This chocolate yule log or buche de noel is the perfect centerpiece for your Christmas table. It’s filled with cranberry-raspberry filling and coated with ganache that looks like bark. After your meal, you will So enjoy eating it! This post contains Amazon affiliate links. As an affiliate, I will make a few cents on every dollar you spend through one of my links. Your price is unaffected.

A Brief History of the Yule Log

The Yule log originally comes from Nordic tradition and was an entire tree that was burned during the winter solstice. And since some Scandinavians were Vikings who traveled far and wide to trade and to raid and eventually to settle down and farm, the Yule log tradition traveled with them.

The history of the actual yule log cake–or buche de Noel in French–is a bit murky, but since hearths where the Yule log was burned was also used for baking, some enterprising and fanciful baker decided to make a cake to mark the Solstice. The French really elevated the form to the rolled sponge around cream fillings that we know today.

How My Yule Log Became a Yule Stump

I have not always been a good baker. I was, for a long time, a barely competent baker who knew just enough to get in trouble. One who would follow a recipe down to the sixteenth teaspoon of fairy tears called for. I would search high and low for fairy tears, and if I couldn’t find them, I’d try and find a reasonable substitute. One time I needed 1/4 cup of creme fraiche for something or other. These days, I’d either make my own or not sweat it and use cream or sour cream. Or yogurt. But back then, I pounded up and down the linoleum tiles in front of the dairy section searching for the stuff until I wore a groove in the floor. I finally asked a grown up wearing an official shirt about what to use as a substitute. He conferred with another grown up, and they decided that my best bet was to combine cream cheese, cream and sour cream. So I bought those items so I could use about a tablespoon of each. Lord.

Years ago, when I still lived in a little crack house  duplex, I decided I would make a chocolate yule log for our family’s Christmas dessert. Of course, I knew we’d also be having plum pudding and trifle, but I wanted to contribute, and I thought I knew what I was doing.

I was wrong.

Two crumbled chocolate “jelly roll” cakes later, I decided to throw in the towel and just make a Yule Stump with regular layers. This posed another problem. The cake recipe told me to use what I now know to be the two-stage mixing method. I did a terrible job with the mixing, partly because I didn’t understand how the method worked and sort of thought that the folks who wrote it needed a good smack for not having me “cream together butter and sugar until light and fluffy.” Two peaked, stupid chocolate rounds later, I found a different recipe that asked me to cream things together and made that.

At around 3am on Christmas day. I iced that bad boy with some chocolate frosting and drew some of it out on the serving tray to look like roots, spread custard on the top for the wood part and made a thin spiral of chocolate for the rings. I tucked in some plastic holly and some cocoa-dusted meringue mushrooms and slapped it defiantly on our Christmas table. I swear I looked like I had lived through The Lost Weekend. The cake tasted like desperation, but it looked Damned Festive.

The Parts of a Yule Log Cake

After my trial by fire, I have come here today to tell you that you can make a chocolate yule log. A lovely, lighter-than-air chocolate buche de Noel is well within your reach. Honestly, I have made the mistakes for you so you won’t have to make them yourself.

You’re welcome.

The traditional components of a Buche de Noel or Yule Log are:

• a sponge cake of some sort
• a creamy filling of some sort
• usually chocolate frosting or glaze to mimic bark
• traditional decorations such as meringue mushrooms, leaves and nuts made of marzipan or molded chocolate

The components of this particular chocolate yule log include:

• a flourless chocolate sponge cake (gluten free, y’all!), given structure from the cocoa solids in the chocolate and the egg whites, and tenderness from both the yolks and the cocoa butter in the chocolate
• sweetened whipped cream and mascarpone cheese blended with cranberry sauce and chopped raspberries
• a simple two-ingredient ganache (just chocolate and cream)
• the decoration which is nothing more than whipped cream applied with a spoon to approximate snow (I didn’t want to pipe it and have it look too “perfect”) with some sugared cranberries and plain raspberries tucked in.

Equipment for Making a Chocolate Yule Log Cake

You will definitely want a stand mixer for mixing up the gluten-free sponge cake. You’ll also need either a jelly roll pan or a half-sheet pan to bake your cake, parchment for lining the pan, and a good offset spatula for spreading out the batter and the filling. Here are my recommendations.

Can I Buy Decorations for My Yule Log?

Yes you can. You can also make them too. Easy decorations include freshly whipped cream (or Cool Whip if you must), nuts (in the shell and out), food-safe leaves, berries, or flowers.

If you would like to buy decorations for your buche de Noel, here are some ideas for you. Note some of these decorations are edible and some are not. And while you can get all of them on Amazon. some are not available via Prime so leave plenty of time for ordering!

How to Make a Gluten-Free Chocolate Sponge Cake

The most challenging part of this guy is the cake part. This is a Rose Levy Beranbaum recipe, and here’s how you make it:

• whip yolks and sugar until super, super thick and poofy.
• Mix in melted and cooled chocolate and set aside.
• whip whites and some more sugar until you get to medium-stiff peaks.
• Stir some of the whites into the yolks (which are extremely dense at this point, almost like marshmallow cream) to lighten them up and then fold the lightened yolk mixture in with the rest of the whites.
• Spread in jelly roll pan lined with parchment and bake at 350F until puffy and set, about 13-15 minutes or so.
• Let cool covered with a barely damp cloth. Cake will deflate some while cooling, but that’s okay.

How To Make a Chocolate Yule Log

For visual learners, here’s how to bake the flourless chocolate cake base for your yule log:

1. Prepare the pan with parchment lining, pan spray, and a good dusting of cocoa powder.
2. Whip up the eggs and sugar.
3. Fold in the chocolate with a large spatula.
4. Whip the whites and fold into the batter. NOT PICTURED: Bake the cake, roll up in a tea towel to cool. When thoroughly cool, unroll.
5. Spread the filling on the unrolled cake leaving about 1 1/2 inches at one short end bare of filling.
6. Roll up from the other short end.
7. Slice one end of the cake off at an angle and then use icing to “glue” it to the larger piece of cake so it looks like a cut branch..
8. Spread with a thin coat of ganache and use a fork to make marks in it to look like bark.
9. Decorate with whipped cream, sugared cranberries and raspberries.

I have a sneaking suspicion that I could whip whole eggs with sugar and then mix in the chocolate and be just fine, but since I haven’t tried it yet, I won’t make you do it first. I’ll let you know what happens though. Promise.

Love this recipe? Please consider rating and/or commenting. I love to hear from readers!

Chocolate Yule Log with Cran-Raspberry Mascarpone Filling

Yield: 12 servings

Prep Time: 40 minutes

Cook Time: 8 minutes

Decorating Time: 30 minutes

Total Time: 1 hour 18 minutes

This Chocolate Yule Log is not only a beautiful centerpiece for your Christmas table, it's also completely delicious and a totally doable project. Just follow my directions, and you'll be fine. Or should I say YULE be fine?! (Sorry)

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Ingredients

For the Chocolate Sponge

• 6 large eggs, separated
• 4 ounces (120 grams) semisweet chocolate, chopped
• 1/4 cup (50 grams) plus 2 tablespoons (30 grams) granulated white sugar
• 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
• 3/4 teaspoon cream of tartar
• heavy pinch of salt

For the Cran-Raspberry Mascarpone Cream

• 6 oz . heavy cream
• 2-3 Tablespoons granulated sugar
• pinch of salt
• 6 oz cold mascarpone cheese
• 6 oz pureed cranberry sauce, (your favorite--if you need to use canned, puree the whole-berry kind)
• 2 oz chopped fresh raspberries

For the Ganache

• 3 oz good quality semi-sweet or bittersweet chocolate, , finely chopped
• 3 oz heavy cream

For the Garnish

• whipped cream
• raspberries
• sugared cranberries

Instructions

For the Chocolate Sponge

1. Follow the directions on Joy of Baking to the letter. One thing I did do that I recommend you do as well: spray the parchment with cooking spray and then dust it liberally with cocoa powder (use a fine strainer for this). It will help keep the cake from sticking.

For the Cran-Raspberry Mascarpone Cream

1. Whip the heavy cream along with sugar (to taste) and a pinch of salt until thickened.
2. Whip in the mascarpone cheese. Just plop it in there. If you're using the whip attachment on your stand mixer, I promise it will all come together. If you're using a hand mixer, plop the beaters right on top of the blob of cheese to break it up and then mix away.
3. Your cream and cheese mixture will whip up quickly at this point, so be careful not to overwhip. The cheese can turn grainy and gross, so just take it to medium peaks.
4. Plop in the cranberry sauce and chopped raspberries and whip for 2-3 seconds to get it going, then fold in by hand so there are no steaks.

To Assemble the Roll

1. Leave your cooled cake in the pan and remove the towel.
2. Spread the filling evenly over the cake, from edge to edge. Leave about 1 1/2" plain at one short end, but cover the rest with an even coat. Reserve about 3 Tablespoons of the filling.
3. Using the parchment to help you, roll the cake up starting from the short end and rolling towards the end that you left plain. Carefully peel back the parchment as you roll. That initial roll may very well crack, but it's in the middle, so don't worry too much about it. Mine cracked about 1 1/2" in, but whatever. Keep rolling and peeling back the parchment until he's all rolled up. Move the roll to a cutting board, seam side down. Have your Presentation Platter ready too. Cover it with some strips of waxed paper so you don't make a mess on the platter. You'll carefully pull those pieces out before the final garnishing.
4. Trim one end of your jelly roll at an angle. You can make this piece as large or as small as you want, but for aesthetics, I wouldn't make it any more than 1/2 of the length of the remaining roll. Set that guy aside for a moment.
5. Place the longer part of your roll on the serving platter. Slather the remaining filling mixture on the angled end of the piece you just cut off and then stick it to the roll wherever you want. The reserved mixture will act as glue, so press it together fairly well without squishing your cake.
6. Cover loosely with plastic wrap and refrigerate.

For the Ganache

1. Bring the cream just to a boil and then remove from the heat.
2. Pour in the chopped chocolate all at once and stir until emulsified--rich, thick, dark and shiny.
3. Refrigerate until it's the consistency of frosting. You don't want it to be runny.

To Make the "Bark"

1. Once the ganache is at spreading consistency, remove the cake from the fridge.
2. Using a small offset spatula (because it's easy to use, but use what you have), spread a thin coat of ganache all over the roll and down to the waxed paper. Try not to leave any of the roll naked. But if you have to, cover it with whipped cream later!
3. Once the ganache is spread evenly. Drag the tines of a fork back and forth over it until it looks as barkish as you want.
4. Refrigerate until the ganache is set. You'll be able to tell because it will no longer be shiny.

To Garnish

1. Using a serrated knife, carefully trim off the very ends of your jelly roll so there's no sloppy filling sticking out.
2. Carefully remove the strips of waxed paper from around the cake roll. You may have to hold the cake in place with a spatula while you pull. Just go slowly and get rid of all the waxed paper.
3. Liberally dust the cake with powdered sugar. Some of it will dissolve as it sits, so use more than you think you need.
4. Whip your cream to stiff peaks (I use cream, a touch of sugar, a pinch of salt and a little bit of vanilla). I think I whipped about 3/4 cup to garnish mine. Make as much or as little as you want.
5. Apply your whipped cream artfully around your Yule Log.
6. Press sugared cranberries and raspberries wherever you think they should go.
7. Some edible (or at least non-toxic) greenery would be lovely as well.
8. Before presenting, dust the entire thing--platter and all--with some more powdered sugar.

Notes

Nutritional information based on 12 servings of cake

Recommended Products

• 
  KitchenAid KP26M1XER 6 Qt. Professional 600 Series Bowl-Lift Stand Mixer - Empire Red
• 
  Nordic Ware Natural Aluminum Commercial Baker's Half Sheet (2 Pack), Silver
• 
  Godinger DUBLIN CAKE PLATE,Clear,12" cake plate with stand

As an Amazon Associate and member of other affiliate programs, I earn from qualifying purchases.

Nutrition Information:

Yield: 12
Amount Per Serving: Calories: 307 Saturated Fat: 11g Cholesterol: 124mg Sodium: 68mg Carbohydrates: 27g Fiber: 1g Sugar: 20g Protein: 4g

Once you get the hang of rolling the cake, the filling and decorating options are only limited by your imagination. Give a chocolate yule log a shot this year–it makes a really great centerpiece for the meal, and once you’re finished eating, you can cut that bad boy up and eat him! Take photos first though, because I want to see!

Other Fantastic Festive Christmas Dessert Recipes

Still not ready to try your hand at a Yule Log? Or maybe you just want a bountiful dessert table? Either way, here are some other delicious Christmas dessert recipes for you to try.

• Chocolate Eclair Cake (This one is decorated for Halloween, but you can just as easily decorate it with a Christmas tree or stocking!)
• Moravian Sugar Cake (Maybe not strictly a dessert, but you need to make it. So there.)
• Chocolate Peppermint Crinkle Cookies (These also happen to be gluten-free!)
• Alton Brown Fruit Cake (Yes!)
• Chestnut Chocolate Torte (This one is decorated with zigzags, but consider using a Christmas tree stencil instead!)

Share your photos with me on instagram tagging @onlinepastrychef and using hashtag #pcorecipe, share in the Pastry Chef Online Facebook group, or just leave a comment letting me know how you enjoyed your yule log!

Thanks so much for spending some time with me today. Have a wonderful day!