Making a Yule Log
Cake with Pastry Chef
Jean François Houdré, Chef at Sutton Place
Hotel in Newport Beach, CA
Text by Cheri Sicard, Fabulousfoods.com
Photos by Mitch Mandell, Fabulousfoods.com
Before you can begin making the cake, you will need to make its components. For the cake in the photos Jean François used a plain cake that he soaked with simple syrup flavored with Frangelico liqueur. He filled his cake with hazelnut flavored pastry cream and hazelnut flavored buttercream. You can use any flavors you wish. Perhaps a chocolate filling or even jelly (the Yule Log is essentially a jellyroll) might better suit your personal taste. Use your imagination. Below are links to basic recipes:
Jellyroll Cake Recipe
Pastry Cream Recipe
Buttercream Icing Recipe
Simple SyrupMaking the Yule Log Cake
Once you have your Yule Log Cake components, it's time to make the cake. The size of the cake that Jean François is using is double the size yours will be, so his will make 2 Yule Logs. The recipes above will make a single Yule Log.
One of the most important steps, according to Jean François, is to continually brush the cake with simple syrup during the assembly process to keep it moist and to avoid problems with the cake breaking while rolling. He flavored his simple syrup with Frangelico hazelnut liqueuer. You could use other liqueurs as your taste dictates, or just use the syrup plain. After carefully brushing the entire surface of the cake with syrup, an even layer of pastry cream is spread over the surface.
Now it's time to roll. To begin rolling, bring up the edge of th parchment paper to start the process. With each roll, the chef takes time to brush trhe cake with additional syrup.
You will want to roll the cake as tightly as possible. To facilitate this, Jean François keeps his cake on parchment paper and uses a wallpaper tool from a hardware store. The tool helps him to tighten the roll of the cake by using it to leverage against the paper as in the photo above.
Next: It's time to frost the cake! Follow this link for step by step photo instructions.
