Chocolate Yule Log

Why bake a chocolate yule log? The tradition of burning a yule log comes from Scandinavia where people burned logs of wood during the Christmas celebration. It was considered to bring good luck to keep one log unburned for the next Christmas. The real log was then replaced by a chocolate swiss roll with frosting and decoration symbolizing the various aspects of Christmas - (from Classic Cakes).

This is the second yule log that I baked since I started baking in 2003. This time round I used a modified recipe of my Paper-lined sponge. The yule log is soft and spongy and tasted really good with cream cheese filling instead of whipped cream or butter cream.



Ingredients:

Yule Log
A) 5 egg yolks
25g castor sugar
pinch of salt
1 tbsp rum

B) Dissolve 20g cocoa powder in 55g warm corn oil

C) 65ml warm milk

D) 80g cake flour
1/2 tsp baking powder

5 egg whites
1/4 tsp cream of tartar
60g castor sugar

Cream Cheese Filling
125g cream cheese
30g sugar
110ml whipping cream + 1 tbsp icing sugar
1 tsp gelatin dissolved in 1 tbsp boiling water

Chocolate Frosting
100g 66% Valrhona dark chocolate (chopped)
90ml whipping cream
12g butter

Method for Yule Log:
1. Cream ingredients (A) with hand whisk till sugar dissolved.
2. Add in ingredients (B) and mix well. Stir in ingrdient (C).
3. Sieve in ingredients (D) and mix till no lumps.
4. Beat egg whites with electric beater till frothy, sprinkle in the cream of tartar. Beat till white in colour and add in sugar by thirds. Egg white should be beaten till stiff peaks are formed.
5. Fold in half of egg white into yolk mixture and mix with a hand whisk in 6 strokes.
6. Pour yolk mixture into the rest of the egg white and mix well with hand whisk.
7. Bake in a lined tray at 180C - 190C for 18 - 20 minutes or till cooked.
8. Prepare a sheet of baking paper large enough to hold the sheet cake. Sprinkle sugar all over the baking paper.
9. Turn the cooked cake onto the sugared baking paper and roll the cake swiss roll style while still warm.
10. Keep sheet cake in its rolled position till cool enough to spread the filling and frosting.

Method for Cream Cheese Filling:
1. Whip whipping cream with icing sugar still mousse state.
2. Dissolve gelatin in 1 tbsp boiling water.
3. Cream cheese with sugar till creamy. Stir in warm gelatin solution.
4. Fold in whipped cream. Refrigerate for 10 minutes before using.

Method for Chocolate Frosting:
1. Bring whipping cream to a boil. Remove from heat.
2. Add in the chopped chocolate and stir till smooth and creamy.
3. Stir in the butter while mixture is still warm.
4. Refrigerate for 30 minutes then cream frosting till thick.

To assemble:
1. Unroll the sheet cake carefully and spread cream cheese filling all over the cake. Roll the filled sheet cake swiss roll style.
2. Spread the chocolate frosting over the whole cake, cut a small part of the log cake diagonally and place it as a branch as in photo above.
3. Sprinkle with shaved white chocolate and decorate with christmas characters.