Bûche de Noël aka Yule Log aka Fancy Swiss Roll

Yule Log garnished with sugared cranberries and sage, and powdered sugar snow!

I made two of these this year. The first one was to see how fussy the recipe is. The second time because the first time was so delicious. The family is tired of cookies and Christmas dinner deserves a fancier dessert. To be honest, this isn’t my first rodeo or roladen when it comes to cakes. There are fussier cakes out there to be sure. Just follow the directions for mixing and rolling.

Yule Log Recipe

Ingredients

Cake:

30g cake flour

15 g cornstarch

15 g cocoa powder

⅛ teaspoon salt

100 g sugar, divided

2 each or 110 g eggs

3 each or 55 g egg yolk

2 each or 60 g egg whites

1 teaspoon vanilla

¼ teaspoon cream of tartar

Powdered sugar for rolling

Ganache Icing:

2 cups semi sweet chocolate

1 cup cream

Filling:

1 cup cream

½ teaspoon vanilla

¼ cup sugar

15 g cocoa powder

225 g or 8 ounces mascarpone

Preheat the oven 450F. Prepare a half sheet pan, spray with cooking spray, lay a piece of parchment on it and spray it too.

Sift together the flour, cornstarch, cocoa powder and salt in a bowl. Into a second mixing bowl combine all but 1 tablespoon of sugar, the whole eggs, and the egg yolks. Mix until light yellow and not sugar granules are visible. In a third bowl combine the egg whites and cream of tartar, whip to foaming, then add the tablespoon of remaining sugar and vanilla. Whip to firm, but not dry peaks. Into the yolk mixture fold in the flour mixture, diligently scrape the sides, be thorough but gentle, I do this by hand. Then fold in half the whipped egg whites to the yolk and flour mixture to loosen the batter. Fold in the second half, gently but again thoroughly, look for lumps or streaks and stir them out. Immediately pour into a prepared pan. Level with an offset spatula-don’t tap or bang the pan, but really work to level the batter. Bake for 6-8 minutes. When you press the cake it should spring back.

While the cake is in the oven take a clean* kitchen towel and sprinkle generously with powdered sugar. When the cake is done immediately cut around the perimeter of the cake with a sharp knife and flip it onto the prepared kitchen towel. Remove the parchment and sprinkle with more powdered sugar. Starting from the long edge roll the cake, keeping the towel between the layers of cake to prevent it from sticking to itself. Allow it to cool on the counter for about 1 hour. Turn it over part way through as moisture will form on the bottom of the cake.

To make the ganache, in a pot on the stove heat the cream to a simmer. Turn off the heat. Tip in the chocolate and let sit for 5 minutes. With a whisk bring the mixture together. It will look loose at first but will come together in a glossy mass quickly. Make this before the filling so it has time to cool. You can refrigerate it to speed it along but stir it frequently to make sure you get it to spreadable consistency.

Pull back the inner roll to fill but do not force it to lie flat.

For the filling in a bowl of a mixer pour cream, vanilla and sugar, whip slowly at first then increase the speed, when some body starts to form add the cocoa. Whip until stiff. Add the mascarpone. To fill the cake gently unroll it and make sure it is not stuck to the towel. Do not force the inner most roll to flatten completely, just assure you get filling inside it. Continue to spread the filling evenly over the surface. Roll. Trim the ends about half and inch each.

Filled, not yet trimmed. The ‘skin’ of the cake stuck to the towel a bit. No worries, it covers easily with the ganache. I should have used more powdered sugar.

To make the branches, cut about ⅗ (a little more than half) of the cake for the main body. Cut the ⅖ into 2 portions on an angle. Artfully put them against the main body of the cake. Spread with ganache. Make lines in the ganache to look like bark.

Sprinkle it with powdered sugar just before serving.

Garnish with meringue mushrooms or sugar coated cranberries and herbs. I’ll do a post on those soon. :)

Learn about all types of baking pans here.

*When laundering your kitchen towels do not dry them with fabric softener lest they impart the fragrances onto your baked goods, when you use them in these applications.