Yule Log Cake Recipe - Buche de Noel

A Buche de Noel yule log cake that is both low carb and gluten free. So delicious, holiday guests will never know it's a sugar free low carb dessert!

As I have been too busy the last few weeks to develop many recipes, I thought it would be nice to share a new recipe from one of my low carb blogger friends. Please join me in welcoming Elviira of Low Carb So Simple! Let's see how she created a gorgeous low carb Buche de Noel Yule Loge Cake for the holiday without cracking the cake roll.

French and French-Canadian people can hardly enjoy their Christmas without Buche de Noel, which is also called Yule Log in English. This traditional dessert is not only decorative, but it’s also very delicious. Buche de Noel is like a frosted cake roll.

The original recipe was developed during the 19^th century. As with all traditional recipes, there are many variations of this special delicacy, the most common one is with yellow sponge cake and chocolate buttercream.

During my 10+ years of low-carbing, I really haven’t seen any recipes for a low-carb version of Buche de Noel. It has always intrigued me how easy – or difficult – it would be to develop a low-carb version of Buche de Noel.

The cake roll part is the most challenging part: getting soft, yet firm enough cake that you can roll without cracking it.

After some trial and error, I ended up with a surprisingly simple recipe for chocolate cake. Psyllium guarantees the flexibility of the cake, so that it doesn’t crack and break when you roll it. Separated eggs give volume and add softness to the cake. Coconut flour ensures you get the firm, cakelike texture.

For the filling, I’ve chosen a palatable mixture of instant (caffeine-free) coffee, whipped cream and mascarpone. The filling is like a mousse, and mascarpone gives it even more creaminess and stiffness. The filling is very simple but tasty, and with its mild coffee flavor, it complements the chocolate very well.

Instead of coffee granules, you can use ½ cup (120 ml) any sugar-free jam of your choice if you can stand the carbs. I made a version with sugar-free apricot jam, but since the jam is quite high in carbs, even though it’s sugar-free, I ended up using coffee granules, which are practically carb-free.

You can naturally use fresh berries, like fresh raspberries or strawberries, if you can find some at this time of the year. Also, cranberries are low in carbs and perfect for the holiday season.

If you can’t find mascarpone, you can replace it with full-fat cream cheese or just double the amount of whipped cream. In any case, I really recommend mascarpone: it’s unbelievably rich and creamy, neutral tasting and makes a perfect mousse-like filling with whipped cream.

Moreover, the frosting uses cream cheese, so using cream cheese in the filling might be too repetitive, unless you are a real fan of cream cheese that is!

Because the dessert is quite heavy with all that cream and chocolate, I wanted to add some fruitiness to the frosting. In the end, the frosting is a delicious combination of chocolate and orange.

Orange gives fresh taste and goes perfectly with the creamy coffee-flavored filling. In my opinion, the taste resembles Café con Chocolate y Naranja. Orange itself is quite high in carbs, which is why I have used orange essential oil and freshly grated orange peel. Both give extremely elegant and complex orange flavors, practically without carbs.

This recipe is far more complex than I usually tend to create. Even though I prefer simple, healthy food that is quick to make, it’s sometimes nice to challenge myself with a complicated classic masterpiece and how it can be made low-carb.

Since I post only very simple low-carb recipes to my blog, I thought this wonderful dessert would be a perfect guest post for my friend, Lisa. I admire her fantastic blog and the tasty recipes she makes.

Elviira is a former music scientist and computational linguist who is nowadays developing simple and healthy recipes with organic and natural ingredients and writing about ketogenic diet.

She has been studying nutrition, different diets and cooking for a few decades. On her journey from a strict raw vegan to a conscious omnivore, she has collected an extensive collection of hundreds of diet books and cookbooks, still relentlessly digging into new studies and old traditions.

Healing herself with gluten-free, sugar-free low-carb food, she is nowadays completely healthy and full of energy, developing and sharing simple and healthful recipes with mouthwatering photos on her blog Low-Carb, So Simple and sharing information how to naturally relieve anxiety on her new Curb Anxiety blog.

She hopes to help other people heal themselves and live healthy lives, full of energy and happiness. The Facebook page for the Low-Carb, So Simple blog has currently close to 440,000 followers and the blog thousands of daily visitors.

I'm sure that you will agree Elviira's recipes are amazing. She works really hard to ensure all the recipes are simple and easy to make. All of them have five ingredients or less!

Elviira chose to share her Buche de Noel Yule Log Cake at Low Carb Yum since the recipe is too complicated to post on her own blog. It looks so delicious, as does all of her Low Carb So Simple recipes!

Low Carb Buche de Noel Yule Log Cake

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Recipe

Buche de Noel - Yule Log Cake

5 from 6 votes

A Buche de Noel yule log cake that is both low carb and gluten free. So delicious, holiday guests will never know it’s a sugar free low carb dessert!

Prep Time:30 minutes mins

Cook Time:10 minutes mins

Total Time:40 minutes mins

Course: Dessert

Cuisine: French

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Servings: 16 people

Calories: 293

Ingredients

Cake:

• ▢ ½ cup coconut flour 120 ml
• ▢ 1 tablespoon psyllium husk powder
• ▢ 2 tablespoons dark cocoa powder
• ▢ 2 teaspoons baking powder
• ▢ 6 organic free-range eggs separated
• ▢ 3 organic free-range eggs whole
• ▢ ¼ cup heavy cream 60 ml
• ▢ ⅔ cup Sukrin:1 160 ml

Filling:

• ▢ ½ cup heavy cream 120 ml
• ▢ 1 packet caffeine-free instant coffee
• ▢ 8.8 oz tub mascarpone cheese 250 g
• ▢ ⅓ cup Sukrin Melis 80 ml

Frosting:

• ▢ 6 oz dark chocolate 170 g, at least 85% cocoa
• ▢ 8 oz full-fat cream cheese 230 g, softened
• ▢ 4 oz grass-fed butter 115 g, softened
• ▢ ½ cup Sukrin Melis 120 ml
• ▢ 3 drops orange essential oil
• ▢ 2 teaspoons orange peel from organic orange freshly grated

US Customary - Metric

Instructions

• Preheat the oven to 375 °F (175 °C).
• Line a baking sheet or jelly roll pan with parchment paper.
• Combine the coconut flour, psyllium husk powder, cocoa powder and the baking powder in a small bowl. Mix well until there are no lumps. You can also sift the mixture.
• Beat the egg whites until stiff peaks form. Set aside.
• Combine the egg yolks, whole eggs, cream and the Sukrin in a large bowl. Beat with an electric mixer until smooth.
• Add the coconut flour mixture and beat until smooth.
• Fold in the egg whites and stir carefully until smooth.
• Spread the batter on the baking sheet or the jelly roll pan lined with parchment paper into a ½-inch (1.2 cm) thick rectangular-shaped layer.
• Bake in the preheated oven for 10 minutes, or until just done. Don’t overbake, otherwise the cake will crack when you roll it.
• Remove the cake from the oven. Cover the cake with parchment paper and place a wet tea towel on it.
• Place another baking sheet over the wet towel. Invert the baking sheets, holding them well together as you turn them.
• Remove the topmost baking sheet and carefully peel away the parchment paper. Gently place the parchment paper again on the cake. Cover with the wet tea towel. Allow to cool completely. While cooling, prepare the filling.
• Prepare the filling: Add the coffee granules to the heavy cream. Whip the cream and coffee mixture until stiff peaks form. Set aside.
• Place the mascarpone and the Sukrin Melis in a medium bowl. Beat with an electric mixer until fluffy.
• Fold in the coffee-flavored whipped cream and mix gently with a rubber spatula, until smooth.
• Spread the filling evenly on the cooled cake. Leave ½ inch (1.2 cm) from the edges without filling.
• Carefully roll the cake into a tight cylinder with help of parchment paper. Wrap tightly in tea towel. Refrigerate for 2 hours.
• Prepare the frosting: Melt the chocolate in a microwave oven or in water bath. Add the orange peel, mix well and let cool down so that the chocolate is lukewarm.
• Place the cream cheese, butter, orange essential oil and the Sukrin Melis in a medium bowl. Beat with electric mixer until smooth and fluffy.
• Pour in the melted chocolate mixture and mix with a rubber spatula until smooth.
• Remove the cake roll from the parchment paper. Frost with the chocolate frosting. If the frosting is too stiff, heat it in the microwave oven for a few seconds.
• After frosting the cake, streak the surface with a fork or rubber spatula to resemble bark. You can cut off the ends and place them on the cake roll as protruding stumps. Add other decorations if you wish.
• Serve, and store the leftovers in the fridge. The Low-Carb Buche de Noel tastes best on the next day.

Low Carb Sweeteners | Keto Sweetener Conversion Chart

Nutrition

Serving: 1slice | Calories: 293 | Carbohydrates: 9g | Protein: 7g | Fat: 26g | Saturated Fat: 16g | Polyunsaturated Fat: 1g | Monounsaturated Fat: 3g | Cholesterol: 140mg | Sodium: 161mg | Potassium: 170mg | Fiber: 3g | Sugar: 4g | Vitamin A: 600IU | Vitamin C: 2.5mg | Calcium: 30mg | Iron: 1.6mg

Additional Info

Net Carbs: 6 g | % Carbs: 8.4 % | % Protein: 9.8 % | % Fat: 81.8 % | SmartPoints: 13

Values

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    [serving_size] => 1
    [calories] => 293
    [carbohydrates] => 9
    [protein] => 7
    [fat] => 26
    [saturated_fat] => 16
    [polyunsaturated_fat] => 1
    [monounsaturated_fat] => 3
    [cholesterol] => 140
    [sodium] => 161
    [potassium] => 170
    [fiber] => 3
    [sugar] => 4
    [vitamin_a] => 600
    [vitamin_c] => 2.5
    [calcium] => 30
    [iron] => 1.6
    [serving_unit] => slice
)

Notes on Nutritional Information

Nutritional information for the recipe is provided as a courtesy and is approximate only. We cannot guarantee the accuracy of the nutritional information given for any recipe on this site. Erythritol carbs are not included in carb counts as it has been shown not to impact blood sugar. Net carbs are the total carbs minus fiber.

Copyright

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