Chocolate Yule log cake is a soft cocoa sponge rolled around lightly sweetened cream and covered with dark chocolate ganache marked like tree bark. It looks festive on a December dessert table without needing sculpted sugar decorations. This is a proposed new Chefly recipe, not a tested bake or an automatic publication. A thin sponge and a warm first roll are the key techniques; expect cooling and chilling time as well as the short oven bake.
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Plan the roll before mixing
Line a 10-by-15-inch jelly-roll pan with parchment, grease the parchment lightly and have a clean towel or second sheet of parchment ready. A 9-by-13-inch cake pan makes a thicker cake with different baking and rolling behavior, so it is not an untested equivalent. Beat the eggs and sugar until pale and voluminous, then fold in sifted flour and cocoa gently. The goal is an even, flexible sheet, not a deep layer cake.
Roll the cake while still warm, with the towel or parchment inside the spiral, and let it cool in that shape. This pre-roll helps it accept cream without forcing a cold flat sponge into a tight curve. A King Arthur Baking Yule Log Cake reference also describes a thin sponge, cream filling and chocolate exterior; the measured Chefly formula below is an original working proposal rather than a transcription of that recipe. Its page was accessible through search but rejected a direct link check, so that source is recorded in the handoff instead of inserted as an article link.
Ingredients for one cake, about ten slices
| Ingredient | Amount | Use |
|---|---|---|
| Large eggs, room temperature | 4 | Sponge structure. |
| Granulated sugar | ¾ cup | Beat with eggs. |
| Vanilla extract for sponge | 1 tsp | Egg mixture. |
| All-purpose flour | ½ cup | Sift with cocoa. |
| Unsweetened cocoa powder | ¼ cup | Sift with flour. |
| Baking powder | 1 tsp | Dry mixture. |
| Fine salt | ¼ tsp | Dry mixture. |
| Neutral oil | 2 tbsp | Fold into sponge. |
| Whole milk | 2 tbsp | Fold into sponge. |
| Heavy cream for filling, cold | 1 cup | Whip. |
| Confectioners’ sugar | 2 tbsp | Sweeten filling. |
| Vanilla extract for filling | ½ tsp | Flavor cream. |
| Semisweet chocolate, finely chopped | 8 oz | Ganache bark. |
| Heavy cream for ganache | ¾ cup | Heat and pour over chocolate. |
Use an electric mixer, sieve, spatula, jelly-roll pan, parchment, clean towel, cooling rack, bowl and fork. The sponge contains egg, wheat and milk; the cream and ganache contain milk, and chocolate may have other label warnings. Do not taste raw cake batter: FDA guidance on flour notes that raw flour requires cooking. No raw flour is part of the finished filling.
Bake, roll, fill and frost
- Prepare the pan and dry mixture. Heat oven to 350°F. Line and lightly grease a 10-by-15-inch jelly-roll pan. Sift half a cup all-purpose flour, quarter cup cocoa, one teaspoon baking powder and quarter teaspoon salt together. Set a clean towel or second parchment sheet where the hot cake can be turned out.
- Whip and bake the sponge. Beat four room-temperature eggs with three quarters cup granulated sugar until pale, thick and ribbon-like; mix in one teaspoon vanilla. Fold the dry ingredients in gently in two additions. Combine two tablespoons neutral oil with two tablespoons milk, mix in a spoonful of batter to lighten it, then fold this back through the bowl without knocking out most of the air. Spread evenly in the pan. Bake approximately ten to twelve minutes until the surface springs back lightly and the sheet is set; test actual oven time before publishing.
- Make a warm first roll. Let the baked sheet stand about two minutes, loosen edges, then turn onto the clean towel or parchment. Peel off its baking paper carefully. Starting at a short end, roll the warm cake loosely with the towel or clean parchment inside. Cool in its spiral about 45 minutes. Do not spread cold cream on a hot cake.
- Prepare filling and ganache. Whip one cup cold heavy cream with two tablespoons confectioners’ sugar and half a teaspoon vanilla to a stable soft-to-medium peak, without making it grainy. For ganache, heat three quarters cup heavy cream just until steaming, pour over eight ounces finely chopped semisweet chocolate, wait two minutes, then stir until smooth. Let it cool to a spreadable consistency; if it remains runny, wait rather than pouring it over the log.
- Fill and chill. Gently unroll the cooled sponge. Spread the whipped cream evenly, leaving roughly one inch bare at the end where the filling will be pushed as the roll closes. Re-roll without the towel, place seam down on a platter and refrigerate about 45 minutes to firm. A small surface crack can be covered by ganache, but a dry crumbling cake needs a revised bake test.
- Frost and set. Spread the cooled ganache over the chilled cake. Drag the tines of a fork lengthwise in irregular lines to suggest bark. Refrigerate about 30 minutes to set before slicing. This simple log has no additional branch, powdered-sugar snow or meringue mushrooms; add any decoration only after a separate ingredient, image and timing review.
The conservative untested total is 45 minutes active preparation, 12 minutes oven baking and 120 minutes additional time: about 2 hours 57 minutes. That additional time covers 45 minutes cooling in the first roll, 45 minutes filled-log chilling and 30 minutes for ganache to set. Ganache cooling may overlap other stages; if it does not reach spreadable consistency in that window, the actual total is longer. Ten even slices are a serving proposal, not a measured finished weight.
Keep the sponge flexible
It cracks on the first roll: the cake may have baked too long, cooled flat too much or been rolled too tightly; write down pan size and bake time for the next test. Filling escapes: leave a bare strip at the closing end and avoid overfilling the thin sponge. Ganache slides off: let it cool until spreadable and chill the filled cake before coating. Whipped cream turns grainy: stop the mixer before stiff, broken peaks. These are troubleshooting hypotheses for the proposed formula, not claims of a successful kitchen run.
The filling is deliberately just cream, sugar and vanilla, so it remains visibly pale against the cocoa spiral. Switching to buttercream or adding berries changes both roll structure and image identity. A gluten-free flour blend cannot be assumed to fold or roll like all-purpose flour. If decorating for a party, a fork-marked chocolate exterior is enough to communicate the log without non-edible props on the cake.
Serve and keep chilled
Slice with a clean knife, wiping between pieces to show the cocoa-and-cream spiral. This is a centerpiece alongside smaller sweets such as Chefly’s published soft molasses cookies; they are a separate cookie recipe, not another log cake. A mug of coffee or tea can balance the chocolate without being counted as an ingredient.
Because the filling is whipped dairy cream, keep the finished cake refrigerated and return cut pieces promptly. FDA safe-food-handling guidance advises refrigerating perishables within two hours, or one hour above 90°F. The texture after freezing this specific sponge/cream/ganache formula has not been assessed. Store it covered so the surface does not dry; label an actual production batch with its preparation date rather than claiming a tested quality lifetime.
Yule log questions
Can I use a regular layer-cake pan?
Not without reformulating. The defined sheet is baked in a 10-by-15-inch jelly-roll pan; a thicker cake may need longer baking and be harder to roll.
Why cool the cake rolled?
A warm first roll forms the spiral before the cream is added. Unroll only when completely cool to avoid melting the filling.
Should the ganache be hot when spread?
No. Stir the hot cream and chocolate together, then wait until the mixture is spreadable and no longer hot enough to melt the chilled cream filling.
Recipe-card handoff: Fourteen ingredient lines across sponge, filling and ganache, six assembly stages, about ten slices and a 177-minute untested total. No native Tasty ID, nutritional figures, ratings or tested photos exist for this proposed new page.
Print
Chocolate Yule Log Cake
- Total Time: 177 minutes
- Yield: 10 servings 1x
Description
Cocoa sponge rolled with whipped vanilla cream and coated in dark chocolate ganache.
Ingredients
- 4 eggs Large eggs, room temperature
- 3/4 cup Granulated sugar
- 1 teaspoon Vanilla extract for sponge
- 1/2 cup All-purpose flour
- 1/4 cup Unsweetened cocoa powder
- 1 teaspoon Baking powder
- 1/4 teaspoon Fine salt
- 2 tablespoons Neutral oil
- 2 tablespoons Whole milk
- 1 cup Cold heavy cream for filling
- 2 tablespoons Confectioners’ sugar
- 1/2 teaspoon Vanilla extract for filling
- 8 oz Semisweet chocolate, finely chopped
- 3/4 cup Heavy cream for ganache
Instructions
- Heat oven to 350°F; line and lightly grease 10-by-15-inch jelly-roll pan. Sift ½ cup flour, ¼ cup cocoa, 1 tsp baking powder, ¼ tsp salt.
- Beat 4 room-temperature eggs and ¾ cup sugar until pale/thick, add 1 tsp vanilla. Fold in dry mixture in two additions. Combine 2 tbsp oil and 2 tbsp whole milk with a spoonful of batter and fold back. Spread in pan and bake about 10–12 minutes until set and springy.
- Stand sheet 2 minutes, turn out onto clean towel or parchment, remove baking parchment, roll warm loosely from short end with towel inside and cool in spiral about 45 minutes.
- Whip 1 cup cold heavy cream with 2 tbsp confectioners’ sugar and ½ tsp vanilla to stable soft-medium peaks. Pour ¾ cup steaming cream over 8 oz finely chopped chocolate, stand 2 minutes, stir smooth and cool to spreadable consistency.
- Unroll cooled sponge, spread filling leaving 1-inch bare strip at closing end. Re-roll without towel seam down and chill about 45 minutes.
- Spread cool ganache over filled log, score bark lines with fork, chill about 30 minutes to set. Cut into ten slices with clean knife.
Notes
Recipe-development draft; not kitchen-tested. Timing and yield are estimates. Nutrition has not been calculated.
Additional chilling, resting or cooling time: 120 minutes, included in the total.
Untested estimate: 45 minutes active work, 10–12-minute bake, 45-minute cake cooling, 45-minute filled-log chill, 30-minute ganache set; ganache cooling can overlap but may extend total.
- Prep Time: 45 minutes
- Chilling, resting or cooling: 120 minutes
- Cook Time: 12 minutes
Nutrition
- Serving Size: One of ten slices from a rolled 10-by-15-inch sheet; finished weights pending
