Buche De Noel

Buche De Noel, often mistakenly called a Swiss Roll, is a French cake made around the Christmas holidays and is decorated to look like a log, complete with mushrooms and berries.
In the recipe below, the log is garnished with pretzel-truffle mushrooms, sugared cranberries, and bright orange peels. While more time-consuming than a Swiss Roll, Buche De Noel is much more decorative and sure to draw more than a few “wow”s from friends and family.
Plus, this recipe is easy to make gluten-free or organic with our Organic Pasture-Raised eggs! You can also use our duck eggs to make a fluffier, higher cake, and creamier filling either by using a one-to-one ratio or two-to-one ratio. (Your choice!)

Buche De Noel
Equipment
- 1 Jelly Roll Pan
- 1 Mixer
Ingredients
Cake:
- 5 Large Eggs
- 1/2 cup + 2 Tbsp Sugar
- 1/2 Tbsp Vanilla
- 1 Cup Cake Flour
- 1/2 Cup Cocoa
- 1 1/2 Tsp Baking Powder
- 1/2 Tsp Salt
- 1/3 Cup Unsalted Butter – Melted
- 1/2 Cup Milk – Room Temperature
Filling:
- 5 Egg Whites
- 1 1/2 Cup Sugar
- 2 Cups Unsalted Butter – Room Temperature
- 1/2 Tbsp Vanilla Extract
- 1 Tsp Salt
Ganache Frosting:
- 1 Cup Semi-sweet Chocolate Chips
- 1/2 Cup Heavy Cream
Garnish:
- Powdered Sugar
- Orange Peels (Optional)
- Sugared Cranberries (Optional)
Mushrooms: (Optional)
- 4 Lindt Chocolate Truffles
- 4 Butter Pretzel Twists
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350° F. Line 11×17 jelly roll pan with parchment.
Cake:
- In large mixing bowl beat the eggs with whisk attachment until thick and pale in color.
- Add in the sugar and vanilla, mix until well combined and mixture leaves a trail in the bowl.
- In a medium bowl, sift the flour, cocoa, salt, and baking powder. Fold dry ingredients into the batter. Batter will start out streaky, continue folding until mixture is completely combined.
- Mix the melted butter and milk in a bowl.
- With mixer on low, slowly add the butter and milk mixture to the cake batter. Mix until just combined.
- Pour batter (batter is pourable) into prepared pan and spread with spatula so batter is evenly spread corner to corner.
- Bake until center of the cake springs back when gently pushed on – about 10 – 12 minutes.
- Let cake cool for 5 minutes. Loosen the edges of the cake by gently lifting up on the parchment at the corners.
- Using the parchment under the cake, start rolling the cake up. Roll up from the long side, not the short side. This will give enough length to cut a side branch and top branch.
- Place rolled up cake, seam side down, onto a cooling rack and cool completely, about 60-90 minutes. (Do NOT cool overnight or cake will be too stiff and will break when you try to unroll it.)
Filling:
- Place egg whites and sugar in a medium saucepan. Whisk on low until warm and sugar has dissolved. This can be tested by rubbing a bit of egg white mixture between your fingers, if it is smooth with no sugar granuals, it is ready.
- Let cool to room temperature.
- Once egg white mixture is at room temperature pour into mixing bowl fitted with a whisk attachment. Whisk until stiff peaks form.
- On low speed, add in the butter, one stick at a time. Move mixer speed up to med-high and mix until buttercream forms. This may take a few minutes. It may look curdled for a minute, just keep mixing.
- Once buttercream is formed, add in the vanilla and mix to combine.
Ganache Frosting:
- Place chocolate and heavy cream in a small saucepan.
- Heat on low until mixture begins to melt. Once heavy cream is hot (but not boiling) remove from heat and stir with spatula.
- Stir in small circular motions, as ganache begins to form expand your stirring circles to the outer edge of the pan. Stir until completely combined and ganache is formed.
Mushrooms:
- For the stems, break pretzels into two pieces each.
- With sharp pairing knife, warm the blade under hot water and wipe dry. In a gentle sawing motion, cut the truffles in half.
- The center of the Lindt truffle is soft ganache, so push the pretzel into the ganache to form the stem.
- Set aside. Repeat with remaining mushrooms.
Assembly:
- Unroll cake. Spread filling onto the cake. Leave a 1/2 inch border on the outer edges as filling will be pressed to the edges as the cake is rolled back up.
- Roll cake back up without the parchment paper. Make sure it is set seam side down. Chill completely, about 2 hours minimum.
- Once cake is chilled, place rolled cake unto platter. Cut one inch off each end of the rolled cake to give a clean look to each end.
- Cut a 4" piece at a 45° angle and position the angled edge against the side of the cake log to make a side branch. If there is a gap between the two rolls, fill with left over buttercream filling.
- Cut off the pointed edge, cut back about 2 inches and place this piece on top of the large cake roll to be your top branch.
- Pour warm (not hot) ganache over the log and spread into place with off-set spatula. To coat the top branch, put ganache on spatula and spread in upward swipes until covered.
- Refridgerate 45 minutes to set the ganache.
- Arrange mushrooms around the Buche De Noel.
- Sprinkle with powdered sugar to make it look like snow.
- Arrange sugared cranberries and orange peels around the cake as desired.
- Serve at room temperature.
- Store in an airtight container or wrap in plastic wrap. Refridgerate.
NOTES:
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