Yule Log

It’s only a few more weeks until Christmas and we have a few more traditional foods to cover. This week we are going to look at the Yule Log. It’s a Christmas staple for many and always looks so delicious.

You’ll see many variations of Yule Logs; they are known in many countries France, Belgium, Switzerland, Canada, Lebanon, the UK, and many French colonies. The origin of the Yule Log is thought to be French in about the 19^th century. The French call the Yule Log, Buche de Noel. The original and traditional Yule Log is made from a yellow sponge cake baked thin in a shallow baking pan. Then it’s iced, rolled to make a cylinder or “log,” and then it’s iced again and decorated usually to look like some sort of decorated log. You might see berries, snow, branches, mushrooms, and bark like textures on Yule Logs. Typically you’ll have a yellow sponge cake with a chocolate buttercream but you’ll see all sorts of combinations now including adding alcoholic, coffee, and citrus flavouring.   

Instead of making an actual Yule Log, we decided to make a deconstructed one (somewhat) and make mini yellow sponge cupcakes with a chocolate buttercream frosting.   

Take a look below at my favourite yellow cake recipe and buttercream recipe. You can use it to actually make a Yule Log of your own this Christmas!

Yellow Cake Recipe

Ingredients:

½ cup of whole milk

4 large eggs

2 tsp. of vanilla extract

1 ¾ cups of flour

1 ½ cups of granulated sugar

2 tsp. of baking powder

¾ tsp. of salt

16 Tbsp. of butter or margarine, softened

1-2 tsp. of orange extract if using

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees.

Line mini muffin tins, regular size muffin tins, or grease and flour a cake pan and layer the bottom with parchment.

Whisk the milk, eggs, and vanilla together in a bowl and set aside. If you are adding in another flavour like orange extract or coffee, add it in now and whisk.

Now in the bowl of your mixer, combine the flour, sugar, salt, and baking powder. Mix in the butter slowly until it looks like moist crumbs.

Beat in all but ½ cup of the milk mixture and increase the speed to medium. Allow it to beat until light and fluffy looking.

Next on low, slowly add in the last bit of milk that you left out earlier. Beat until the batter looks slightly curdled.

Stir your batter one last time and then pour or spoon into the prepared pans.

Bake for 20-25 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean.

Cool completely before icing. I stashed them away in the fridge overnight.

Chocolate Buttercream Icing

Ingredients:

3 sticks of butter or margarine, softened

3 Tbsp. of heavy cream

2 ½ tsp. of vanilla

¼ tsp. of salt

3 cups of icing sugar

1/2 - 3/4 cups of unsweetened cocoa powder

Beat the butter, cream vanilla, and salt on high until smooth.

Once beaten, add in the icing sugar and cocoa powder slowly. Once it’s all somewhat incorporated, then put your mixer on high and whip it up for about 5-10 minutes or until light and fluffy looking.

Ice your cooled cupcakes or cake and enjoy.

Poolside - Pool Party

I can’t believe that we are half way through August already and Summer is slowly coming to an end. This week’s shade is very Summery, it’s called Poolside and it’s a metallic violet colour.

We’re going all out and “planning” a pool party. We’ve got some snacks, decorations, and games that you can use as inspiration for your party.

Decorations:

We found a couple decorations worth trying. So check them out...

Pool Noodle Beverage Boat – To start, find a sturdy plastic storage container. Make sure it’s not too heavy and make sure it’s clean. You can try and put some containers (cans, bottles, etc.) into see how it’ll hold as a test. Factor in the weight of ice as well. Cut a pool noodle into four parts and string it around the top sides as sort of a bumper floatation device. Test it out one more time and then fill with ice and drinks and put in your pool during your party.

https://www.wikihow.com/Make-a-Noodle-Beverage-Boat

Garlands – Garlands are easy decorations that you can string up or hang anywhere by the pool for your party. For a pool noodle garland, you will need some string and three different noodles in three different colours. Cut the noodles with and exacto knife into ½ inch slices and layer them on the string. Make the garlands as long as you like and at each end you can tape the string securely so that they don’t fall off.

For a popsicle garland, you can use different noodle colours but this time cut them into five inch lengths. Apply hot glue to a popsicle stick and attach to the inside of the noodle. You can make a double popsicle by applying hot glue to the sides of the single popsicles and then glue them together. For this one, you can’t really string it together so attach the string to the popsicles with clear sturdy tape. Try and get them equal distances apart but feel free to make them whatever length you choose.

Finally a beach ball garland would be a really cool and colourful sight at a pool party. You’ll need some smooth foam balls and primary yellow, blue, and red paint. Paint the balls to look like a beach ball. You can use painters tape to mark off the different colour sections or you can freehand it depending on how steady your hand is. String them up by hot gluing some string to the tops of the balls and space them how you see fit. Make as many garlands or as long garlands as you like just make sure you have enough of the foam balls and enough time to paint them all.  

https://sugarandcloth.com/diy-pool-noodle-garland/

http://ohhappyday.com/2014/06/jumbo-popsicle-garland/

https://studiodiy.com/2012/07/31/diy-beach-ball-garland/

Food

We didn’t get a chance to try these food ideas out so take a look at the links and see what you think because you can’t have a pool party without some yummy food.

Watermelon Lemonade – This one looks cool and refreshing, just right for a pool party.

https://www.cookingclassy.com/watermelon-lemonade/

Strawberry Frose - For a more adult drink for the party by the pool, take a look at this divine drink.

https://www.delish.com/cooking/recipe-ideas/recipes/a52864/strawberry-frose/

Orange Spritzer – If you like a citrusy drink, give this one a try that’s packed with orange flavour.

https://www.tasteofhome.com/recipes/orange-juice-spritzer/

Watermelon Popsicles – These look super cute and refreshing for any pool party.

https://www.cookingclassy.com/watermelon-popsicles/

Pool Party Cupcakes - If you’re looking for a pool dessert look no further than these super cute teddy graham cupcakes!

http://www.meandmypinkmixer.com/2009/07/pool-party-cupcakes.html

Sand Dollar Cookies   - For another quick dessert at the party, you can try these creative cookies.

https://www.tasteofhome.com/recipes/sand-dollar-cookies/

Barbequed Chicken Pizzas – If you’re having a pool party, you’ll most likely have your BBQ nearby so give these delicious looking pizzas a try.

https://www.tasteofhome.com/recipes/barbecued-chicken-pizzas/

Jersey Style Hot Dogs – A pool party staple is hot dogs! Try this one that is a little bit different (it has potatoes on it!)

https://www.tasteofhome.com/recipes/jersey-style-hot-dogs/

Tropical Island Chicken – Again grilling is so simple for a pool party. You can make a lot and still be part of the party instead of being cooped up in the kitchen while everyone else has fun. Plus, it’s a finger food so really to serve and eat at a pool party.

https://www.tasteofhome.com/recipes/tropical-island-chicken/

Games

Lastly we have games and activities. No pool party would be complete without some fun things to do.

Inflatable Jousting – This one is sure to be a hit!

https://shoptourismkit.com/products/4-pieces-set-joust-pool-float-game-inflatable-water-sports-bumper-toys-for-adult-children-party-gladiator-raft-kickboard-piscina?utm_source=Click&utm_medium=Channel&utm_campaign=Google_US&ref=SFDR_70623762&gclid=EAIaIQobChMIqr-Yr47q1QIV3IuzCh12xwxMEAkYAyABEgLPXPD_BwE

Inflatable Bull Riding – Oh, this one looks like lots of fun for the adults. It’s sure to entertain and delight everyone watching and participating.

https://www.big5sportinggoods.com/store/details/3345117646285/_/A-5831862?gclid=EAIaIQobChMIo5jp0f_k1QIVhmV-Ch1aKgByEAkYCCABEgLry_D_BwE

Some other fun things to do at your party might include...

Movie -  Ending the night with a poolside movie would be fun. You can borrow or rent a projector and pop some corn and wind down after a day of fun in the pool and sun.

Greased Watermelon – This could be fun and messy. Break into two teams and grease up a watermelon. Toss it into the middle of the pool and you want to try and pass it to your teammates until it reaches the opposite end of the pool; then you score a point.

Beach Volleyball – Set up a net over the middle of your pool and then break into two teams and go for it.

Tug of War – Grab a large long rope and break into teams. Draw a line about five feet away from the edge of the pool (you don’t want to go over this line) and start tugging. The losers are obviously the ones that end up in the pool.

Wet Shirt Relay – You can do this to break the ice at your party. Again break into two teams. Each team gets an oversized t-shirt. The first person of each team, puts on the t-shirt and swims the length of the pool and back and then hands off the t-shirt to the next person. The first team to have all of their participants complete the laps, wins.

Boston Cream Cupcakes

The flavour of the day today is Boston Cream by Baskin Robbins. This would be a very interesting flavour of ice cream to try out one day. However, we are making Boston Cream cupcakes today. It’s a slightly different take on the Boston Cream Pie and it’s absolutely delicious.

We’ve made these cupcakes a couple of times before. They do take some time so they are a treat to have for sure.

You will need:

Pastry Cream

1 ½ cups of heavy cream

3 large egg yolks

1/3 cup of sugar

4 tsp. of cornstarch

2 tbsp. of butter

1 ½ tsp. of vanilla

Cupcakes

1 ¾ cups of flour

1 cup of sugar

1 ½ tsp. of baking powder

¾ tsp. of salt

12 tbsp. of butter softened

3 large eggs

¾ cup of whole milk

1 ½ tsp. of vanilla extract

Glaze

1 cup of semisweet chocolate

2/3 cup of heavy cream

¼ cup of light corn syrup

½ tsp. of vanilla

Make the pastry cream first so that it can set and cool down in the fridge. Start off by bringing the cream to a simmer over medium heat. Meanwhile, whisk the yolks, sugar, and the salt in a large bowl until well mixed and then whisk in the cornstarch until pale yellow and thick.

Add the hot cream slowly into the yolk mixture and return immediately to the pan and cook at medium heat until glossy and thickened, about 1 minute. Whisk in the butter and the vanilla and then sir and transfer to a bowl. Press plastic wrap on the surface of the cream mix and chill for about 2 hours.

Now it’s time to make the cakes!

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

Line your muffin tins with liners; we ended up using two muffin tins because we probably didn’t fill up the cups as much as we should.

Whisk the dry ingredients together (flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt) in your mixer’s bowl. Use your mixer to beat the cut up butter into the flour mix. Chop it into 12 pieces and add in 30 second intervals. Beat until it looks like moist crumbs.

Beat in the eggs one at a time. Then beat in the milk and vanilla and increase the speed to medium and beat the batter until light and fluffy.

Now fill up your muffin cups about three quarters full; you don’t want it to be too full looking though. They aren’t meant to be tall fluffy cupcakes.

Bake for 18 to 20 minutes until the center comes out clean when a toothpick is inserted. Cool the cupcakes in the tin for 10 minutes before putting them all on a rack to cool even more.

It’s all about timing for these last few steps. When the cupcakes feel all cooled down, then make your glaze because it needs about 20 minutes to “set” and that will give you time to carve your cupcakes.

For the glaze, microwave the chocolate, cream, corn syrup, and vanilla all together in a heatproof bowl. Stir every 30 seconds for 1-2 minutes until all of the ingredients are melted and smooth. Let it thicken for about 20 minutes.

While the glaze is thickening, you can carve your cupcakes. Basically you want to make a hollow in the center of you cupcake for the cream to go into so cut around the inside edge of the top of your cupcake. Cut downward and at an angle towards the center but make sure you don’t go too deep that you cut through the bottom. You should remove an upside down cone if you did it right.

Cut the pointed end of the cone off so that you have a flat “lid” left. Put the extra cake bits aside for nibbling on later.

Take the pastry cream out of the fridge and fill all of the hollowed out cupcakes and then put their lids back on.

This is the point where you ca decide if you want to take all of the cupcakes liners off of the cupcakes or not. We left them on, but realized that after we put the glaze on, it was really messy because glaze was all over the liners and it was hard to take them off.

Ok, so once you have the cupcakes the way you want them and all filled, pour that glaze over the tops of all of them so that it dribbles down the sides and completely covers the top. You will probably have glaze leftover, but not to worry, it’s good to put on ice cream so it won’t go to waste. Something to remember to save yourself from a big huge mess, keep the cupcakes on the wire rack and line a cookie sheet with parchment so that it catches all of the excess glaze.

Let the glaze set so put the cupcakes in the fridge for about 10 minutes or so and then it’s time to enjoy them.