INTRODUCTION
I never believed that I am able to prepare a log cake…It looks difficult and I took out my courage to prepare one today. Readers, rest be assured, if I can, you can..and let me share with you some points in an attempt to convince you to put your hands on to have your first log cake.
However, this recipe is not designed for more experienced bakers… There are much better recipes out there requiring more ingredients and many additional steps of preparation…. I have censored off many recipes and decide to share with all one which is easy and fast and that bakers like me who are not good at frosting and cake decoration also have the courage to do so…
The sponge cake is a very simple and basic recipe… The filling and the frosting are basically the same… And overall, it need less than 10 ingredients to have this log cake. The most it will cost me will be SGD 5….Saves me lots of money ..For taste, it is definitely acceptable though not the best or the finest log cakes compare to those purchased from 5 stars hotel.. However, who really cares after a big feast that were spoilt of many choices of meat dishes, snacks and desserts..
If you think preparing a log cake is very difficult, you have to reconsider again.. You need not to have the softest and finest sponge cake prepared using egg separation method..In my humble opinion, the centre point of the cake will be on the overall mix between the delicious creams and the sponge cake. Therefore what you required is just a basic simple sponge cake that are reasonable soft.
You don’t need to possess very good cake decoration technique or complicated baking equipment.. You need to select a frosting of your choice, spread on the cake, there is not even a need to level it because you are going to create a visual effect of tree barks… Any imperfections will be deemed to be natural defect on that piece of wood….In addition, as it “snows” heavily, you can easily covered any imperfections….Therefore, instead of paying 30-40 SGD for a log cake.. why not prepare your own?
As per Wikipedia,
“A Yule log or bûche de Noël (French pronunciation: [byʃ də nɔɛl]) is a traditional dessert served near Christmas, especially in France, Quebec and several other francophone countries and former French colonies. It can be considered a type of sweet roulade. The traditional bûche is made from a genoise or other sponge cake, generally baked in a large, shallow Swiss roll pan, frosted, rolled to form a cylinder, and frosted again on the outside. The most common combination is a basic yellow sponge cake, frosted and filled with chocolate buttercream; however, many variations on the traditional recipe exist, possibly including chocolate cakes, ganache and espresso or otherwise-flavoured frostings and fillings.” (Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yule_log_%28cake%29)
WHAT IS REQUIRED
Sponge cake recipe adapted from: Yummy chocolate log | BBC Good Food
Servings: a 9” log cake
Sponge cakes:
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90 grams of self raising flour
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90 grams of brown sugar
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3 eggs
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3 tablespoons of cocoa powder
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1 teaspoon of instant coffee granules
Fillings and frostings
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1 cup of fresh whipping cream
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1/2 cup of icing sugar
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1.5 teaspoons of instant coffee granules.
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50 grams of melted dark chocolate (not in picture)
STEPS OF PREPARATION
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Beat the eggs and brown sugar at high speed until volume expands to at least twice and become light and pale. Sift in the coffee granules, cocoa powder and self raising flour. Fold lightly and quickly until it is well mixed. Transfer the batter to the lined baking tin. Lightly knock the tin on the table top three times to force out any air trapped inside. Bake in the pre-heat oven of 180 degree Celsius for 10-15 minutes or until the top is dry.
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After taking out from the oven, take out from the baking tin. Use something to level the cake if necessary. Quickly turn the cake with the bottom of the cake facing you and placed the cake on top of the piece of baking paper dusted with icing sugar (optional to dust with icing sugar).. Tear off the first piece of baking paper. Take the width of the cake and roll the cake (like the way of rolling the Sushi) and make sure that the ending portion is facing downwards. Let it cool completely in this position. (Note that it is important that you do this as soon as the cake is out of oven and as soon as your hand can handle the heat from the cake. You can use a towel to roll together if you want. When the cake dries up, it will be difficult to roll.)
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While the cake is resting, prepare the fillings and frosting. Mix one to two tablespoons of fresh whipping cream with the instant coffee granules. Stir until dissolved. Beat the cold whipping cream until it starts to thicken and volumes starts to expand. Add icing sugar tablespoon by tablespoon, followed by the dissolved coffee cream . Beat until the cream reached a stiff peak. (Please keep an eye on the beating process and in the event that you have overbeaten the cream (whereby the fats separated and floated on some water), try adding some more cold cream and continue to whip so as to salvage the situation. Unroll the cool sponge cake and spread generously a thick layer (about 1/2 of the beaten cream) of beaten coffee cream on it.
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Carefully roll back the sponge such that it is in a log shape. For the remaining cream, add the melted chocolate (melted chocolate should be cool but yet to harden and you can melt the chocolate by microwave for 30 seconds or over the stove over a pot of hot boiling water), quickly use a spatula to fold it until well mixed. Spread generously the chocolate cream on both sides of the log ends and log trunks. Use a fork to lightly make some horizontal lines on the trunks and circular lines on the log ends.
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Decorated your cake with your desired Christmas ornaments such as Santa Clause, pine tree, mushrooms, reindeer etc.. and dust sparingly with icing sugar resembling snowfall. Chilled the cake if the frosting is too soft and cut into 2 cm thick pieces for servings.
Note:
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It does not matter if your basic sponge cake is ugly as it will be fully covered with coffee cream. It also does not matter if you cream and frosting is smooth as after drawing lines with forks, it will have a natural tree bark look… I have used less chocolate in this illustration so the colour is a bit light. You final log cake should have a darker and more appealing colour.
CONCLUSION
Trust me, I can do it, you can do it… If you think that it is a miracle that you can prepare a log cake, the miracle is going to happen. Remember that the beauty of a log cake is that it need not be perfect, be it your decoration or sponge cake… New bakers, do take a step to make this simple Yule chocolate log cake and impress your guests.
Hope you like the post today. Cheers and have a nice day.
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For more recipes, you can refer to my RECIPE INDEX (updated as at 20 November 2014) here and you can follow me at PINTEREST or visit the blog’s FACEBOOK PAGE to keep abreast of my future posts.
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