Yule Love This Eggnog Cake

A Feature by Sonia Pramanick and Vanshika Sharma

The holiday season has officially begun! What better way is there to start off the holidays than with a festive sweet? Eggnog has always been a staple in many homes during the holidays, and yule log cake is a very common dessert made around Christmas time. This recipe combines both eggnog and yule cake to create a moist and spongy cake with eggnog buttercream filling. Every bite will have that creamy, rich nutmeg flavor. To top off our cake, we decorated it with eggnog whipped cream, chocolate “bark”, sugared cranberries, and mint for presentation!

Ingredients

Cake:

4 tablespoons melted butter

¾ cup all-purpose flour

¼ cup cornstarch

1 teaspoon cinnamon

¼ tsp ginger

¼ teaspoon salt

6 eggs

¾ cup light brown sugar

Confectioners sugar, for dusting and rolling the cake

Buttercream Filling:

½ cup softened butter

1 8 oz. Container mascarpone cheese

¼ cup eggnog

1 tsp. Cinnamon

¼ tsp cardamom

2 cups powdered sugar, or to desired consistency

Whipped Eggnog cream:

¼ cup heavy whipping cream

¼ eggnog

Granulated sugar, to taste  

[Recipe courtesy of New York Times Cooking]

Directions:

For Cake:

Heat oven to 350 degrees. Line a 12 by 17-inch rimmed baking sheet with parchment. Butter the paper, dust with flour and tap out excess.

In a small bowl, whisk together flour, cornstarch, cinnamon, ginger, and salt.

Have a wide skillet about 1/3 full of simmering water on the stove. Using a stand mixer, whisk together eggs and brown sugar. Set the mixer bowl in the pan of simmering water. Whisk nonstop until mixture is very warm to the touch, about 2 minutes. Remove from heat.

Using the mixer, beat sugared eggs until they have more than doubled in volume and have reached room temperature, 7 to 10 minutes. Switch to a spatula and fold in flour mixture in two additions. Pour melted butter into a small bowl, scoop a big spoonful of batter over it and stir. Pour butter mixture into batter in a bowl and fold it in. Scrape batter out onto a prepared baking sheet and spread evenly with an offset spatula.

Bake until cake is golden brown, slightly springy to touch and starting to pull away from sides of the baking sheet, about 15 minutes. Transfer pan to cooling rack for no more than 5 minutes; you want to roll the cake while it’s hot.

Lay a cotton or linen kitchen towel (not terry cloth or microfiber) on counter and dust generously with confectioners’ sugar. Run a table knife around the sides of the cake and invert it onto the towel. Carefully peel away parchment. Lightly dust cake with confectioners’ sugar. Put parchment back on the cake, with the clean side against the cake. Starting at a short end, roll cake into a log; don’t worry about cracks. Let the cake fully cool before filling.

For Buttercream:

Beat softened butter with a handheld or stand mixer until white, light and fluffy. Add mascarpone cheese and beat until mixed. Slowly add in sifted powdered sugar alternating with eggnog. Once everything is combined mix in spices. If your buttercream separated or has remaining chunks of butter, continue mixing on high speed for up to 10 minutes.

For Whipped Cream:

Beat cold heavy whipping cream with a handheld mixer until stiff peaks form. Add in eggnog and continue to beat until the whipped cream comes to soft/medium peaks. Add in sugar and chill until ready to use.

To Assemble:

Unroll your cooled cake from a towel and evenly spread buttercream filling over the cake. Then, gently re-roll your cake and place it on your serving plate. If any cracks formed from rolling the cake you can fill them with leftover buttercream. Cover the rest of the cake with your whipped cream. Then finish off the cake with your decoration of choice. To make the roll look more like a fallen tree log, we covered the tops with dark chocolate bark, sugared cranberries, and some fresh mint leaves.

Final Photo: