A Mary Ule tradition

Blogger: Michelle Ule

Location: Chilly Santa Rosa, main office

With a name like Ule, pronounced YULE, you can imagine the fun we have at Christmas time.  My mother-in-law’s name was Mary  and she loved sparkling her conversation with, “Hi, I’m Mary Ule,” during the holidays. (Which is a little better than our pastor’s wife’s name, Mary Beyer, whom a clerk once told, “they must love you in the stores.”  )

Anyway, the first year of our marriage we began our tradition of making a Ule log for Christmas. I used my then-new, now-antique orange Betty Crocker Cookbook for a chocolate jelly roll recipe, filled it with sweetened whip cream, and topped it all with a chocolate butter cream frosting.

We put a candle on top, sing Happy Birthday to Jesus and then start sawing, er, slicing. Delicious!

Along the way we’ve learned a couple techniques. If you don’t have waxed or parchment paper to line the jelly roll pan, don’t use the plastic inner liner from cereal boxes– it melts. (Why would anyone do that? Well,  when you were as poor as we were in the dark ages, every little bit helped). Avoid using ancient flour (one year at my widowed father-in-law’s house), and if it fails, just try it again (see previous clause).

Here’s the recipe:

Ule Log

• 1 cup sifted cake flour
• 1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 2 eggs
• 3/4 cup white sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 2 tablespoons 2% milk
• 1/2 cup confectioners’ sugar for dusting dish towel
• Container of heavy whipping cream, slightly sweetened, beaten stiff.

1. Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F (190 degrees C). Line a 10×15 inch jellyroll pan with parchment paper.  (Waxed paper or foil also work)
2. Sift together the flour, baking powder and salt. Set aside. In a large bowl, beat eggs and sugar with an electric mixer until thick and pale, about 5 minutes. Stir in the vanilla and milk. Stir in the dry ingredients gradually. The batter will be thin. Pour into the prepared pan.
3. Bake for 8 to 10 minutes in the preheated oven, until the center springs back when pressed lightly. Don’t over bake, or it may crack.
4. Generously dust a clean dish towel with confectioners’ sugar. Turn the cake out onto the towel, and peel off the parchment paper. Gently roll up the cake from the short end, using the towel, and let cool for about 10 minutes or more on a wire rack.
5. Unroll the cake, and spread an even coating of whipping cream onto the top. Roll the cake back up into a tight spiral, and remove the towel.
6. Frost with chocolate butter cream frosting; we try to make it look like bark.

Oh, and please avoid singing the second verse of “Deck the Halls,” when a Ule family member is present (“see the blazing yule before you . . . ). Bon appetite!