Yule Log Cake

It's been a little hectic with the holidays and 2 kids, so I haven't posted anything lately. I'll try to be better this year. Along with losing all that weight and watching less TV.

Ahem.

As I mentioned before, my mom was also famous for her Buche de Noel, or Yule Log, cake at Christmastime. I have lots of great memories of helping her decorate it with all her fancy icing decorating tips, then getting to decorate our fingers with flowers, swirls and leaves before licking the icing off. How we ever got to sleep those nights, I'll never know. Maybe we had a good crash after all that sugar.

It's a delicious recipe. It's also a little difficult to make and is best spread out over a few days. The one good thing is that it freezes very easily, so you could make it a few weeks ahead of time, wrap it, put it in the freezer, then put in the fridge the day before you serve it to thaw a bit.



Buche de Noel
10-12 servings
One of the most charming of the traditional French holiday cakes is the buche de Noel, or Christmas log. When finished, the cake looks deceptively like a log.

1 cup sifted cake flour
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 1/3 cups granulated sugar
4 eggs, separated
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
Rum syrup (see below)
Mocha cram frosting (see below)
Decorative frosting

1. Line a 10 1/2 by 15 1/2-inch jelly roll pan with waxed paper.
2. Preheat oven to hot (400 deg. F.)
3. Mix the flour, salt and half the sugar. Sift together three times.
4. Beat the egg whites until stiff. Gradually beat in the remaining sugar. Fold in the vanilla and egg yolks, which have been stiffly beaten. Fold in the flour-sugar mixture, about three tablespoons at a time.
5. Pour the batter into the prepared pan in parallel strips running lengthwise of the pan. Spread evenly and bake until firm in the center, or about fifteen minutes.
6. Turn the cake out onto waxed paper, or a towel that has been sprinkled with confectioner's sugar. Remove the pan lining and cut off all the edges of the cake. Roll the cake as for jelly roll, without removing the paper or towel. Cool and chill briefly. (The paper or towel will be on the inside of the roll.)
7. Unroll, brush with half the rum syrup and spread with mocha cream frosting. Roll as a jelly roll, this time removing the paper or towel. Wrap in waxed paper and chill thoroughly, or until the frosting becomes firm.
8. Remove the waxed paper and cut off the ends of the cake diagonally for use as "branches."
9. Brush the outside of the cake and "branches" with the remainder of the rum syrup. Set "branches" aside. Frost cake with mocha cream, using a pastry bag and notched tube and running the strips lengthwise of the cake to give the appearance of bark.
10. Attach the "branches" to the "log" and press into the frosting. Frost with mocha cream.
11. Frost the ends of the "log" and "branches" with alternating rings of mocha cream and yellow decorative frosting, forcing both through pastry tubes. Chill the "log" until the mocha cream is firm.
12. Decorate the log as desired with flowers, "Noel", etc., using decorative frosting and forcing it through different tubes. Serve the cake promptly, storing it in a cool place until serving time so that the butter in the mocha frosting does not soften.

Rum Syrup for a Buche de Noel
1/4 cup sugar
1/4 cup water
1 1/2 tablespoons rum

Boil the sugar and water together until syrupy, or about three minutes. Cool and add the rum.

Mocha Cream Frosting
2/3 cup granulated sugar
1/3 cup water
2 egg yolks
1 cup soft butter
1 1/2 squares (ounces) unsweetened chocolate, melted
1 tablespoon very strong coffee
1 1/2 tablespoons rum

1. Boil together the sugar and water to 240 deg. F. (Syrup forms a soft ball in cold water).
2. Beat the egg yolks until fluffy. Add the syrup gradually, while beating, and continue beating until the mixture is cool.
3. Add the butter, bit by bit, until it has all been beaten in. Beat in the chocolate, coffee and rum.

I usually make the cake and syrup the first day, the frosting the second day and assemble, then all the decorating the third day. If you don't have 2 mixers, you can beat the egg whites first, gently transfer them to another bowl, wipe out the mixing bowl, then beat the yolks.

This year, I was lazy, so I just used sugar flowers I bought at a baking supply store (places like Michael's have them, too).





Thanks, Mom, and Happy New Year.