Published November 24, 2023

Bûche de Noël for Christmas

Popularized by the bakers of Paris in the 1800s, Bûche de Noël is the French name for this famous log-shaped Christmas cake. And families in Portland have been incorporating Elephants’ yule log into their own holiday traditions for over three decades now.

Traditionally, the cake is a roulade of sponge cake shaped like a log, covered in bark-textured chocolate buttercream and filled with chocolate mousse, and adorned with marzipan and meringue decorations. Some are decorated with Dutch cocoa “dirt,” confectioners' sugar snow, and greenery, to depict a wintry woodsy scene that hearkens back to the medieval era when families and villages gathered on the winter solstice to burn an actual log adorned in holly, pinecones and ivy.

As the Bûche de Noël becomes more popular,  the cakes are being manufactured in factories and shaped into gutter-shaped molds. Our pastry team at Elephants still makes these cakes it the old-fashioned way, rolled as roulades and decorated by hand.

The earliest recipes for the yule log cakes date back to the 17th century, making this one of the longest-running Christmas food traditions.

In France, people line up on Christmas Eve to receive their pre-ordered cakes. But you don’t have to wait in line! Just order one online or give us a call and we’ll have it ready for you to pick up.