Holiday Yule Log

 This recipe is another first for me. It was rather fun to note that the recipe was submitted by Melissa Bailey of Penobscot, Maine. Not sure if we are related, but always interesting to encounter someone with my maiden name.

I was a little nervous about attempting this recipe. I mean, there are gorgeous pictures of Yule Logs all over the internet and in glossy food magazines. Could I even get this cake to look anything like a log?

I followed the recipe exactly, and was quite pleased with the cake result. After baking, I rolled it up, as directed, in a tea towel, to cool. Then I tackled the filling and, well, it just didn't work for me. I have no idea why. So I went looking for an alternate filling recipe, and found one with cream cheese, which seems to be just the right ingredient for the heavy cream and confectioner's sugar to blend with. I gently unrolled the cake, spread the filling, and rolled it back up.

The recipe does not mention to do this, but I then wrapped the cake in parchment paper and plastic wrap and tucked it in the fridge to chill for two hours. After chilling, I sliced a portion of the "log" at an angle, to make a "branch." Then I frosted the entire log with chocolate frosting. And gently dragged a fork thru the frosting, to make the frosting look like bark (honest to Pete, something so simple, but it really works!). I had no idea how to decorate the log, so I just looked in the cupboard. The figs and bay leaves and dried cranberries that I chose seemed to work just fine. Oh, and crumbs of Nabisco Famous Chocolate Wafers, to look like "dirt." I am very pleased with the results and it makes a lovely Christmas dessert.

This recipe completes the Cake chapter of the Maine Bicentennial Community Cookbook. A great cake to finish off the chapter!





Comments

Post a Comment

I welcome your comments. Please be kind and considerate. Thanks for stopping by!

Popular posts from this blog

Lancey House Dip

Image
Funny how childhood memories will pop up when a food reminds us... This dip is not one that I recognize from reading its ingredients, but when I tasted it, oh, wow, did it ever take me back in time! As a child, we lived in a large house in Bangor, and my parents loved parties. My mom enjoyed making dips and this one tastes very familiar to me. Maybe it's the cottage cheese base, but there are other ingredients that compliment the cottage cheese and really bring it together. A nice mix with other cheeses to bind it together. My husband is not fond of blue cheese, but I love it. I decided that, since I promised myself I'd try to stay true to the original recipes in the book, the first time around, I would keep the blue cheese in, and see how it tasted.  Turns out, it is in such small proportion to the rest of the recipe, I doubt he will really notice. It simply adds strength to the cheese base, I think, but not enough to overpower other flavors. He hasn't come downstairs to t...
Read more

Maine Party Chicken

Image
 As I read the ingredients for this recipe, I had a flashback to my childhood. My parents enjoyed having friends over, and my mother was not a chef by any means, but she would look for recipes that were easy to prepare for a crowd. This is one of the recipes she used to make.  I used to be a can-of-soup cook, like my mom, when a white sauce was called for. But since I learned how to do a bechamel, oh my, there is no going back. Not that there is anything wrong with an easy pop-top cream of mushroom soup once in awhile. It does the trick, and you just tuck this dish in the fridge overnight and do a three-hour bake the next day, which gives you time to focus on putting up party banners, or whatever, for your company. I'm not sure I care for the dried beef in this dish. Awfully salty. But the bacon, when you do a slow bake, smells fantastic for three solid hours. Can you say Anticipation?! I say, when you go big, go easy. Try this recipe for a crowd. You'll be glad you did!
Read more

Riverhouse Scallops "Benedict"

Image
 If elegant and easy ever paired perfectly, this would be the recipe for such a happy marriage. I saw the minimal ingredients, and thought to self: "This is where the quick hors d'oeuvres meet the 'oh wow' from the guests, with the hostess barely lifting a finger, except to sip some wine." Now, that's my kind of hors d'oeuvres! Slice the very fresh scallops into thin circles. Drop them into fresh lemon juice to "cook." You are also supposed to slice the avocados into circles, to mirror the scallops, but mine ended up being whatever shape the avocado chose. I don't argue with avocadoes about their shape, I just eat them and am grateful they choose to show up on the plate at all. The recipe calls for a few shakes of hot sauce on each scallop slice. I used Cholula Sweet Habanero Hot Sauce.  This is a fabulous appetizer that will impress your friends and family!
Read more