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.

Christmas Tradition # 3 - The Yule Goat

When I was reading about different Christmas traditions from around the world, one that stood out to me was the Yule or Gävle Goat. We’ll talk about the Gävle Goat in a little bit, but let’s start by looking at the history behind the Yule Goat.

The tradition of the Yule Goat is most dominant in Scandinavian and Northern European countries. In Northern European countries hundreds of years ago they had festivals in December called Yule to bring in the Christmas season. One of the Yule festivals called Koliada, celebrates the goat which is considered as the god of the harvest and the fertile sun. In Sweden, the goat is thought to watch over the Christmas preparations and to make sure they are done right. The goat was said to help deliver Christmas presents and some people believed that Santa would ride a goat instead of a sleigh.

In modern days the goat is represented in a couple of ways. One way is by a straw decoration with red ribbon wrapped around it. Straw is used quite often at Christmas in Sweden as part of their decorations as it reminds them that Jesus was born in a manger. The goat ornament is traditionally made from the last grain of the harvest and bundled in a red ribbons and “kept as a token of hope for the New Year.”

Another way the goat is represented is by the Gävle Goat. The Gävle Goat is erected over two days in early December. Advertising consultant, Stig Gavlén, came up with the idea of making a giant version of the traditional Swedish Yule Goat made of straw. The first goat was designed by chief of the Gävle fire department and the construction of the goat was carried out by the fire department in 1966.

Since then the goat has had an interesting history. It has been burned down a total of 36 times over 50 years of it being erected. The town has tried to protect it by having guards as well as spraying it with fireproof chemicals, but vandals and arsonists keep attacking the poor goat each year.