Buche De Noel in French means "Yule log". This is basically a tree trunk shaped cake generally made like a swiss roll manner and iced with chocolate to resemble a cut tree trunk and the end of the cake cut off and kept at the side or top to resemble a chopped off branch.

It is a traditional dessert served in France at the Christmas season. This tree trunk can be garnished with some icing sugar to resemble snow fall and some times with meringues to resemble the mushrooms grown on the tree trunk. I have already prepared a snow fall pattern Swiss roll for last year's Christmas. So i followed the same recipe for this cake too and for the dark chocolate frosting i have used this recipe.

Christmas Yule log

Preparation Time: 1 hours
Cooking time: 10+10 minutes
Cuisine: French
Serves: 10-12

INGREDIENTS:

 Sponge Cake Roll:
All purpose Flour- 1/2 cup
Baking powder- 1 teaspoon
Eggs- 4 large(Jumbo size)
Sugar, powdered- 1/2 cup
Vanilla essence- 1/2 teaspoon

Filling:
Whipping cream-250ml
Cocoa powder- 3 tablespoons
Icing Sugar-2-3 tablespoons
Vanilla essence- 1 teaspoon

Frosting:
Whipping cream/ heavy cream- 3/4 cup
Dark Chocolate chips (or)chocolate bars- 1 cup
Corn syrup- 1 tablespoon (optional)
Vanilla essence- 1/2 teaspoon

 PROCEDURE:

 Chocolate Whipped Cream Filling:
  • Chill well the whipping cream, bowl and the whisk.
  • In the chilled bowl pour the whipping cream and start to whip the cream. Add the icing sugar in between till soft peak stage.
  • Add the cocoa powder and vanilla essence a tablespoon at a time and whip well till it reaches the stiff peak stage.
  • Cove the bowl and refrigerate till you use it.
For the Sponge cake Roll:
  • Separate the egg yolks and whites in a separate bowl.
  • Whisk the whites till stiff peaks by whipping for around 10-15 minutes continuously; set aside. 
  • Take the bowl with egg yolks and starts to beat well. Once it starts to become pale add the powdered sugar and vanilla essence beat well to incorporate air in it.
  • Sift/ sieve the all purpose flour and baking powder together to uniformly mix well.
  • Now add the all purpose flour a tablespoon at a time into the mixture and beat well.
  • Once you finish adding flour mixture, fold in the foamy egg whites with out disturbing the air using a ladle into the cake mixture.
  • Line the swiss roll pan (15½ x 12½ x 1 inches) with wax paper and pour the batter over the paper and spread the top evenly with a ladle.
  • Preheat the oven to 180 degrees for 5-8 minutes and bake the cake roll for about 8-10 minutes till the top of the cake springs back when touched lightly in the centre.
  • Invert the cake into a clean surface sprinkled with icing sugar.
  • Remove the wax paper after 5 minutes and allow to cool for about 15 minutes.
  • Once the cake is thoroughly cooled apply the prepared Chocolate whipping cream as a thick layer using a spatula.
  • Roll up the cake from short side. Cover the filled cake roll with cling film and chill in refrigerator for 30 minutes minimum before apply frosting.
  • In case if you have not whipped the cake or preparing the cake later, transfer the cake into a tea towel and roll the cake from short side and allow it to cool.
  • Carefully unroll the cake when you are planning to fill and frost the cake.
For the Dark Chocolate Frosting:
  • When the cake is setting in fridge prepare the top frosting.(I have whipped more than 250 ml for filling so the leftover chocolate cream i am using for frosting)
  • To prepare the frosting heat some cream in a double boiler (The bowl placed on top of a pot containing boiling water on stove top; Bowl should not touch the water level)(or) microwave in a microwave safe bowl.
  • Once the cream heated up add the chocolate chips/bars allow the chocolates to melt in heat by constant stirring (or)If you use microwave, stop and take out the bowl and stir well after each 30 seconds) Once the chocolate get melted and forms a chocolate syrup; add in the corn syrup and vanilla essence and remove from the double boiler/ microwave.
  • Transfer the bowl into the refrigerator to chill the frosting. Now the frosting is like a pouring syrup consistency.
  • We need to chill to set the frosting to a spreading consistency.
  • So take out the bowl from fridge for each 15 minutes and stir well and keep again to chill for about 30 minutes to 1 hour.(Mine took 30 minutes)
  • Once it reaches the spreading consistency take the cake roll and remove the cling film and cut the end of the cake diagonally and keep that at the centre of the cake.
  • Apply the frosting all over the cake using a spatula.
  • Using a fork draw some lines to resemble like a tree bark.
  • Dust with some icing sugar on top of cake if desired and refrigerate the cake.
Buche de Noel