Lesson 15: Traditional Christmas Log Cake

Even though it is not christmas yet, our menu today is to make the traditional christmas log cake. This is also part of the meringue lessons that we have been doing for the past few practicals. Again, we are using the meringue sponge. This meringue has very little sugar and more egg white, so we had to be very careful not to over-beat the egg white as less sugar makes the meringue less stable.

The log cake basically consists of sponge being rolled up like a swiss roll with pastry cream in between (coffee pastry cream this time). The sponge is called viennese biscuits. I totally love it! And then we decorate the log cake with butter cream! We also moisten the sponge cake with imbibing syrup which is sugar syrup with rum. I think this does make a lot of difference (although it is just sugar syrup) as it keeps the cake moist and yummy!

This is definitely my favorite cake to date! Love how the sponge is so moist and not too sweet, and the butter cream (when cold) is really nice! However, Chef's comment on my butter cream was that it was in the brink of splitting, so I had to be careful to whisk the cream more or cool it down a bit more next time.

Chef Geraldine's Log Cake with real santa!

Li Lian's log cake with mushrooms and christmas tree!