Christmas cakes tower over other desserts

Almost every family that celebrates Christmas has traditional meals for Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. One of the most highly anticipated elements of those meals is the grand finale, dessert.

Almost every cuisine features a spectacular Christmas dessert, and in many countries, the big finish to Christmas dinner is a cake. From Eastern Europe to the American South, Christmas cakes have become a standard.

Even when the cakes are merely one part of a dessert table, they manage to tower, literally and figuratively, over the pies and plates of holiday cookies.

One of the best-known Christmas cakes is the French buche de Noel, or yule log. The creation starts with a thin cake that is rolled, jellyroll style, around a creamy filling into a log-shaped loaf. The cylinder of cake is then decorated to resemble a log, with rough, bark-textured frosting and a sprinkling of green sugar (to look like moss) or powdered sugar for a light dusting of snow.

The French cake became a tradition in the 19th century and is an integral part of Christmas dinner.

Making a yule log is relatively easy, and, unlike many French baked goods, doesn’t require any special equipment. The cake is baked in an oblong jellyroll pan or rimmed cookie sheet, and rolled up in a dish towel.

One of the classic Sicilian Christmas cakes, cassata cake, was popular as far back as the 12th century and is believed to have originated several centuries before that, when the Arab occupiers of Sicily first brought sugar to the island.

Cassata cake, sometimes called cannoli cake in the U.S., combines layers of sponge cake with a chocolate- and fruit-studded filling, all covered with a thick frosting and garnished with candy or fruit.

In Sicily, variations of cassata cake often are birthday cakes with chocolate icing, but the Christmas cake always has a white frosting.

Cassata cake, like spumoni, is a delirious mixture of candied fruit, nuts, and virtually anything colorful and sweet.

The traditional British Christmas dessert, plum pudding, is something of a misnomer: It’s really more of a spice cake and often is made without plums. Ever since Charles Dickens included plum pudding in the festivities in “A Christmas Carol,” it has become known as “Christmas pudding.”

Locally, plum pudding is associated less with Dickens and more with an annual celebration at Moody Memorial First United Methodist Church. The church begins Advent with a procession of plum puddings, and has adapted a plum pudding recipe for American cooks that gets its plum taste from puréed baby food plums.

All these Christmas cakes share several characteristics: They lend themselves to elaborate decoration but don’t actually require it, they feed a large crowd, and they convey the sweetness of gathering with family and friends.

On the Web

Get more holiday cake recipes at galvnews.com.

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Buche de Noel

4 large eggs, separated

2/3 cup sugar, divided

2 tablespoons water

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1/2 cup ground almonds

1/2 cup sifted cake flour

3 tablespoons cocoa

1/2 teaspoon cream of tartar

Dash of salt

2 to 3 tablespoons powdered sugar

Chocolate buttercream frosting

1/2 cup chopped pistachios, if desired

Grease bottom and sides of a 15-by-10-inch jellyroll pan. Line with wax paper, and grease and flour wax paper. Set aside.

Beat egg yolks in a large mixing bowl at high speed with an electric mixer 5 minutes or until thick and pale. Gradually add 1/3 cup sugar, beating well. Add water and vanilla. Fold in ground almonds. Gradually fold in cake flour and cocoa.

Beat egg whites at high speed until foamy. Add cream of tartar and salt; beat until soft peaks form. Add remaining 1/3 cup sugar, 1 tablespoon at a time, beating until stiff peaks form. Gently fold into egg yolk mixture.

Spread batter evenly into prepared pan. Bake at 375 degrees for 10 minutes or until top springs back when touched.

Sift powdered sugar in a 15-by-10-inch rectangle on a cloth towel. When cake is done, immediately loosen from sides of pan, and turn out onto sugared towel. Peel off wax paper.

Starting at narrow end, roll up cake and towel together; cool completely on a wire rack, seam side down.

Unroll cake, and remove towel.

Spread cake with half of the chocolate buttercream; carefully reroll. Cover and chill.

Cut a 1-inch-thick diagonal slice from one end of cake roll.

Place cake roll on a serving plate, seam side down; position cut piece against side of cake roll to resemble a knot.

Spread remaining chocolate buttercream over cake.

Score frosting with the tines of a fork or a cake comb to resemble tree bark.

Garnish with pistachios, meringue mushrooms, or candy leaves.

Store cake in refrigerator.

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Chocolate buttercream

1/2 cup solid vegetable shortening

1/2 cup (1 stick) butter or margarine, softened

3/4 cup cocoa or three 1-ounce unsweetened chocolate squares, melted

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

4 cups confectioners’ sugar, sifted

3-4 tablespoons milk

Light corn syrup, optional

Cream shortening and butter with electric mixer. Add cocoa and vanilla.

Gradually add sugar, one cup at a time, beating well on medium speed.

Scrape sides and bottom of bowl often.

When all sugar has been mixed in, icing will appear dry. Add milk and beat at medium speed until light and fluffy.

Add 3 to 4 tablespoons light corn syrup per recipe to thin icing if desired.

Keep icing covered with a damp cloth until ready to use.

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Cassata cake

Cake

1 1/2 cups cake flour

1/2 teaspoon baking powder

1/4 teaspoon salt

5 eggs

1/2 cup cold water

1 1/4 cups white sugar

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1/2 teaspoon cream of tartar



Filling

2 pounds whole milk ricotta cheese

2 1/4 cups confectioners’ sugar

1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract

2 (1 ounce) squares semisweet chocolate

1/2 cup candied lemon peel

Syrup

1/3 cup white sugar

1/4 cup water

2 tablespoons light rum

Frosting

1 (8 ounce) package reduced-fat cream cheese, softened

1/2 cup white sugar

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1/2 teaspoon almond extract

2 cups heavy cream

Preheat the oven to 325 degrees. Grease and line with parchment paper two 9-inch round layer pans.

Sift the flour, baking powder and salt together.

Separate the eggs and set the egg whites aside. Beat the egg yolks together on medium-high speed until very thick, about 4 minutes.

Gradually add the cold water. Add 1 1/4 cups of the white sugar, slowly, and beat well for about 3 more minutes.

Add 1 teaspoon of the vanilla.

Sift the flour mixture over the egg yolk mixture and fold in.

Beat the egg whites and cream of tartar together until stiff peaks form.

Fold this into the yolk mixture.

Divide batter between the pans.

Bake for 25 minutes. Cool on rack for 10 minutes, then invert and cool completely.

While cake is baking, mix syrup ingredients.

To make ricotta cheese filling, beat the ricotta cheese well and add the confectioner’s sugar and cinnamon.

Add 1 1/2 teaspoons of the vanilla and grate 2 ounces of the chocolate in using the coarse side of a grater.

Stir in the candied lemon peel and mix.

Chill until ready to use.

Cut each cake layer in half. Place one of the four halves on a cake board or plate and sprinkle with a little of the rum syrup.

Spread about 1 1/2 cups of the filling over this layer.

Add a second layer of cake and repeat this procedure.

Top the cake with the last layer of cake.

Chill cake while making frosting.

To make the frosting, combine the cream cheese, sugar, vanilla extract and almond extract in a large mixing bowl or the bowl of a stand mixer.

Fit the mixer with the whisk attachment and mix on medium speed until smooth.

While the mixture is still whipping, slowly pour in the heavy cream.

Stop and scrape the bottom of the bowl a couple of times while you continue whipping until the cream can hold a stiff peak.

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Plum pudding

2 cups of sugar

2 cups of self-rising flour

3 eggs

1 cup of corn oil

1 teaspoon cinnamon

1 teaspoon ground cloves

2 small jars of plum baby food

1 cup of broken pecans

Preheat oven to 350 degrees and grease a Bundt pan or tube pan.

Mix together in a large bowl the oil, eggs and sugar.

Add the flour, the spices and then the baby food. Stir well to blend. Do not overstir.

Add the nuts to the batter last.

Bake in the moderate oven for one hour.

Cool the plum pudding in the pan on a bakers rack for about 15 minutes, then turn the pudding out of the pan and cool completely on the rack.

Pudding can be iced or decorated or served with warm lemon sauce.