Yule Log 2025: Cozy Woodland Home
The area where I live, while suburban, is home to many woodland creatures – birds, owls, rabbits, bobcats, bears, coyotes, frogs, etc. It feels like a cozy woodland storyland (minus the coyotes, of course) that I wanted to emulate in this year’s Yule log – a little log home to one of these critters. I had the house formed in my mind pretty quickly, but still needed to decide: Who lives here?
Well, it turned out to be a white bunny, whom I named Bunbun. He’s made out of meringue!
My original “plan” was definitely overplanned, trying to make an elaborate hobbit house out of a cake, but it turned out cozy, foresty, and delicious.
Cake
Vanilla cake roll
Filling
Chocolate cream cheese frosting w/ chocolate pudding mix (so good!!)
Covered with
Dark chocolate ganache
Decorations
Chocolate/vanilla swirl “woodcut” cookies
A cookie door
Cake moss
Meringue mushrooms
Bunbun, the meringue bunny, and his somewhat malformed friend, Nubby.
My favorite element, the woodcut cookies, turned out to be the most difficult part of this year’s log. I adapted a recipe for the traditional swirl cookie and added more layers. This was not easy, as I had to put the sticky dough in the fridge several times throughout the process.
Once I had eight (I think) layers, I rolled it into a log and put it in the freezer for a few hours.
After cutting the log into discs, I used a rolling pin to roll them into larger, more organic-looking woodcut shapes. I loved how they turned out! Even the mistakes I made with some of the layers became happy accidents, looking like knots in the wood.
Adding them to the ends of the stumps made it so whimsical!
One of my original attempts to pipe a meringue bunny was so hilarious that I eventually decided to put him on the cake. I named him Nubby, who looks more like a chonky Pomeranian than a bunny, but he looks so cute sitting on top of the stump!
I used some of the swirl cookie dough to try and create a wooden-looking door for the log. Alas, they all turned out to be a little oversized for the log’s height, so I chose the one that I liked the most and just went with it.
I would be remiss not to share this year’s cake filling. I was looking for something sturdy and chocolaty. I searched for cream cheese frostings that could work and came across this recipe for “Easy Chocolate Cake Filling.” It has a brick of cream cheese, a little powdered sugar and cocoa powder, 2 cups of heavy cream, and a box of chocolate pudding mix. It was EXTREMELY delicious. It could be a dessert on its own. I will definitely be using it to fill birthday cakes in 2026.
I also must admit I used too much filling, and the cake cracked. (Worth it.) And, as shown, nothing a little ganache couldn’t fix.
Happy Yule from Bunbun and Nubby!
I also was going to celebrate that this was, I thought, my 10th Yule Log, but turns out it’s #11.
So, Happy Elevenses!
