Vanilla Bean Yule Log

Presenting this year’s yule log, a Chinese bakery style Swiss roll with vanilla bean cream filling.

I have broken my baking drought and made my first bake in London!

As the war with COVID-19 drags on here in the UK and cases keep rising at an alarming speed, Christmas has been all but cancelled here. It is incomprehensibly stupid to me that it’s optional to wear masks outside when it’s been confirmed that COVID-19 can be passed on asymptomatically and people are not socially distancing. But I’ve harked on about this so many times that all I can do is make sure that I’m taking care of myself and wearing a mask whenever I’m outside.

In an attempt to not let depressing news get me down as the year comes to a merciful close, I decided to make a little yule log for myself. It has become a tradition of sorts with my family that I make one (or two) for Christmas, when my family throws either a Christmas lunch or dinner with my extended family invited. Sadly, I cannot disapparate a log from London and have it apparate in Australia, but I will enjoy my log on behalf of everyone.

To recap the logs I’ve made:

2015: Christmas Log (Bûche de Noël à la Pierre Hermé!)
2016: Raspberry, Mascarpone & Pistachio Bûche de Noël
2017: Chocolate, raspberry and cream Bûche de Noël
2018: Banana bread and cream cheese Bûche de Noël
2019: Cookies and Cream Bûche de Noël

Every year I’ve tried to make something different, tried to experiment with flavours and improve my technique in making a Christmas log. Two years ago I had the incredibly time consuming idea of meticulously sticking on Cadbury Flake chocolate onto the outside of my logs to give it that authentic ‘bark’ look. Decorating a bake is primarily why I love baking so much as opposed to the eating part; add on the fact that most of my baking is done for my family, every second I spend on a bake is worth it.

However, with my family 10,000+ miles away this year, I decided to dial back the complexity of my yule log. Since I will most likely be chipping away at the log by myself, I decided to reduce the cream filling and just simplify the sponge as well. Cue the Chinese bakery style Swiss roll!

When I was younger, I was not a fan of these rolls that mum and dad used to buy from Chinese bakeries. But they’ve grown on me! I made my own earlier this year after following Cooking See’s wonderful instructions on youtube:

YT: Cooking See

I typically fill mine with a bit of strawberry cream (heated and strained strawberry jam whisked into whipped cream). These Chinese style Swiss rolls are super fluffy, airy and not as sweet as the traditional Swiss roll.

It took me a few weeks to find my baking things at what I considered a reasonable price (everything still feels so expensive here!), but I am happy with what I have so far. I will most likely not be buying a massive stand mixer, especially as I have no where to put it, so most of my bakes while I’m here will be hand mixer manageable. The baking tray I used was different to the dimensions listed by Cooking See; my tray was (according to the manufacturer) 35.1cm (h) x 25.4cm ( w) x 6.2cm (d).

All ovens are different and baking can be so fickle, and knowing these facts had me a little concerned when I pushed in a tray of sponge batter for the first time in my apartment’s oven. But my sponge came out wonderfully! Look at my little chunky boi! Even the sun came out to take a look! 🙂

So I bungled the diagonal slicing at the end of the sponge, but since I’m making this for myself and it’s not for commercial sale, I will deal with it. I typically roll the sponge up while it’s still warm – I find it reduces the risk of cracking substantially. I whipped up 300ml of cream and added in a teaspoon of vanilla bean paste – I ended up using about half of it; I’m honestly not sure what to do with the rest of it!

I actually ended up putting the sponge in the fridge overnight, with baking paper and a tea towel wrapped around it. I’ve found in the past that it helps with decorating because the sponge is a little firmer.

While decorating the log is quite time consuming, it’s not difficult. I didn’t add enough vanilla bean so it is very visible on camera, but it’s there! So here is my sponge, placed on its round cakeboard after a chill time in the fridge.

…and here it is after about 1.5 hours in the makeup chair:

Many packets of Flakes and a lot of mess later

Last year I barely managed to cover my log with 10 Flakes. This time I managed to do it with 9, and I ended up donating my remaining four flakes to my local supermarket’s Christmas food bin. However, this log is a lot smaller than the ones I’ve made previously. The ‘glue’ is just some Nutella. I got some little sugar decorations from my local supermarket and dusted everything with a little bit of icing sugar to imitate snow.

The recipe of the sponge cake below is a written version of Cooking See’s video recipe. I would highly recommend watching the video on youtube so you know exactly how everything is meant to look like 🙂

I hope everyone stays safe, for those who can celebrate with family and friends and also to those who can’t. 2020 is nearly over and hopefully 2021 is much better. Happy Christmas everyone.

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Chinese-style Swiss Roll
By: Cooking See

INGREDIENTS:

• 5 egg yolks
• Salt 1g
• Granulated sugar 50g
• Cake flour 90g
• Baking powder 2g
• Vegetable oil 50g
• Milk 50ml
• Meringue (5 egg whites and 70g sugar)

METHOD

1. Preheat the oven to 170°C/150°C Fan forced, and line a medium sized, flat but high edged baking tin with parchment/baking paper. My bake tin was approx. 35cm (h) x 25.4cm x 6.2cm (d).
2. Whisk the egg yolk and sugar together until the batter is light in colour, voluminous and the batter falls from the beaters in ribbons.
3. In a large clean bowl, whisk the egg whites until frothy and soft peaks form. Proceed to add the sugar in 3 stages, beating well after each addition. Beat the egg whites until the meringue is glossy, with stiff peaks (you should be able to tip the bowl upside down without the mixture meeting the floor!)
4. Gently fold the egg mixture in with the meringue. Be careful not to beat out the air.
5. Sift the salt, cake flour and baking powder into the mixture and fold until combined.
6. In a separate bowl, add the oil and milk together before adding in some of the egg mixture to lighten the liquids. Pour into the egg mixture and fold well.
7. Pour your batter into the prepared bake tin and level the surface. Rap the tin a few times on a hard surface to release any bubbles. Bake the sponge or 30 minutes, or until golden brown.
8. Tap the cooked sponge on a hard surface before immediately removing the parchment paper from the sponge. This helps to reduce wrinkles and shrinkage!
9. Flip the sponge over and trim off the crusts. Make a diagonal cut (cutting outwards) across one of the shorter sides of the sponge. This will help the sponge sit on its own. On the same side, make three shallow incisions across the sponge. These cuts will help facilitate rolling up the sponge.
10. Slowly roll up the sponge, applying even gentle pressure across the entire sponge. Wrap the sponge up with parchment paper and seal to help the sponge hold its shape. Place the sponge in the fridge to chill, about an hour.

For the vanilla bean whipped cream (this recipe makes more than necessary for this Swiss roll)

1. Whisk 300ml of whipped cream until soft peaks form.
2. Add in a scant 1/3 cup of icing sugar until well incorporated before adding in 1 teaspoon of vanilla bean/vanilla extract. Feel free to add more vanilla flavouring to your liking! Continue to whisk the cream until spreading consistency.
3. Gently unroll your chilled sponge and spread an even layer of whipped cream along the sponge. Be mindful that the cream may be pushed out as you re-roll your sponge.