Vegan yule log

Vegan chocolate yule log on a Christmas background

A Yule Log, also known as a Bûche De Noël, is a Christmas favourite. Chocolate sponge rolled up and filled with a vanilla plant based buttercream, coated in yet more chocolate; it’s a rich, decadent dessert that everyone should have on their Christmas table.

Instead of using butter and milk, this vegan yule log uses bicarbonate soda to give the sponge a little lift. With just a few substitutes any one following a plant based diet can enjoy this classic festive dessert!

Vegan

Easy

Prep time: 45 mins

Cook time: 8 mins

Total time: 53 mins

Ingredients

For the sponge:

200g plain flour
5og chocolate powder
100g caster sugar
1 tbsp bicarbonate soda
200ml plant milk
50ml vegetable oil

For the filling:

100g vegan butter (dairy free butter alternative)
200g icing sugar
1 tsp vanilla paste

For the icing:

200g vegan butter (dairy free butter alternative)
400g icing sugar
2 tbsp plant milk
100g dark chocolate

Preheat the oven to 180C/356F/gas 4.
Sieve the flour, caster sugar, cocoa powder and bicarbonate soda into a large mixing bowl.
Pour in the plant milk and oil and whisk until you have a smooth batter.
Pour the batter into the baking tray. Use a spatula to spread the batter evenly across the tray and into the corners.
Unroll the sponge then spread with the filling.
Roll the sponge back up, using the baking paper to make sure it’s rolled nice and tight. Unroll the sponge then spread with the filling.
Roll the sponge back up, using the baking paper to make sure it’s rolled nice and tight.
In a mixing bowl, beat together the vegan butter and icing sugar.
Melt the dark chocolate in the microwave or using the bain marie method.
Pour the melted chocolate into the plant based buttercream and beat again.
Add the chocolate plant based buttercream into a piping bag with a star tip.
Remove the yule log from the fridge and cut so that you have one piece roughly 2/3rd of the length of the roll and one piece that is roughly 1/3rd of the length of the roll.
Dust with icing sugar and serve.

TOP TIP:

The tricky part of making a Vegan Yule log is rolling the sponge into a tight spiral. But with this recipe you’ll have no trouble at all. (And worse case scenario, some chocolate icing can hide the cracks! No one will ever know…)

Once you’ve turned the cake out onto a piece of baking paper you need to tightly roll the sponge while it is still warm. Rolling the cake while still warm makes sure it’s flexible enough to roll without cracking. You then leave it to cool while rolled up. Once it’s cooled you unroll, fill and then roll up again. It’s quite a few steps but the finished spiral of chocolate sponge is worth it.