Bûche de Noël – A Yule Log Cake

Whether we celebrate Christmas, Kwanzaa, Diwali, Hanukkah or the Winter Solstice, the last few months of the year provide lots of opportunities to get together with friends and family.  And when we do, there are often foods served that we don’t get to enjoy the rest of the year. The bûche de Noël is one of those foods.

What’s a Bûche de Noël?

In her description (see page 67 of our Guidebook), Mimi Sheraton says, “Like the European log cakes of England, Norway, and Lithuania, the buche dates back to pre-Christian times when huge Yule logs were burned in fireplaces to honor the winter solstice.”

We had never had a bûche before, but I suspect it will be part of our holiday celebration in years to come.  The bûche de Noël is a sponge cake covered with frosting, rolled into a cylinder and decorated to look like a log.  Mary decided to make it to take to our December book club gathering. When it was finished, she said it was one of the coolest things she had ever made. At the outset, though, it appeared to be much more difficult than it turned out to be.

Planning and Preparation

Since Mimi did not include a recipe, Mary found one in Julia Child’s “The Way to Cook”*.  But as she started planning to make it, she found that Julia’s directions were very complicated.  Instead of listing the ingredients and steps in a logical order, the instructions jump from one section of the book to another, and with each jump, there are new references.  I offered to help translate, bringing my old computer programmer’s conceit to the task. “Let me look at it”, I said, “I’ve debugged lots of complicated code in my time.” After twenty minutes, I was completely confused and suggested maybe we try another cake.**

Mary was determined, though, and turned to the Internet for a solution. She found a version of Juila’s recipe on the Chicago Tribune web site, rewritten in a linear form, which was, she said, “the way a recipe ought to be”.  She used a second recipe, from Saveur.com, as her guide for assembling and decorating the cake.

We also watched Julia Child make a bûche de Noël on one episode of her TV show, “The French Chef”.

Mary made the cake while I was at work, but she sent me several text messages with photos of the work in progress.  By the time I got home, the cake was frosted and chilling in the refrigerator. I got to watch as she assembled the mushrooms, made from meringue and held together with frosting, and put them on the cake.

She put little pieces of wax paper on the plate to keep it clean, then sifted chocolate on the mushrooms.  (It’s fake mold.). Then she removed the wax paper and sifted powdered sugar across the cake and around the plate.  (Snow, of course.). She spread frosting on the bottoms of the little meringue trees and let me place them on the plate.  (So, technically, I got to help make the cake.)

When Julia Child made a bûche on TV, she made “moss” for the log by flinging strings of hot caramel over an oiled broom stick.  It was raining on the night of the book club meeting, so Mary omitted the moss for fear it would melt.

The Results

As much fun as it is to share a treat with friends, a party is not the ideal place to evaluate a recipe.   At home the next day, we had a second tasting.

Cake is often dry.  You need milk (or coffee, or, as Julia Child suggested, champagne) to wash it down.  But this sponge cake was moist and pliable.  It was very sweet, but not cloying. It was light and not “floury”.  The cake can stand on its own, but blends nicely with the chocolate frosting/filling.  The frosting is made with espresso, so you get the taste of chocolate with a finish of coffee.

The meringues were just like we remembered from childhood – just stiff enough to resist when you bite them, but then they dissolve in your mouth.

Some dishes are completely forgettable. The bûche was not. As I write this, three weeks later, I can still taste the creamy deliciousness of the sponge cake and chocolate frosting.

We’re publishing this post on Christmas Day, and you might think that’s too late for an article about a holiday dish. But remember that today is the first day of Christmas. You’ve got eleven more to go – plenty of time to make a bûche of your own.

What foods do you associate with the holidays?  Leave us a comment below. And whatever your traditions, we wish you a happy holiday season and a happy and prosperous new year!

The Recipe

From The Chicago Tribune, adapted from “The Way to Cook”

The sponge cake can be made and refrigerated up to two days ahead or frozen up to one month. If you freeze it, be sure to completely thaw before unrolling to prevent the sides from cracking. If some cracks do occur, don’t worry–you’ll be able to cover them with frosting.

BUCHE DE NOEL (YULE LOG)

Preparation time: 50 minutes

Cooking time: 10 minutes

Yield: 8 servings

For the cake:

• 3 large eggs, separated
• 1/2 cup plus 2 tablespoons granulated sugar
• 1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 1/4 teaspoon cream of tartar
• 1/8 teaspoon salt
• 1/3 cup plus 1/4 cup cake flour, sifted
• 3 tablespoons butter, melted, cooled
• Confectioners’ sugar

For the frosting / filling:

• 2 cups confectioners’ sugar, sifted
• 1 1/4 cups (2 1/2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened
• 2 ounces bittersweet chocolate, melted
• 1 tablespoon instant espresso coffee powder
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• Confectioners’ sugar

Directions

1. Heat oven to 375 degrees. For cake, beat egg yolks in bowl of electric mixer, 1 minute. Gradually add 1/2 cup of the sugar, 1 tablespoon at a time, with motor running, until mixture thickens, turns pale yellow and forms a ribbon off beaters, about 3 minutes. Beat in vanilla.
2. Beat egg whites in separate bowl until foamy. Add cream of tartar and salt; beat until soft peaks form. Beat in remaining 2 tablespoons sugar. Beat until stiff peaks form.
3. Stir 1/4 of whites into yolk mixture to lighten mixture. Fold in 1/3 of remaining whites until combined; fold in 1/4 cup of the flour. Continue adding, alternating egg whites and flour, ending with flour. Fold in cooled butter.
4. Grease jellyroll pan, line with wax paper and grease wax paper. Pour batter into pan. Bang pan against counter once to remove air pockets. Bake until lightly colored and top is springy to the touch, about 10 minutes.
5. Sprinkle cake with confectioners’ sugar. Immediately turn out onto damp kitchen towel lined with wax paper. Remove wax paper from bottom of cake; sprinkle bottom side of cake with confectioners’ sugar. Cut 1/4 inch of the cake off edges. Roll up unfrosted cake in wax paper-lined towel. Cool completely.
6. For frosting, beat confectioners’ sugar and butter in bowl of electric mixer on medium speed until light and fluffy, about 3 minutes. Add chocolate, coffee powder and vanilla; beat until smooth.
7. Unroll cake; spread with 1/2 of the frosting. Roll cake up; place seam side down on serving plate. Cut 1 diagonal slice off each end, making one larger than the other. Spread diagonal end of each slice with frosting; place on log for “branches.” Frost cake and sides of branches with frosting; leave ends unfrosted. Run fork along log to create “bark.” Sprinkle with confectioners’ sugar for “snow.”

Nutrition information per serving:

Calories ………. 545 Fat ………… 37 g Sat. fat …….. 23 g

% fat calories ….. 61 Chol. …….. 170 mg Sodium ……… 65 mg

Carb. ………… 51 g Protein ……. 3.8 g Fiber ………. 0.6 g

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A second recipe, with assembly instructions, can be found on Saveur.com

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* All links to books are direct to Amazon.com. At the time of this writing (December, 2018), we receive no affiliate payments if you buy them.. If that changes in the future, we’ll let you know.

** Our confusion with “The Way to Cook” may be because we didn’t understand the way the book was organized. In the Introduction, Julia says, “I have broken with the conventional organization of a cookbook, where all lamb is together in one section and all beef in another…Wherever possible, I have put things together by method – veal chops are with pork chops because they cook the same way.” This is, then, more a textbook than a guide to menu planning. The emphasis is on how to cook, rather than on what to cook. She uses “master recipes” – a basic recipe for a dish, like broiled chicken, and then adds variations. Her advice is to start simple, gain proficiency and then add more elaborate recipes to your repertoire.
Bûche de Noël is a variation of sponge cake. We jumped past the preliminary steps, so the variations didn’t always make sense. This is a book to study with, not to use when you have a deadline to hit!