Yule logs and other cakes

If not rich fruit, what then for cake at Christmas? The choices, once varied, have narrowed over the last 150 years. In the twenty-first century, the main contender for a place on the festive table is a yule log, a comparative newcomer as an edible delight. The original yule log was an actual log. Its origins predate Christianity, and it was one of several pan-European customs, though it’s unclear when some of the traditions surrounding it emerged. It was popularly supposed to be brought in and lit on Christmas Eve, using a saved piece of the previous year’s log. Some Yorkshire families maintained the custom right up to the eve of the First World War, though the name was, by then, also applied to the edible version.