Red Velvet Yule Logs: From Disaster To Delicious

It was time for another Bake Sale at school. The Pumpkin Rolls had been such a success that we wanted a repeat. This time Sheila and I brain stormed and our thoughts ran from small Red Velvet Cakes to Red Velvet Rolls to Red Velvet Yule Logs. Perfect. A cake roll with a Yuletide twist. I had the perfect Red Velvet Cake Recipe, a classic that is very much like this one give or take a tablespoon of buttermilk and cocoa. This cake is a winner every time, in normal cake form that is; buttery, moist, and wonderful. Except this time...


One cannot make a cake roll come out of the pan when the recipe calls for lots of butter. It is a lot of eggs you want, not a lot of butter when making cake rolls. I should have known better. Hard lesson learned but my children were happy to get this moist pile of cake in their lunches everyday! I still will use this recipe for regular cakes though. Delicious. Even Maggie thinks so!


I quickly emailed Sheila to let her know not to use my cake recipe and she scoured the internet for a Red Velvet Roll recipe and found The Imperial Sugar Company' Red Velvet Cake Roll Recipe. I knew right away that it had the correct wet to dry ingredients ratio to make a good roll and this time plenty of eggs. Happy to say this recipe was just right and came out perfectly each time. 18 times that is. I made eighteen of them using pretty much the same method as the Pumpkin Rolls. Only this time wet and dry ingredients separate.


One change I did make and Sheila agreed, was to reduce tha amount of red food coloring. We used 1 tablespoon for two cakes. One ounce per cake seemed a bit much for our poor livers to handle plus did alter the flavor in our opinions. Instead of the bright red we got a deep burgundy, very rich indeed.


I had made labels for each Yule Log telling the recipient how to store, serve, and allergy information. These logs freeze beautifully.


We packaged these in a few layers of plastic wrap, as many of them were heading for the freezer until Christmas, then a layer of cellophane and raffia bows. A label attached along with a little bag of decorative mushrooms. I learned to make these by watching Sandra Lee one year.


Simply insert toothpick through a mini marshmallow then into the bottom of a Hershey's Kiss. I used Hugs and Peppermint Kisses. Have you had the Peppermint Hershey Kisses yet? Very good and I love the red nonpareils inside. Anyway the mushrooms are the traditional decoration of a Yule Log and symbolize luck in Western Germany. Usually made from merigue, we needed mushrooms that would be easier to make, package, and travel well. The Kiss version was cute, whimsical and fit our needs. It is also traditional to cut off about an inch from one end of the cake and lay it on top of the roll to look like a branch had been cut off from the log. Then sprinkled with powdered sugar to look like snow, I think our Red Velvet Yule Logs turned out splendidly!


I took this one to a neighbors house for a dinner party. We played the most fun Wine Tasting and Guessing game. It was brilliant!


We sold each log for $12.00. Go to Sheila's blog to see her Red Velvet Yule Log post.

So...

For excellent Red Velvet Cake use Pinch My Salt's Recipe.
For an excellent Red Velvet Cake Roll use Imperial Sugar Company's Recipe.
And for the filling we used...

Cream Cheese Filling
2 cups powdered sugar
1 tsp. vanilla
1/2 stick butter
1 brick cream cheese

Blend all ingredients well until creamy. Enough for one cake roll.




Well I showed you the big mess in the BRK while I was baking...


It is once again shiny and clean!



Except...








For...







The...







Pantry...





OY VEY!
See the cleaned up version here!

Tomorrow in BRK- Little Christmas Tradtitions at the House of BRK.

Robin Sue