The buches de Noel – Yule log cakes – are already on display in every French pastry shop. Unless you live next door to a pâtisserie with a showcase filled with these beauties, it’s time to start thinking about making one at home.
If, as I was, you’re intimidated by the prospect of rolling up a cake, now’s the moment to toss aside your fears. It’s not only easy, it’s fun and you’ll be so proud of yourself when, in only a few minutes, you master it. This is a case in which what seems like a testy technique turns out to be cinchy.
Once you get the hang of rolling the sponge cake, you can go wild with fillings and frostings. In this recipe, I went easy, using a ginger cake, filling it with jam and cookie spread and covering it with whipped cream. You can use fruit butters, peanut butter, Nutella or more whipped cream. And you can frost the log with buttercream or something chocolatey. You can go super-simple and make a plain jelly roll that you dust with powdered sugar.
Play! Have fun!
Here’s the recipe, back-story too.
This story and recipe appeared in my Everyday Dorie column in the Washington Post. Photo by Deb Lindsey for The Washington Post.