Vegan Yule Log
30 Nov 2022
A Yule Log, also known as a Bûche De Noël, is a Christmas favourite. Chocolate sponge rolled up and filled with a vanilla plant based buttercream, coated in yet more chocolate; it’s a rich, decadent dessert that everyone should have on their Christmas table.
A Vegan Yule Log is no different. Instead of using butter and milk it’s made with vegan alternatives. Eggs are replaced with bicarbonate soda to give the sponge a little lift. With just a few substitutes any one following a plant based diet can enjoy this classic festive dessert.
To make the Yule Log you’ll also need a special swiss roll pan. Flexible silicone pans are the easiest to work with. The benefit of silicone pans if you don’t need to grease them or use any baking paper to line them. The cake comes out so easily, which is important when you’re working with a thin, delicate sponge as you are in this recipe.
To decorate, use a star tip to get texture similar to the grain of wood. A dusting of icing sugar makes it look like it has been out in the snow! Does it get more festive than that?
Ingredients
For the sponge:
- 200g plain flour
- 5og chocolate powder
- 100g caster sugar
- 1 tbsp bicarbonate soda
- 200ml plant milk
- 50ml vegetable oil
For the filling:
- 100g vegan butter (dairy free butter alternative)
- 200g icing sugar
- 1 tsp vanilla paste
For the icing:
- 200g vegan butter (dairy free butter alternative)
- 400g icing sugar
- 2 tbsp plant milk
- 100g dark chocolate
Method
1
Preheat the oven to 180C/356F/gas 4.
2
Sieve the flour, caster sugar, cocoa powder and bicarbonate soda into a large mixing bowl.
3
Pour in the plant milk and oil and whisk until you have a smooth batter.
4
Pour the batter into the baking tray. Use a spatula to spread the batter evenly across the tray and into the corners.
5
Place the tray into the middle of the oven and bake for 8 minutes.
6
Once baked, turn out onto a piece of baking paper and roll the cake carefully to avoid cracking the sponge.
7
Leave the sponge to cool while you make the filling.
8
Beat the vegan butter and icing sugar together with the vanilla paste until smooth and pale.
9
Unroll the sponge then spread with the filling.
10
Roll the sponge back up, using the baking paper to make sure it’s rolled nice and tight.
11
Once rolled up, place in the fridge to firm up while you make the chocolate coating to decorate.
12
In a mixing bowl beat together the vegan butter and icing sugar.
13
Melt the dark chocolate in the microwave or using the bain marie method.
14
Pour the melted chocolate into the plant based buttercream and beat again.
15
Add the chocolate plant based buttercream into a piping bag with a star tip.
16
Remove the yule log from the fridge and cut so that you have one piece roughly 2/3rd of the length of the roll and one piece that is roughly 1/3rd of the length of the roll.
17
Trim the 1/3rd piece of the roll at a diagonal angle and place this alongside the longer piece of the roll to make a Y shape.
18
Pipe the yule log all over with the chocolate plant based buttercream.
19
Dust with icing sugar and serve.
Top tip
The tricky part of making a Vegan Yule log is rolling the sponge into a tight spiral. But with this recipe you’ll have no trouble at all. (And worse case scenario, some chocolate icing can hide the cracks! No one will ever know…)
Once you’ve turned the cake out onto a piece of baking paper you need to tightly roll the sponge while it is still warm. Rolling the cake while still warm makes sure it’s flexible enough to roll without cracking. You then leave it to cool while rolled up. Once it’s cooled you unroll, fill and then roll up again. It’s quite a few steps but the finished spiral of chocolate sponge is worth it.