The Holiday season is here and what better way to celebrate then with a traditional Buche De Noel also know as a Yule Log Cake. It’s a soft, chocolate sponge cake, filled with chocolate whipped cream, rolled up, and decorated to look like a log! As fantastic as that sound, it’s just isn’t fantastic enough! So, I decided to combine this holiday cake with my favorite character from “Howl’s Moving Castle” in my Calcifer Yule Log Cake, or I call it my “Buche de Calcifer” I adapted this slightly from Stephanie Jaworski’s recipe at Joy of Baking.com. Here’s the original recipe. (I basically just doubled the chocolate whipped cream). http://www.joyofbaking.com/YuleLog.html
To make the “Buche de Calcifer” you will need…
- For the Cake:
- ¼ C. cake flour
- 2 Tbls cornstarch
- 2 Tbls cocoa powder
- 1/8 tsp salt
- ½ C. granulated sugar (remove 1 Tbls for later)
- 2 large eggs (room temp)
- 3 large egg yolks (room temp)
- 2 large egg whites (room temp)
- 1 tsp. vanilla
- ¼ tsp cream of tartar
- For the Ganache Frosting:
- 6 oz. (180 grams) semi-sweet choc.
- 2 oz. (60 grams) milk choc.
- ¾ c. cream
- 2 Tbls butter
- For the Filling
- 2 c. cold heavy cream
- 1 tsp. vanilla
- 4 tbls cocoa powder
- ½ c. granulated sugar
- For the Candy Calcifers
- 2 c. granulated sugar
- 2/3 cup light corn syrup
- 2/3 cup water
- Yellow and Red (or Orange) fool coloring
- Large candy eye balls (candy manufacturers like Wilton makes these)
- Orange royal icing (or you can use butter cream, but it won’t set as firm and be as good of a glue for the eyes!)
- Optional: candy flavoring of your choice. Make sure it’s clear or yellow colored.
Let me show you how it’s done!
- Preheat your oven to 450 degrees F and place your oven rack in the middle of your oven.
- Grease a 17×12 inch baking pan with cooking spray, line it with parchment, and then spray again. Sprinkle some extra flour all over the pan, tapping it into all the corners. Dump the excess.
- In the bowl of your mixer fitted with a whisk attachment, place the eggs, egg yolks, and granulated sugar. Beat on high speed for about 5 minutes until the mixture is thick, pale, and fluffy. When you pick up the whisk the mixture it should fall back into the batter in a slow ribbon. Transfer this into a larger mixing bowl if you have one. (Totally optional – this just helps with folding in the other ingredients later.)
- Sift the cake flour, cocoa, corn starch, and salt together in a separate bowl and then fold in half of that to the egg mixture. Fold gently from underneath the batter, so you don’t lose too much air, and then fold in the rest of the dry ingredients.
- In a clean bowl, (and this must be clean and free from oils or fats, so if you’re unsure rub a little vinegar on a paper towel and wipe down the bowl and beaters) place the egg whites and cream of tartar and beat on medium-low speed until soft peaks form. Then, add that remaining tablespoon of sugar and beat until stiff peaks.
- Beat in a little of the whites into the batter to lighten it, then gently fold in the rest of the whites.
- Pour the finished batter into the prepared pan, spreading it evenly into corners with an offset spatula, back of a spoon, or butter knife, and bake 6-8 minutes. YES, this cake only bakes for 6-8 minutes so watch out that you don’t overbake!!!
- Once the cake is baked and out of the oven, immediately sprinkle the top of the cake with some powdered sugar, cover with a clean dish towel, and then invert the cake onto your work surface (the powdered sugar will prevent the cake from sticking to the towel). Remove the parchment paper, sprinkle the bottom (which is now on the top) with powdered sugar. (Optional: You can cut off the edges with a sharp knife to straighten and clean them up. However, since you’re going to cover it all with frosting later it doesn’t really matter.) Gently roll up the sponge cake in the towel (this helps prevent cracking and sets the log shape). Place on a wire rack to cool.
- While the cake is cooling make the Ganache Frosting. It might even be a good idea to make this before the cake as it needs a good 1-2 hours to set up. Place the chopped chocolates in a medium sized heatproof bowl. Heat the cream and butter in a small saucepan over medium heat. (You can also heat the cream and butter in the microwave.) Bring just to a boil, immediately pour the hot cream over the chocolate, let it sit for a moment to help melt the chocolate, and then stir gently with a whisk until smooth. Set aside until it thickens to spreading consistency (this may take a couple of hours).
- Make the Candy Calcifer by placing the sugar, corn syrup, and water in a heavy-bottom saucepan over medium-high heat. You can stir at the beginning but then no more stirring. Wash down the sides of the pan with a pastry brush dipped in water to prevent crystallization. Use a candy thermometer and bring the mixture to the “hard crack stage” – about 300-305 degrees F. (Optional: If you’re using candy flavoring, now is the time to add it. Use just a bit as they are usually quite strong and stir it in. It will probably bubble up a bit as it will with the food coloring. That’s just the moisture from the flavoring evaporating.) Pour the hot candy into two heat-proof glass jugs and color one batch yellow and the other orange or red. Use the template found here: Calcifer Template PDF and place under a silicone mat or baking parchment. (This recipe makes at least 2 large Calcifers). Pour the yellow candy into the center of Calcifer’s face and outline in orange. Fill the rest of the body in how ever you want his fire color to be.
- Let them cool completely (about 20-30 minutes, then apply the large candy eye balls with some orange royal icing, and pipe on a mouth.
- Make the Chocolate Whipped Cream by beating together the heavy cream, cocoa, sugar, and vanilla extract in a large mixing and using a mixer fitted with the whisk attachment start on slow speed so you don’t get a mess everywhere. Then, beat the mixture on high speed for a minute or two or until stiff peaks form. Don’t over beat or you’ll have chocolate butter!!! (Though that does sound really good…)
- Once the cake has cooled, unroll, spread with the whipped cream until almost at the edges, and then gently roll the cake back into a log shape. Tip: (You could really fill this cake with whatever you want. Frosting, Jam, or add fresh fruit to the whipped cream!) You can put a little extra whipped cream in a Ziploc bag, cut off a corner, and pipe extra cream into the ends of the cake if they need it.
- Spread the cooled but still spreadable ganache frosting all over the cake and use a skewer to make lines and knots on the surface to look like tree bark.
- Optional: Cut off about an 1 – 1½ inch slice from one end (can be straight or on a diagonal) and use some frosting to stick into to the side of the cake to look like a branch.
- Mix some of the whipped cream with the ganache to lighten the color and frost the round ends using the lightened frosting. Again, use the skewer to make a swirly pattern on those round parts.
- Use a knife to cut a small slit on the top of the cake and insert your Calcifer into his log.
- You can cover and place in the refrigerator until serving. This cake can be stored in the refrigerator for about 4-5 days. Just before serving remove the cake from the fridge and decorate with fondant leaves and candies cherries if you want!
And there you go – a Calcifer Yule Log Cake inspired by “Howl’s Moving Castle”
And for those of you how would like an “Easy Mode” version of this recipe, check out the bonus video below. My sound cut out as I explained how to make an easy version of Calcifer if you don’t want to make a whole batch of sugar candy. Take some yellow, orange, or red jolly rancher-type candies, crush them up, form them into a flame shape, and bake them at 350 degrees F for 4-6 minutes or until melted. Easy!!
