I have always loved Christmastime and not just because of the tree and presents and holiday cheer, but largely because there are so many wonderful food traditions that come with it and I just can’t pass up a good festive baking project. The Bûche de Noël, though, is one holiday cooking tradition I come back to time and time again — every single year, in fact. I’d go so far as to say it’s my very favorite thing to make during the Christmas season and that’s because it’s fun to make, impressive to look at, and delicious in the end. It’s a beautiful cake that’s much less complicated than it looks and only takes a few simple tips and tricks to master.

The video below will take you through every step.

The first question is what is a Bûche de Noël? Well, it’s just a rolled cake that’s meant to look like a Yule Log, simple as that! It’s a traditional Christmas cake that originated in France, but is seen in many other countries now. It’s traditionally made with a genoise cake, which is a French sponge cake made with whole eggs and then rolled with a filling such as buttercream frosting and finally coated with another layer or icing, frosting, or ganache that’s often made to look like bark. And then, of course, there are countless options for decorations, like meringue mushrooms, a simple dusting of powdered sugar, chocolate shavings, sugar-dusted cranberries, or even some holly or evergreen sprigs. It’s like a craft project and a cake in one, and that’s probably why I love it so much.

You actually want to start by making your frosting because the cake bakes so quickly and you’ll need to start working with it while it’s still warm (rather than spending that time working on filling or frosting).

What kind of filling? I like a basic buttercream frosting here because it doesn’t require any cooking or special steps and is sturdy enough to stand up to being chilled overnight if the cake is made ahead. A whipped cream filling doesn’t work as well as it begins to weep into the cake after a while. I like a chocolate on chocolate flavor for my Bûche de Noël but you can play with the flavor profiles as you wish — yellow cake with chocolate filling, chocolate cake with vanilla buttercream, chocolate cake with peanut butter buttercream… these are all things that work.

Once your frosting is done, just set it aside while you work on the cake. It will keep fine at room temperature for the next twenty minutes or so unless your kitchen is exceptionally hot. The key to the sponge cake is beating whole eggs and sugar until they’re fluffy and light in color. This should take about three minutes and you really want to see the consistency change to an almost ribbon-like one, so set a timer if you need to. This aerates the cake and adds pliability, which you’ll need for rolling.

Pour the batter into a jelly roll pan that’s been brushed with melted butter, lined with parchment paper, and brushed with butter again. There’s no need to spread it to the edges if it doesn’t reach, but do spread it out evenly and tap the pan on the counter a few times to break all the larger air bubbles (but not the tiny ones, so don’t overdo it with the tapping). Bake until you see the cake start to pull away from the sides, which should just take eight minutes or so. Watch your cake carefully — you don’t want to overbake or you’ll have a dry cake that cracks when rolling.

The next step seems a little odd, but just go with it. Dust a clean kitchen towel liberally with powdered sugar in an area that’s larger than your cake pan. Then, while the cake is still very much warm, flip the cake onto the powdered sugar coated area and then carefully remove the parchment paper. It’s scary, but it usually works out just fine! Dust the cake with powdered sugar and, again while the cake is still warm, roll it up into a spiral log, using the towel to help you along the way. It’s very important the cake is warm here — it’s more pliable at this time and it helps the cake to “remember” the shape it’s meant to be in. This gives you your best chance of preventing cracks.

Let the cake cool wrapped up in the towel in its log shape, and then gently unroll it and spread it with the buttercream filling. You can take it pretty much edge to edge and don’t need to be too heavy-handed with the amount of filling as the spiral shape will give you plenty in each bite. Wrap the log in plastic wrap and then chill it for at least two hours until it’s firm. You can chill it overnight if you need to, which makes this a great make ahead option.

Once the cake is firm, you can frost it, which I like to do with ganache. The cake is light, the filling is creamy, and I find that a fudgy ganache is the perfect way to bring it all together. I like to use a very simple method here of pouring some hot cream over chocolate chips and then stirring them together until the chocolate has melted. If your ganache is too runny to use at first, that’s fine, it will thicken as it sits so just let it rest until you have an easier consistency to work with. (You can even pop it in the fridge briefly to speed things up.)

Spread the ganache all over the log, attaching an angled slice on the side to make it a more believable branch, if you wish. Then I like to drag the tip of a knife through the ganache to create woodgrain lines. It’s very easy to do and doesn’t take any special skill, but looks so lovely in the end.

You don’t need to get particularly fancy with decorating the rest if you don’t want to, but I find that a dusting of powdered sugar lends some nice winter vibes and I generally can’t resist making some meringue mushrooms to go along with it. At this point, you can hold the cake in the fridge again if you need to, but I would hold off on your final decorations until you’re ready to serve it. (Meringue and powdered sugar sprinklings don’t hold up too well in the fridge.)