recipe and photo from here

Christmas without a buche de noel, I am not sure the French would like this idea as the  buche de noel is part of the French Christmas meal and I am sure it will served up year after year.

Magic cakes are made simply of eggs, sugar, flour, butter and milk. So what's magic about that, you might ask. There may be nothing unusual about the ingredients, but the magic happens in the baking. The batter of the cake is very liquid, so it divides into three layers by itself, each with its own texture and flavour: the base of the cake is a dense, moist cake base; a light delicate cream forms in the middle; the top layer is a lovely light Genoise sponge.

Serves 10.

Preparation: 35 minutes.  Cooking time: 50 minutes.  Resting time: 2 hours

Magic Log Cake
Ingredients:
1 vanilla pod

350 ml (11½ fl oz) milk

3 eggs, separated

1 teaspoon water

45 g (1¾ oz) caster (superfine) sugar

100 g (3½ oz) sweetened chestnut purée

90 g (3¼ oz) butter

70 g (2½ oz) plain (all-purpose) flour

pinch of salt

60 g (2 oz) marrons glacés, broken into small pieces

Method:

1. Line your Yule log cake tin, with silicone or greased with butter then line with baking paper.

2. Preheat the oven to 160°C (320°F/Gas 3).

3. Split the vanilla pod down the middle and scrape out the seeds with the blade of a knife. Heat the milk with the vanilla seeds and the pod.

Bring to the boil, then immediately remove from the heat and leave to infuse....