Yule Log for Epiphany 2025

 The first bake of 2025 was a Yule Log for our Epiphany celebration! Bubby really wanted the Yule Log that we didn't get to have for Christmas dinner and I promised him I would make one.  By the time January 5th came around, I wasn't so much in the mood, but I wasn't about to let him down. However, I also wanted to make the simplest Yule Log possible.  

I ended up trying this recipe from Taste of Home because it seemed the simplest. I followed the cake recipe to the letter and checked it at 12 minutes. This is really a long time for a roll cake and I wished I'd checked it sooner, because the cake was already pulling away from the sides of the pan. I took it out immediately and rolled it up onto parchment paper that I'd dusted with confectioners sugar.

When I unrolled the cake to put in the filling, I was not happy to see that the entire top "crust" of the cake stuck to the parchment.  I filled it anyway, and rolled it back up. With a spatula I took some of the cake that was stuck to the parchment, pinched it with my fingers, and arranged it on top of the cake to simulate bark. I wrapped it in plastic wrap to refrigerate overnight. 

For the filling I made a plain whipped cream. I decided to try my hand at stabilized whipped cream, which I've been unsuccessful with in the past.  I used this recipe that I found online. I think it would work better with additional water, maybe even an extra teaspoon, and I probably waited too long to add it because I still had to pick out large globs of gelatin from the whipped cream when I spread it.  For the whipped cream itself I added about 1 teaspoon of almond extract, sprinkled it with cinnamon, and put about 2 heaping extra tablespoons of confectioners sugar. I still found it tasted too milky from the cream and lacking in taste otherwise.  


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Creepy Crawly Spiderweb Cake

Image
Bubby's friend was coming over after a bike ride and I wanted to make them a Halloween-themed treat.  I've been wanting to make a spiderweb cake for a while.  I sure came away with some do's and don'ts! I chose to use  this recipe  from King Arthur Baking.  Not sure why but I had my heart set on making it in an 8x8 square pan, and this recipe fit the bill. It's a recipe that calls for no eggs and no butter! I was a bit anxious about greasing but not flouring the pan, but the cake didn't stick to the sides when cutting it so that was fine.  The cake baked for 32 minutes (should have been 31) in my Corning Ware pan. Had I used an aluminum pan I'm sure it would have been ready much sooner.   I'd never made ganache using chocolate chips and I wanted to try it so this was my opportunity.  This recipe also calls for half and half rather than heavy cream, for the ganache.  It was more difficult to melt the chocolate chips and incorporate the in...
Read more

New Year's Eve 2023 roll cake

Image
Today I figured I'd get a head start on our New Year's dessert.  All I have energy for is a roll cake, but I thought I'd decorate it with the number 2024.  But, nothing is ever as simple as one thinks! I printed out a sheet of numbers to trace onto the parchment and used the biggest font possible. It still looked smaller than I wanted and I planned to enlarge it in the copy machine, then promptly forgot about it.  I realized this too late, after I'd already piped the numbers!   For the decorative slurry, I used  Gemma Stafford's recipe . I colored it green, which my mother always said was the color of hope.  I hope for a better year next year, after 2023 took my mother. I used a vanilla roll cake recipe from Martha Stewart and ran into a bit of trouble when I realized I was short on cake flour.  I had to substitute 1/4 cup of AP flour. I realized too late that I should have added 1/4 teaspoon additional baking powder, to help give it some lift. Ne...
Read more

Apple Spice Cake for Thanksgiving 2024

 On this Thanksgiving, our family decided to have a mixed menu, including some traditional items like roasted turkey breast, mashed potatoes and stuffing, but also some different things like baked haddock, bay scallops and kale with chestnuts. We spent Thanksgiving at Grandpa's house, and we arrived the day before on Wednesday after a 3 hour drive. This seemed like a good year to try a dessert that was not pumpkin pie. I remembered that Uncle S. had talked about how much he used to like penuche frosting as a kid. So, I decided to make a cake with penuche frosting, and ended up choosing this recipe from King Arthur Baking.  This way we wouldn't have to travel several hours with a perishable pie in the car, and I wouldn't have to make a pumpkin pie in someone else's kitchen, rolling out pie dough and deciding when the custard is done. The latter is difficult enough in my own kitchen! I used two kinds of apples for the cake, Granny Smith and Pink Lady. Is brought to scale,...
Read more