelles and amanita muscarias on the cakes. Then, like the Santa of baked goods, Brooks sent each cake off with its customer along with a hug and a “Merry Christmas.”