Vegan Yule Log (Bûche de Noël)
This vegan Yule log cake is the most fantastic dessert for your Christmas guests! It's dairy free and egg free, and can be made with a simple vegan sponge cake and a chocolate ganache filling. You can get creative and decorate your chocolate log to your liking with chocolate bark, sprinkles, icing sugar and Co - it's so much fun to put together and the perfect festive dessert for chocolate lovers.
Equipment
- 1 large mixing bowl
- 1 medium bowl
- 1 bain marie double boiler to melt chocolate
- 1 electric whisk
- 1 large sieve
- parchment paper
- 1 Swiss roll tin
- 1 baking tray
- 1 cooling rack
- 1 piping bag with star nozzle
Ingredients
For the vegan sponge cake:
- ¾ cups all purpose (180 g) plain flour
- 2 tablespoon almond flour
- ⅓ cup caster sugar (90 g)
- 1 pinch salt
- 1 teaspoon baking soda bicarbonate of soda
- ⅓ cup vegan chocolate (80 g, 2.8 oz) melted
- ⅓ cup aquafaba (85 ml) chickpea brine, unsalted
- ¼ cups plant milk (60 ml)
- 2 tablespoon espresso (30 ml)
- 3 tablespoon vegetable oil (45 ml)
For the chocolate ganache filling:
- ⅔ cup vegan chocolate (160 g, 5.6 oz) melted
- ⅓ cup vegan whipping cream + 1 tablespoon (100 ml) I used vegan Elmlea double cream
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- ¼ cup confectioner's sugar (50 g) icing/powdered sugar
For the coating:
- ½ cup vegan chocolate (120 g) melted
- ¼ cup plant milk (60 ml)
- extra chocolate for the bark 100-200 g (3.5 oz - 7 oz)
Instructions
Create the chocolate sponge cake:
- Sift the flour, almond flour, salt and baking soda into a large mixing bowl. These are your dry ingredients.
- Melt the chocolate over a double boiler or in the microwave, then mix in a medium bowl with the aquafaba, plant milk, espresso and vegetable oil. These are your wet ingredients.
- Whisk the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients and pour the mix into the Swiss roll tin. If - like me - you're using a silicone Swiss roll tray, make sure to make it onto a firm baking tray first. Spread out evenly using a pallet knife or spatula.
- Bake in the middle of the oven for 8-9 minutes and remove from the heat once the edges begin to brown slightly. Transfer the cake to a cooling rack and whilst it's still warm, try to roll it in a clean tea towel so it can cool down in the log shape. This will help avoid cracks in the cake when rolling later on.
Prepare chocolate cream filling
- Whilst the cake cools down, prepare the vegan chocolate ganache filling. Melt the chocolate, then use a spatula to combine it with vegan cream and vanilla extract.
- Sift in the confectioner's sugar and place it in the fridge for 2 minutes.
- Use an electric whisk to to mix for 5-7 minutes or until soft, airy and lighter in color.
Filling & rolling the yule log
- Move the unrolled sponge cake onto a parchment paper and spread the ganache evenly on top of the sponge cake.
- Lifting the parchment paper, carefully and gently begin to roll up your yule log. Be as gentle as you can whilst rolling it firmly. Once rolled up all the way, wrap the log firmly in the parchment paper and place it in the fridge for at least 30 minutes to set.
Coating & decorating
- Melt the rest of the chocolate and mix it with plant milk until smooth.
- Transfer the mix to a piping bag and pipe it onto the log to evenly coat it. Press your chocolate bark onto the coating before it sets and decorate the yule log to your liking with vegan sprinkles and Co.
- To finish off, dust the entire log with icing sugar (optional).
Notes
- Serve - to serve, simply slice the yule log into portions using a sharp knife and serve on its own or with a little vegan whipped cream on the side.
- Swiss roll tin - I like to use a silicone mat as it's so much easier to remove the cake without cracking. Alternatively, you could use a lined sheet pan.
- Decoration - you can decorate the yule log with chocolate ganache or add chocolate bark, like me, to give your yule log an awesome wooden look. In addition, you can decorate with festive sprinkles, edible holly leaves and dust the entire log with icing sugar to make it look like it's in a Winter wonderland. Find out how to easily make your own chocolate bark in the blog post above (with step-by-step photos)
- Storage - Store your chocolate log in the fridge for up to 3 days or freeze it in an airtight container for up to 3 months.
- Almond flour - I love adding a little almond flour to the cake batter, it gives it a subtle nutty note! If can replace it with the same amount of coconut or hazelnut flour or simply use all purpose flour.
- Vegan cream - instead of a heavy cream replacement, you can also use coconut cream.
- Sugar - you can replace the sugar with maple syrup or agave nectar by volume (⅓ cup in this case) and add 1 extra tablespoon of flour to the batter to balance the extra liquid.
- Vegan Chocolate - for a perfect chocolate flavor, I recommend using vegan chocolate in the sponge cake but if you have run out, you can replace it with a mix of cocoa powder, sugar and vegetable shortening. Refer to this conversion for the amounts.
- Espresso - you can simply leave it out or replace it with equal amounts of plant milk.
- Vegetable oil - replace with melted vegan butter or coconut oil.
- White chocolate - this recipe works just as well with vegan white chocolate, so why not give it a go!
- Coffee Liqueur is a delicious addition to the chocolate ganache filling if you love coffee flavor and a little booze in your Christmas dessert. Add a shot of the coffee liqueur at the end of the whipping process to mix it into the ganache.