cake. The name "Genovese" refers to its city of origin, Genoa. It is similar to a British fruitcake, but less tall and more crumbly. In France, Belgium, Switzerland, French Canada, Luxembourg and Lebanon a Bûche de noël (Yule log cake) is the traditional Christmas cake. They are light sponge cakes covered with a layer of butter cream flavoured with chocolate, coffee and Grand Marnier. Then rolled, covered with another layer of butter cream which is streaked and sprinkled with powdered sugar to simulate a log of wood covered with snow. The Yule Log cakes are often garnished with Christmas-themed sugar or plastic decorations. Its origins comes from the large wooden log called Yule Log that was burned in the hearth for several days at Christmas time since at least the Middle Ages throughout Europe and a French pastry chef to represent in the form of dessert in the nineteenth century. It contains no fruit. Japanese metaphor Christmas is a very busy secular holiday for patisseries in Japan, and Japanese Christmas cakes are created with a wide variety of flavours, ingredients and colours. In Japan, women had traditionally been expected to marry at a young age, and those who were unmarried after the age of 25 were metaphorically referred to as (unsold) Christmas cakes (クリスマスケーキ) in reference to items which are still unsold after the 25th. The term first became popular during the 1980s but has since become less common because Japanese women today can remain unmarried with somewhat less stigmatization. An equivalent term does, however, still exist that hearkens to the "unsold" nature of unmarried women, urenokori (売れ残り, "unsold goods"). See also Christmas pudding Simnel cake References External links Cakes Christmas food Almond dishes Christian cuisine Christmas cakes