Chocolate Yule Log or ‘bûche de Noël’ is now a popular Christmas desert or pudding. It’s traditionally eaten in France and Belgium where they are known as ‘Kerststronk’ in Flemish.They are made of a chocolate sponge roll layered with cream. The outside is covered with chocolate or chocolate icing and decorated to look like a bark-covered log. Some people like to add extra decorations such as marzipan mushrooms, sugar holly leaves and sugar ‘snow’.
The custom of burning the Yule Log goes back to, and before, medieval times. It was originally a Nordic tradition. Yule is the name of the old Winter Solstice festivals in Scandinavia and other parts of northern Europe, such as Germany.The Yule Log was originally an entire tree, that was carefully chosen and brought into the house with great ceremony.
Christmas cake is an English tradition that began as plum porridge. People ate the porridge on Christmas Eve, using it to line their stomachs after a day of fasting. Soon dried fruit, spices and honey were added to the porridge mixture, and eventually it turned into Christmas pudding. In the 16th century, oatmeal was removed from the original recipe, and butter, wheat flour and eggs were added. These ingredients helped hold the mixture together and in what resulted in a boiled plum cake. Richer families that had ovens began making fruit cakes with marzipan. Often our Christmas cakes are made in advance. Many make them in November, keeping the cake in an airtight container. A small amount of brandy, sherry or whisky is poured into holes in the cake every week until Christmas. This process is called “feeding” the cake.
Here at Cakes by Kit we would of course have both, chocolate cake for the younger generation and fruit for the Traditionalists. The fruit cake is enjoyed well into the New Year during those chilly winter months. A real treat !
Wishing you all a Very Merry Christmas & A Happy New Year.