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Yodel Bûche de Noël

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Yodel Bûche de NoëlJudy Moy

A traditional bûche de Noël is a French Christmas specialty made from a thin sponge cake that's iced, rolled up, and decorated to look like a Yule log. Here, we've created a simpler single-serving version that makes a great project with kids. Yodel snack cakes stand in for the rolled-up sponge cakes, and the fun comes from decorating them with frosting, candies, and anything else you wish.

Recipe information

  • Yield

    Makes 1 bûche de Noël, serving 1

Ingredients

2 Yodel snack cakes
1/4 cup purchased or homemade chocolate frosting
Assorted decorations such as cloth leaves (available at floral shops and craft stores), chopped maraschino cherries, Red Hots, M&M's and other candies, colored sugars, shredded coconut, confectioner's sugar, and cocoa powder

Special Equipment

Toothpicks, small offset spatula or butter knife

Preparation

  1. Step 1

    Place Yodels in freezer 5 minutes to firm up chocolate coating, then peel off and discard (or eat!) coating.

    Step 2

    Using small sharp knife, cut thin slice off each end of Yodels. Cut 1 Yodel in half crosswise on angle and discard (or eat!) 1 half.

    Step 3

    Using toothpick, attach other half of cut Yodel to whole Yodel to form "branch." Using small offset spatula or butter knife, cover Yodels with frosting, drawing spatula in long strokes down length of "log" to give appearance of bark and leaving ends of "logs" uncovered to show spiral pattern. Once branch is secured with frosting, gently remove toothpick.

    Step 4

    Decorate as desired with leaves, chopped cherries or red candies for berries, brown candies and/or cocoa powder for earth, and shredded coconut or confectioner's sugar for snow.

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