Yule Log Cake | Eggless Christmas Special Yule Log Cake
Christmas Special Eggless Yule Log Cake is a delicious, moist vanilla cake rolled and shaped to look like a tree branch which then smothered with chocolate whipped cream frosting.
Place the parchment paper on the regular cake pan and grease it generously.
Add the yogurt and sugar in a wide bowl and whisk them together. Make sure the sugar is dissolved.
Now add the baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Mix them and let it sit for 5 minutes.
The mixture will be emulsified now. Add the vanilla extract and whisk again.
Now slowly pour the butter and whisk the mixture. Then add the milk and stir it once.
Sieve the APF to this wet mix and combine gently.
Make sure there aren't any lumps. Pour this cake batter into the cake pan and spread it thin like below. Mine was approximately ⅓ inch thickness and 11 X 11 inches in the measure.
Bake the cake for about 30 minutes.
Let it cool for 15 min before rolling.
Preparing the frosting
While the cake is baking, melt the chocolate chips in your preferred way. I used the double boiler method like below.
Add 2 cups of heavy whipping cream and sugar in a wide bowl and using hand mixture whisk it nicely until soft peaks are formed.
At this stage add the melted chocolate and mix it again until stiff peaks are formed.
Rolling and decorating the cake
After minutes, roll the cake with the parchment paper and let it rest for 10 minutes.
Then unroll the cake and now apply the chocolate frosting over the cake like below.
After that, roll the cake alone without the parchment paper. As you can see, my rolls weren’t that perfect. But the chocolate covered it up all.
Now cut about 2 inches of the cake from either end diagonally. We will place this on top of the roll to give the log/branch look.
I transferred the cake to the serving plate at this stage; it is easy to move it now than later.
Now apply the chocolate frosting on the main roll and cover it up completely.
Then place the small log on top and apply the frosting all over again.
Using a fork, draw branch patterns to give ridged appearance.
Now drizzle the cocoa powder on top of the cake and decorate it with raspberries and mint leaves.
That’s it. The Yule log cake is ready.
Notes
I went with my vanilla sponge cake for the base. You can use any chocolate cake or your preferred sponge cake for the base.
Instead of whipped cream frosting, you can use buttercream frosting too.
I did not refrigerate the rolls after applying the chocolate coat. However, you can cool for about 30 minutes in the fridge for a firm roll.
Do not bake the cake for more than 30 minutes, as they become stiff and rolling might become involved. Spread the cake batter as thinly as possible as the sponge cake will raise generously. Mine was slightly on the thicker side, and the above two points could have been the reason for rolls cracking in between.
The sky is the limit for the decoration. You can mimic the branch and bark effect as you prefer.