In France, a proper Christmas dinner wouldn’t be complete without the bûche de Nöel. This wooden log look-a-like cake, traditionally made of a rolled genoise cake filled and frosted with buttercream, is part of the official conclusion to a Christmas feast.
It’s a holiday ritual no one would pass on—even with an overfilled belly.
Festive Origins
The tradition of the Christmas Yule log—an actual log, not the cake—stretches back to more than 2,000 years ago, before the Medieval era. People in Scandinavian, Germanic, and Celtic countries would celebrate the winter solstice by selecting and cutting a log, bringing it back to their homes, and burning it in their hearth throughout the longest night of the year. 
