Carrot Cake Yule Log
A Recipe For the Logs
This was fun but many things did not go as planned.
Go to recipe
Baking has always been a fun activity that has me anxiously waiting to see what happens at the end. Normally, due to my struggle with following a recipe, not only am I left wondering, “does it taste good?” but also, “did it work?”. I have been known to pour my ingredients straight into the mixing bowl, no measuring/weighing involved. That does not work great most of the time when it comes to baking. So here we are, learning to actually measure and make a cake, but of course I wanted to not just make a cake, I wanted to make it a yule log.
Carrot cake is one of my favorite cakes and with all the cinnamon, nutmeg, and ginger it’s perfect for the holiday season. First mistake, I followed a traditional carrot cake recipe, when I should have made adaptions since it is going to be rolled. This resulted in my cake being much denser than planned as I missed the step to beat the eggs for 5 minutes before adding the rest of the ingrediants. Next, true to my old habits, I did not measure the carrots or crushed pinapple. I think this lead to a little too much moisture in the cake. Still I got it into the oven and baked it, it took twice as long as it should have to fully bake (maybe due to the added moisture).
The next part was where it gets fun and for my hands dangerous. I had prepped my work station with a tea towel dusted with powdered sugar, the cake went immediately from the oven, out of its baking pan and onto the towel where I then dusted the cake with powdered sugar and began rolling. The roll had to be tight, so my hands were definately feeling the heat. Luckily I got the cake rolled quickly and my hands made it out without any burns! Next, I had to wait until the cake cooled in its rolled form so I could unroll it, fill it, and roll it again. I waited about an 2 hours and started to unroll the cake. It started out well, then it cracked, or rather split end to end in four places, and the center was still warm.
Even with the center slightly warm, I decided to try to add the filling. Upon beginning to reroll the cake I realized quickly this was a bad decision. The filling started to melt and shift the split cake. Thankfully I was able to get the whole cake rolled up and semi holding its shape. I immediately moved the cake to sit outside where it was nearly freezing out in hopes that it would stop shifting. An hour later when I went out to grab the cake I was relieved to see it was still in a recognizable form.
To help cover the multiple splits, my sisters and I decorated the cake with white chocolate shards that we made. Once covered other than the slightly flattened shape it looked like a decent yule log. Cutting into the cake proved to be difficult with all the shards, and the center filling was very melty, but it tasted great and was a hit with the rest of the family!
There are definitely some things that I will need to change on my next attempt, but for my first yule log it was a fun adventure with a delicious ending.
Carrot Cake Recipe
Ingredients
1 c. flour
1 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. salt
1 1/2 tsp. cinnamon
1/2 tsp. ground ginger
1/4 tsp nutmeg
1 c. sugar
3 eggs
1/2 c. oil
1 1/2 c.grated carrots
4 oz. crushed pinapple
1 c. plus more for dusting powdered sugar
1 bag white chocolate
Instructions
Pre-heat your oven to 350ºF and prepare a 10x15 cake pan by greasing and laying parchment paper along the bottom.
Sift together the flour, baking soda, salt, cinnoman, ginger, and nutmeg into a medium bowl.
In a large bowl, beat your eggs at a high speed until they are frothy and dark yellow (about 5 minutes). Beat in the sugar.
Stir the flour mixture into the wet until just mixed. Add in the carrots and pinapple.
Pour batter into the prepared pan and and spread to the edges (this will be a very thin layer of cake). Put into the oven and bake for about 15 minutes.
Prep your work station with a towel large enough for the cake to fit on. Dust the towel with powdered sugar.
Pull cake out of the oven and immediately flip onto the towel. Dust the top of the cake with powdered sugar. Starting at the short end of the cake flip the towel over and begin rolling it in a tight roll. Once rolled set aside and let cool (about 2 hours).
Make your filling as the cake cools. Cream together cream cheese, butter, vanilla, and powdered sugar until smooth.
Make your decorations. Melt the white chocolate and place dallops of the melted chocolate on the wax side spreading out with e pastry brush or fork to make bark peices. Places these in teh fridge to chill.
Once the cake is cool, slowly unroll and spread your filling evenlyon the whole cake. Make sure your filling goes all the way to the edges as this will be visible at the ends. Re-roll the cake making sure to keep the rolls tight.
Using remaining filling cover the top and sides. Remove your chilled white chocolate from the wax paper and place alon the sides and top of your yule log.
Take pictures then serve and enjoy!