Happy Tuesday Friends! I hope you had a great Monday and your Tuesday is going swimmingly so far. Today I thought it would be fun to share my experience baking my first ever Yule Log cake. I've been watching a ton of Holiday Baking shows (Christmas Cookie Challenge, Holiday Wars, Holiday Baking Championship, etc.) and on several of the shows I've seen them making a Yule Log cake. Obviously their Yule Logs are a bit prettier and probably more tasty, but I thought it would be a good experience to try making my own Yule Log. So that's what today's post is all about.
Before we get started, the recipe I used is not my own. The original recipe can be found on the Ahead of Thyme blog. I am going to only reference a few pieces of their recipe, so if you need more information please go to their blog and read through everything as they deserve the credit.
History of the Yule Log
The original name of the Yule Log was actually Bûche de Noël. The cake is based on a French Christmas tradition that dates back to the 19th century. It is supposed to represent the yule log that families would burn starting on Christmas Eve. Burning of the yule log symbolized the new year to come and would bring good luck to the family. No one is sure how the original log morphed into a cake, but it has become a popular tradition in many households to this day.
Recipe
To make your own Christmas holiday yule log cake you will need the following ingredients:
- all-purpose flour
- cornstarch
- cocoa powder
- salt
- eggs
- granulated sugar
- vanilla
You will also need the following ingredients to make the whipped cream filling and chocolate ganache topping:
- heavy whipping cream
- confectioner's sugar
- vanilla
- semi-sweet chocolate
In order to not steal someone else's recipe, I will redirect you again to the Ahead of Thyme blog. When I was researching which yule log I wanted to make, I landed on their recipe because it was chocolate and they provided a very detailed guide on how to make the cake.
Overall, I will say that making the cake wasn't too hard. The biggest step when making the cake is making sure that your eggs are separated and you spend time mixing them so they get nice and fluffy. This gives your cake a nice, soft texture that will allow it to be rolled properly. Once the batter was ready, I poured it into my prepped pan and spread it around. I will note here that one mistake I made was not spreading the batter evenly. This caused certain parts of the cake to become dryer which resulted in pieces cracking. That being said, the cake ended up rolling okay.
Once the cake was out of the oven, I waited a few minutes before attempting to roll the cake. I was a bit nervous about this process, but using a clean kitchen towel made it very simple. After you do your initial roll it's important to let it cool properly before putting your filling inside the cake. Thankfully, I was able to let the cake cool for long enough and did not experience any filling melting.
Once the cake is filled and ready to go, you are supposed to refrigerate it for at least an hour. I'll be honest, I waited an` hour but it was just not quite long enough. I think if I made it again, I would wait overnight before icing the cake. This makes sure the cake is nice and stiff and doesn't crumble when you put the ganache on top. I ended up cutting the cake in half to give it a more branched effect, but that was not something that I had to do. I just preferred the look of the cake that way.
Once everything was assembled I grabbed a few photos and enjoyed my own slice. The cake was very light and fluffy and was not overpowering in chocolate flavoring. If I made it again, I might add strawberries or something to add a little bit of a fresh taste to the cake.
Well that is everything for today! I hope you enjoyed my journey into my first ever Bûche de Noël. Have you made one before? What recipes do you use?
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