This stunning holiday dessert is simply a sheet chocolate cake rolled with a whipped cream filling and decorated with chocolate shards to emulate bark for a very festive treat. A video demonstration of how to make the shards/bark is attached to this post. My favorite subject in school was home economics and cooking day was the day I looked forward to the most. At Christmas we always made a themed dish and the first Christmas recipe I made was a Yule log. I remember thinking how proud I was of myself at my masterpiece and when I brought it home my mother displayed it proudly as the centerpiece for the Christmas dinner table.
Many years on, I still like to make the Yule log, but with a few updates. To enhance the flavor of the chocolate in the cake and the chocolate that is on the outside.
Coffee in chocolate cake
If you haven’t tried using brewed coffee in your chocolate cakes, muffins, cupcakes or frosting, I urge you to give it a try. Coffee enhances the chocolate flavor and makes it, well, just more chocolatey. There are a few steps involved in the making and putting together of this Yule Log (Bûche de Noël), but don’t be deterred. If you can bake a cake, you can pull off this dessert, I promise. The cake ingredients are mixed and fluffy, whipped egg whites are folded in. Once the cake is baked, it is rolled up while still warm in a towel, this helps prevent cracking. Once cooled, the whipped cream filling is spread onto the unrolled cake and it is then rolled up again. A small part of the cake is added to make a small ‘branch’ on the side of the log. To create the bark effect, melted chocolate is spread thinly onto parchment paper then rolled up and refrigerated. When the paper is unrolled, the chocolate cracks and this creates the bark, that’s my favorite part. Melted chocolate is spread onto the cake to act as ‘glue’ and the bark chocolate pieces are stuck on. Finally, powdered sugar is lightly dusted over the log for a festive snowy effect. This Yule log makes a stunning centerpiece for any Christmas table, just like it did when I was a kid. Doesn’t it make you want to curl up by the fire and enjoy a slice with a hot cup of homemade eggnog? (recipe below). Traditional Homemade Eggnog
