Nutella Yule Log

There’s nothing more heart-warming then joining my kids around the kitchen to make a holiday dessert. And then as you’re whipping Nutella into heavy cream discussing what you’d do in the event of a zombie apocalypse. At least that’s where the conversation turned as my teen was helping me put together this yule log (there’s a Norman Rockwell painting in there somewhere, I think). Meanwhile, I was doing extensive testing to make sure the whip cream tasted just right. It’s a tough job, but it’s not one that can be left for the undead.

Recipe

Prep time: 30 minutes + lots of time for assembly

Servings: 12

Ingredients:

Cake

The fun part: time to flip!

4 eggs (room temperature)

1/2 cup vegetable oil

3/4 sugar

1/2 tsp. salt

1 tsp. vanilla

1 cup flour

1/4 cocoa powder

1/2 tsp. baking powder

1 tsp. dark cocoa powder (opt. I use black onyx powder, you can use Espresso)

Filling

2 cups heavy cream (oh yeah!)

1/2 cup Nutella

touch of salt

Directions:

Adding Nutella spiked cream

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
2. Line a jelly roll pan with parchment paper and spray lightly with cooking oil.
3. Beat together the eggs, oil, and sugar until its a pale yellow color.
4. In a separate bowl, sift together the dry cake ingredients.
5. Carefully fold the dry ingredients into the egg mixture just until combined.
6. Pour the batter into the prepared pan and bake for 11 minutes or until the cake springs back from the edges of the pan.
7. Let the cake cool in the pan for 2 minutes.
8. Meanwhile liberally dust a clean kitchen cloth with powdered sugar and prepare for flipping.
9. In my experience, this is a two person job: Flip the cake batter onto the powdered sugar cloth. Roll the cake in the cloth short end to short end.
10. Leave the cake rolled while you prepare the filling.
11. Making the filling (and get ready for your kids to fight over who gets to lick the spatula)
12. On high speed, whip the cream until it just begins to thicken.
13. Add the Nutella and continue whipping just until stiff. (I add a pinch of salt).
14. Assembling the yule log:
15. Slowly unfold the cake in the cloth and gently remove the parchment paper. (I couldn’t find anything in the original recipe about when to take off the parchment paper so I just kept it on.)
16. Use the spatula to smear the whipped Nutella cream on the unrolled cake being careful not to go all the way to one of the short ends.
17. Start rolling the cake from short end to short end working toward the non-filled end. The cream will squish toward the non-filled end. (I also find this is a two person job.)
18. Wrap the roll in parchment and then aluminum foil.
19. Freeze for at least 2 hours, preferably overnight.
20. Slice and serve.

Inspired by the King Arthur Flour recipe for chocolate and peppermint yule log.