I always wondered why there is the tradition of eating a A Yule log or bûche de Noël (in french) at Christmas… The origin seems to not be religious … According to the Dictionary of English Folklore, although the concept of Yule comes from Germany long before Christianization to celebrate the Winter Solstice.
The cake appeared in France in 19th century, before spreading to other countries. It is a rolled genoise filled with a ganache… you can use a fork through the icing to reproduce the log texture and some powdered sugar to represent the snow.
I can suggest 2 recipes from French chefs… one from Cyril Lignac and another one from Pierre Hermé! The 2 bûches de Noel below are inspired from those 2 chefs and were realized in December 2020… one is chocolate – passion fruit and the other one is chocolate – raspberry. This was the first time for me ! but this will be certainly not the last… 🙂
Cyril Lignac recipe (in french)
ThinkerSquid 