Larder Love

The best preserving recipes plus easy cooking and baking too

  • ALL RECIPES
    • PRESERVES & LARDER
    • COOKING & BAKING
    • COLLECTIONS & CUISINES
  • TIPS & TRICKS
  • MY COOKBOOKS
  • HOME HINTS
  • ABOUT
    • CONTACT ME
    • PRIVACY
Home » Home Baking » Easy Buche De Noel (Christmas Yule Log Chocolate Cake)

Easy Buche De Noel (Christmas Yule Log Chocolate Cake)

By Karon Grieve Leave a Comment

  • Share
  • Tweet
  • Yummly
  • Email
Scroll To Recipe Print Recipe

Buche de Noel (Christmas log) is a classic French Christmas cake. A delightfully light yet rich and chocolatey swiss roll with fresh cream filling that on the outside looks just like a real yule log.

Buche de Noel finished cake

This Buche de Noel is my daughter Idgy’s favourite cake and I just have to make one every Christmas.

I actually used this Yule Log Cake recipe in my book So Easy Christmas and it’s the same recipe I use every year.

Yule log cakes actually date back to at least 1615. The first known recipe appeared in the book The English Housewife by Gervaise Markham.

It was Parisian bakers who popularized the cake in the 19th century, and patisseries would compete to have the most elaborate of Buche de Noel in their shop windows.

close up of top of yule log cake

The Yule Log

The tradition of burning a yule log dates back many centuries and originates in Norway. A huge log would be brought into the home and hoisted into the hearth where it would be burnt to celebrate the returning of the sun after the darkness of winter.

It then became a piece of wood that would be burned on Christmas Eve to ensure good luck for the household for the year to come.

So making this super simple Buche de Noel chocolate cake really harking back to an old traditional Christmas cake and an even more ancient winter tradition.

log cake mixture in bowl

Ingredients for Buche de Noel

  • You will need free-range eggs for this sponge cake recipe, I used medium-sized eggs.
  • Caster sugar – superfine sugar in USA.
  • Self-raising flour – baking flour
  • Cocoa powder for that rich chocolatey flavour. Do make sure to use cocoa powder here and not drinking chocolate powder as it really doesn’t have the strength of chocolateyness that you want for this special cake.

Cake filling

I have stuck with traditional Buch de Noel recipes and just gone with double cream (thickened cream) and icing sugar (confectioners sugar).

Decorating the Buche de Noel

This is perhaps the most important part of the whole yule log experience. You just have to make that simple chocolate swiss roll cake look as much like a real log as possible.

  • Unsalted butter
  • Cream cheese
  • Icing sugar (confectioners sugar)
  • Dark chocolate (at least 70% cocoa solids)
  • Cocoa powder (again, yes we want double chocolate to make this cake even more special)
    chocolate cake batter in baking tin

How to make yule log cake

I love making swiss roll cakes, or roulades. They are super quick to bake, taking only 10 minutes in the oven. And once you get the hang of rolling them they are a breeze to make.

First, you want to beat the eggs and butter till light and fluffy and twice their original size.

Then you must carefully fold in the flour and cocoa powder with a metal spoon. You don’t want to knock out the air you have whipped into the mixture.

Spread the cake batter onto a lined swiss roll tin and bake for 20 minutes or until the cake bounces back when you lightly press the centre with your finger.

rolled up swiss roll in parchment

Now comes the fun part! Tip the cake out of the tin on to a fresh piece of baking parchment.

Now you’ll have the base of the cake facing upwards with the used baking paper on it. Carefully remove this paper and discard it.

Now make a score (not right the way through) in the cake about 2cm in from the shorter end. This will make the yule log easier to roll up.

Using the fresh baking paper roll the cake with this paper into a sausage shape and leave it to cool. This will help the cake to hold its all-important log shape.

While the cake is cooling you can be making the filling and also the frosting.

For the filling simply use your mixer or a whisk to whip the cream with the icing sugar till it forms peaks.

Unroll the cake and carefully spread the sweetened whipped cream all over. Now roll the cake up again only this time without any paper and make sure that the end is facing down on the plate to help it hold together.

Do this on your serving plate as once you add your frosting you won’t want to try to move this gorgeous log cake again.

close up of finished yule log cake

Decorating a yule log

Now we really want this to look like the branch of a tree and traditionally a Buche de Noel is presented as a split log. One slightly longer branch with a shorter piece sprouting out from the side.

To do this simply cut a thick diagonal slice off one end of the swiss roll you have made. Now place this at the side of the main log so you have a smaller cut branch sticking out on one side.

Melt the chocolate in a Bain Marie (bowl over simmering water) or the microwave if you have one. Then beat together all your frosting ingredients to get a lovely rich chocolate paste.

Spread this all over the cake making sure to cover both of those branches. You can cover the ends with the chocolate frosting or leave the ends open to show the swirl of cream inside.

Taking a fork or back of a knife you can now rough up the chocolate frosting all over the yule log cake so that it resembles the bark of a real log.

Dust with icing sugar for snow effect.

Get as creative as you like with the decorations for your Buche de Noel. You could add a simple piece of holly. Add a little model robin.

Or go mad and make little toadstools and all sorts of woodland additives to make your Christmas log cake as realistic and fun as possible.

Pro tips

If you want you can use grated chocolate sprinkled over the yule log for the bark on top of the posting. A crumbled bar of flake chocolate would work here too.

Or use a potato peeler and shave off shards from a bar of chocolate and lay these on top of the frosting for a really rugged bark effect.

How long will a yule log cake keep

Your Buche de Noel should keep for up to 3 days in the fridge. Remember it is filled with fresh cream so won’t be good kept for longer than this.

larder links

Looking for more fun festive bakes? Then check these out before you go;

Gluten-free Christmas cookies

Kourabiethes (Greek Christmas cookies)

Last Minute Christmas Cake

Super Easy Christmas Cake

Christmas Cake Cookies

Homemade vegetarian mince pies

Finally, if you do try this recipe don’t forget to leave a comment/star rating below as I just love to hear from readers. Want more Larder Love? Then follow me on Instagram, Facebook and Pinterest and sign up for my newsletter too of course.

Buche de Noel finished cake

Buche de Noel

Karon
This delightful chocolate Christmas yule log cake is easy to make and a classic
5 from 2 votes
Print Recipe Leave Comment Pin Recipe
Prep Time 30 mins
Cook Time 10 mins
Total Time 40 mins
Course baking
Cuisine French
Servings 10
Calories 531 kcal

Equipment

  • Swiss roll tin

Ingredients
 

  • 4 medium free range eggs
  • 150 g 5oz caster sugar (super fine sugar)
  • 125 g 4oz self raising flour (baking flour)
  • 3 tbsp cocoa powder

Filling

  • 284 ml Half pint double cream (heavy cream)
  • 200 g 7oz icing sugar (confectioners sugar)

Frosting

  • 50 g 1.75oz unsalted butter
  • 50 g 1.75oz cream cheese
  • 100 g 3.5oz dark chocolate chopped
  • 225 g 8oz icing sugar (confectioners sugar)
  • 100 g 3.5oz cocoa powder

Instructions
 

  • Preheat oven to 200C and grease and line a swiss roll tin
  • whip the eggs and sugar till they double in volume
  • sieve the flour and cocoa powder and fold this into the egg mixture with a metal spoon
  • Pour cake batter into prepared tin and bake for approx 10 minutes till it bounces back when you touch the centre
  • Tip the cake on to a new piece of baking parchment and peel off the old paper
  • score a line on short edge and use baking parchment to roll the cake then leave it to cool

Filling

  • Whip sugar and cream till you get soft peaks

Frosting

  • Beat all the ingredients together

Assembling the cake

  • Unroll the sponge and spread with the cream then roll up putting open end down on serving plate
  • Cut a thick diagonal slice from one end of the cake and place this against side of cake to create a V branch
  • Cover the whole cake in the chocolate frosting and make surface rough like bark by running over it with a fork
  • Sprinkle with some extra icing sugar like snow and add holly etc to decorate

Notes

You can use grated chocolate on top of the frosting or make strips of chocolate using a potato peeler from a bar of either milk or plain chocolate (or both for a nice textured look) and scatter these on top of the frosting.

Nutrition

Calories: 531kcalCarbohydrates: 79gProtein: 8gFat: 24gSaturated Fat: 14gCholesterol: 121mgSodium: 58mgPotassium: 312mgFiber: 5gSugar: 59gVitamin A: 705IUVitamin C: 1mgCalcium: 58mgIron: 3mg
Keyword chocolate cake, swiss roll
Tried this recipe?Mention @LarderLove or tag #LarderLove

PIN ME FOR LATER

Buche de Noel pin image

 

Filed Under: ALL RECIPES, Christmas, Home Baking

« Sweet And Sour Spiced Pickled Pears
How To Make Gentleman’s Relish (Patum Peperium) »

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Recipe Rating




This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

Karon Grieve

SEARCH MY SITE

Follow Larder Love

  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • Pinterest
  • Twitter
  • YouTube

BUY MY BOOKS

Karon Grieve books
my foodgawker gallery

Follow Larder Love

  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • Pinterest
  • Twitter
  • YouTube

Privacy Policy & Disclaimers

 

[footer_backtotop]

Copyright Karon Grieve - Larder Love © 2018. All Rights Reserved.