Yule Log Recipe : Chocolate and Orange - WonkyWonderful (2024)

FAQs

What's the difference between Swiss roll and Yule log? ›

While both desserts feature a thin layer of cake and fluffy filling rolled into a log, the difference between a yule log and a Swiss roll is how the two are decorated. Swiss rolls are typically kept plain while yule logs are cut, frosted, and adorned to look like, well, logs!

Butter and line a 23 x 32cm Swiss roll tin with baking parchment. Beat the eggs and golden caster sugar together with an electric whisk for about 8 mins until thick and creamy. Mix the flour, cocoa powder and baking powder together, then sift onto the egg mixture. Fold in very carefully, then pour into the tin.

Aspen is the wood of choice for spiritual understanding, while the mighty oak is symbolic of strength and wisdom. A family hoping for a year of prosperity might burn a log of pine, while a couple hoping to be blessed with fertility would drag a bough of birch to their hearth.

yule log in British English

noun. 1. a large log of wood traditionally used as the foundation of a fire in the hearth at Christmas. 2. a chocolate-coated cylindrical sponge cake, eaten at Christmas.

Edible Yule Logs are thought to be the invention of the French, where the cake is known as Buche de Noel. Our bakers will have their own versions of the Yule Log. Place your orders now, to avoid disappointment. Check out our list of bakers here.

Vin doux naturels (natural sweet wines) are good candidates to accompany the traditional log. Among the different options available, try the log with Muscat-Beaume-de-Venise, white Banyuls, Sauternes, Coteaux du Layon, Quarts de Chaume or sweet wine from Alsace, such as Vendange Tardive or Sélection de Grais Nobles.

A Log of Symbolism and Belief

Celts believed that as the sun seemingly stood still during the twelve days at the end of December, keeping the Yule log aflame would persuade the sun to move again, lengthening the days and heralding the return of spring.

It was lit on Christmas Eve and rekindled each day until Twelfth Night was reached. This custom was common across much of Europe for hundreds of years — a throwback to the pre-Christian fire festivals celebrating the winter solstice — and much superstition was attached to the practice.

I usually associate a Yule Log with being chocolate or devil's food cake with a cream based filling and decorated to look like a log (with chocolate icing). A Swiss Roll can have any flvor sponge cake and often has fruit or jam in the filling.

The Yule log, Yule clog, or Christmas block is a specially selected log burnt on a hearth as a winter tradition in regions of Europe, and subsequently North America. The origin of the folk custom is unclear.

What is another name for the yule log? ›

The name bûche de Noël originally referred to the Yule log itself, and was transferred to the dessert after the custom had fallen out of popular use. References to it as bûche de Noël or, in English, Yule Log, can be found from at least the Edwardian era (for example, F. Vine, Saleable Shop Goods (1898 and later).

A yule log (sometimes called a bûche de Noël) is a roulade: a light sponge, normally plain vanilla sponge, baked in a Swiss roll tin, and then rolled with a sweetened cream filling, decorated with chocolate ganache or buttercream to resemble a fallen log. It is, basically, a chocolate-covered swiss roll.