Christmas Yule Log Cake
A Christmas sponge cake rolled with chocolate-strawberry jam and rum-flavored buttercream, shaped into a yule log.
Ingredients
eggs
4 (room temperature)
fine granulated sugar
120g
cake flour
120g
heavy cream (heated)
20g
strawberry jam
100g
chocolate (chopped)
50g (for strawberry jam) + 40g (for sugar-coated almonds)
butter (room temperature)
150g
egg yolks
2
fine granulated sugar
50g (for crème anglaise)
milk
100g
rum
10g
syrup (water:sugar = 2:1)
15ml
cherry liqueur
15g
Italian meringue (see P156)
150g
food coloring powder (red, green)
to taste
cocoa powder
to taste
powdered sugar
to taste
Christmas cake decorations
to taste
Instructions
1
Prepare Italian meringue and piping bag
Refer to P156 for Italian meringue preparation method, and P12 for how to load a piping tip into a piping bag. Begin preheating the oven to 80°C.
2
Bake meringue shapes
On a baking sheet lined with parchment paper, pipe the Italian meringue from step 1 into triangles and circles, place in the oven preheated to 80°C and bake for 1 hour.
3
Stack and bake further
Once the surface is set, place some of the circular shapes on top of the triangles, and bake again until completely dry, about 1 hour. Jam or extra chocolate can also be used to adhere them.
4
Make paper mold
Prepare a square piece of paper with 34cm sides, fold the four edges in 2cm, and secure the four corners with a stapler. Start preheating the oven to 190°C.
5
Make chocolate strawberry jam
Place strawberry jam in a pot and heat over high heat.
6
Add chocolate
Turn off the heat, add chopped chocolate. Stir to melt, and mix thoroughly with the strawberry jam.
7
Make sponge cake batter
Refer to P18 for the full-egg whipping method for sponge cake batter, use heavy cream instead of butter here.
8
Pour into mold
Pour the mixed batter from step 7 into the mold from step 4, spread the batter evenly to form a flat, uniform layer.
9
Remove air bubbles
Tap the baking sheet along with the mold on a kitchen towel to remove excess large air bubbles.
10
Bake cake base
Place in the oven at 190°C and bake for about 12 minutes. After baking, cover the cake with a kitchen towel to prevent it from drying out, let cool and set aside.
11
Make crème anglaise
Refer to P14 to make crème anglaise. Vanilla pods are not needed here. Let cool at room temperature and set aside.
12
Whip butter
Place the butter in a mixing bowl and beat with a mixer until smooth.
13
Add crème anglaise
Add the crème anglaise from step 11 to the bowl in small batches. Each time you add it, stir until the sauce is fully incorporated into the butter.
14
Finish buttercream
Stir until when you lift the mixer, the buttercream falls slowly in a thick, smooth stream. This is a rich, smooth buttercream.
15
Melt chocolate
Place the chopped chocolate in a heatproof bowl over a pot of 50°C hot water to melt, then let cool to room temperature and set aside.
16
Divide buttercream
Take 2/3 of the buttercream from step 14 and mix it with the melted chocolate from step 15. The remaining 1/3 of buttercream should be placed into a piping bag fitted with a round piping tip (see P12).
17
Mix chocolate buttercream
Mix the buttercream and chocolate thoroughly. Add rum to enhance the aroma.
18
Demold cake base
Once the full-egg whipped sponge cake base has cooled, flip it over and gently peel off the paper mold, then flip it back over with the paper mold in place. Be careful not to tear the cake, then gently remove the paper mold.
19
Apply sugar syrup mixture
Use a cake knife to cut a beveled edge on one side of the cake base. On the baked side, brush on a mixture of sugar syrup and cherry liqueur.
20
Apply strawberry jam
Use a spatula to evenly spread the chocolate strawberry jam from step 6 on the cake, making sure the jam layer is even and flat across the entire cake surface.
21
Roll the cake
Flip the cake with the paper mold outward and roll it up. While pressing gently while rolling can make the roll neater, be careful not to press too hard to avoid squashing the cake.
22
Shape the roll
After the cake is fully rolled, gently press it with a rolling pin on the baking paper as a substitute for a rolling mat. Then prepare a new sheet of clean baking paper.
23
Chill to set
Once the cake is fully rolled, wrap it in the new baking paper, fix the paper with a ruler, place the rolled cake with the opening side down in the refrigerator to chill and set.
24
Cut into log shape
Cut the cake into a log and branch shapes. As shown in the picture, cut 2 small beveled pieces from both ends of the cake, apply the buttercream from step 14 to the cut surfaces where the branches will attach to the log.
25
Assemble and decorate
Assemble the cake pieces from step 24 into the shape shown in the photo. Refer to P12 to load a serrated piping tip into a piping bag, fill it with the chocolate buttercream from step 17, and pipe it onto the cake.
