Yule Log

Here it is another late night again.  It seems I'm always staying up a little later for one of my children or the other.  Tonight, though, it was Drama Queen.  Where she works evenings now, all her projects get started a little later.  It seems she needed a treat to take with for a Christmas potluck tomorrow, but where I would have made a plate of cookies and call it done, she had to go be an over-achiever.  I walked into the kitchen just a few minutes ago to find her putting the finishing touches on this fancy jelly roll. 

She called it a Yule Log, and of course she knew the whole story that went with it.  In France, it seems, it's an old tradition that on Christmas night or the winter solstice, the wealthiest man in the village would bring out a log that everyone would then make a wish on.  As the night came on, they would start a big bonfire with the Yule Log in the center, and as long as the fire burned all the way until morning, then everyone's wishes for the new year would come true.  Now, she says, they just make cakes that are decorated to look like logs. It does seem like an awful lot of work for one small cake, but it's a cute story.  Plus, I got to sneak some of the extra frosting since calories don't count after midnight...right?  Thanks for the treat, Drama Queen!

See how it's got bark and the little leaves?