Traditional Christmas Tables

One of the things that I found to be quite different in Sweden is food traditions around the main holidays (Christmas, Easter and Midsummer). I find it fascinating how anchored it is in most Swedes and how important it is for them. The julbord, or Christmas table, is almost a ritual. It is usually served as a buffet and you visit it three times, plus a fourth for desserts. Of course, you can go as often as you want, but each round has its own purpose: herrings and other fish, cold meat then warm meals. Dessert comes last, of course. I won’t go into more details as this is not the goal of this post.

These strong traditions eventually leads my Swedish friends and coworkers to ask me “What’s traditional in Canada/Québec” and I find myself asking the same thing. I suppose turkey is an obvious answer for most, but my mother was never found of the big bird so I only recall eating it once – the year my father was gifted one by his company as some Christmas bonus. I know there is a traditional meat pie for New Year which we call tourtière. It was served everywhere and we had left overs for a while. I think we even ate some at Christmas, so they lasted for at least a while week.

I have come to realise that I never really paid attention to the food we ate around the holidays, so to me, there is not strong tradition except this tourtière and… the “bûche de noël", or Christmas Log/Yule Log. It also occurred to me that I had never baked one before, nor had any since I moved to Sweden aside from the rare Christmas I spent back at my folk. Well, for some odd reason, they popped back into my head this year and I managed to make it three times: Once for work so I could test the recipe (my poor coworkers are blissfully unaware guinea pigs, although I have never heard them complain), once for our Christmas celebrations with the bf`s family and once for our New Year celebrations with friends. I have to say, I was quite pleased with the recipe and I will definitely try it again next year!

The Yule Log is mostly a frosted sponge cake which is rolled up like a log and frosted on the outside as well with the same frosting. That is the simple version, which is usually more than enough to be enjoyable. The sponge cake is usually chocolatey and the frosting… well, that is where it can vary a lot. Mine was chocolatey too (what a surprise!) but you can have vanilla, etc. There must be hundreds of different versions. It also seems to be a French thing as these cakes are well known not only in Québec but also in France and Belgium.

So, without further ado, I present you a picture of my Yule Log, baked with love and eagerness for the New Year, an hour or two after our car broke down on the way to the chalet we rented with some friends.

  

I tried to make it look a bit like a log with a branch. These little white things covered in chocolate are supposed to be mushroom. The reason it is called a log is because the rolled cake, when cut, makes it look like one. Some cake are much thicker but, as I mentionned, there are lots of variations.

Oh! The recipe is on the net, although it is in French. If someone might want a translation, just contact me and I oblige :)

The recipe is found here.