The origins of the Christmas log or Yule log tradition (way back when the tradition included an actual oak log) are ambiguous.

Most historical sources mention that the log was brought into the home around the winter solstice to warm up the house and celebrate the lengthening of days following the longest night of the year.

The log was kept burning for some days and this was thought to provide some kind of magical protection against evil and thus bring good luck. Over the year, a piece of this log was conserved as a good luck charm and also used to light the following year’s log. This started the tradition that his still alive today – the search for last year’s Christmas decorations.

You might not be surprised to learn it was the French who turned the log into something edible. “What shall we do with this burning wood now that we have efficient modern heating?” they said. Although they probably said it in French.

Somewhere along the line, one of them decided to make cake. Some sources mention edible log was first created in Paris at the end of the 19th century by a pastry maker called Pierre Lecam.

The Christmas log, or Buche de Nöel, is traditionally made with Italian sponge cake, which is frosted and rolled up to form a cylinder and frosted again on the outside. It is then decorated on the outside to resemble a chopped off branch and a bark-like texture is created by dragging a fork through the icing. These cakes are often decorated further with icing sugar to resemble snow and perhaps marzipan fruit or mistletoe.

This was news to me, since the Christmas log I know consists of crushed up biscuits, chocolate, festive spirit (alcohol, that is) and perhaps candied peel.

Some countries take the log more seriously than others – take the Italians and their Festa Del Ceppo (festival of the log), for example. But then, Italians always take their food seriously. Everyone has their own version of making Christmas log. This is mine.

You will need:

• One bar of cooking chocolate, about 150g
• One tin of condensed milk, about 400g
• Two packets of nuts of, about 150g each – we used roasted almonds and pecans
• A dash of whisky
• Two packets of biscuits – we used one packet of plain digestive biscuits and one packet of Marie biscuits
• Butter cream icing or another bar of cooking chocolate
• A Sunday afternoon and some good friends

Grate the chocolate bar. Crush the biscuits and nuts. Alternatively, give them to a friend who needs some stress relief and step back.

In a very large bowl mix the grated chocolate, nuts, biscuits and condensed milk.

Wash your hands well and roll your up sleeves – this is the fun part. Using your hands, blend the ingredients together adding the whisky slowly until you make a tough paste that can be formed into shapes. Do not add too much whisky at one go so as not to make the mixture too wet.

When that is done, place the ‘dough’ on to a baking sheet and use the sheet to help you get a more uniform log shape. You can do this by rolling the sheet up around the dough and pressing as necessary along the sheet until you are satisfied with the shape.

At this point, most recipes will call for a 12-hour stint in the fridge. The modern cook (me) decided this was far too long a wait and so settled for a compromise – one hour in the freezer.

When that is done, it is time to decorate your log with Yuletide cheer. Cover the log – either with icing, or you may prefer melted chocolate. Once you have covered your log with the melted chocolate, dip a fork in water and run it lightly through the chocolate before this starts to cool down and harden. This will create that bark-like effect.

So, another zodiac’s gone around and here we are facing the season of indulgence head on. This is usually followed swiftly by fresh starts and new resolutions – you know, those promises we make to ourselves and perhaps set to paper. Have you kept any this year?

This time last year, culinary boredom sat at my kitchen table and made me promise to get more creative. A year later, with dozens of new recipes under my metaphorical belt and a food blog which keeps my friends entertained, culinary boredom is long gone. Wishing you all a delicious New Year!

Read more of Miriam’s recipes here.

Photos by Raphael Borg Ellul Vincenti