Yuletide Chocolate Log

Merry Christmas!
I was given the extremely important job of cooking up Christmas Lunch for the family this year.  We had turkey and all the trimmings but the table centre piece was the Yuletide Log which I served for dessert...

 

Easy to make, this cream-filled cake doesn't have to be used at Christmas time - cover it in smarties and colourful icing and it can become a catepillar birthday cake! 

 

Ingredients:
150g golden caster sugar
4 eggs
50g plain flour
50g cocoa powder
vanilla extract
200ml double cream
300g dark chocolate
vanilla extract
20g caster sugar

 

Preheat the oven to 200c.
Whisk together the sugar and eggs for around 15 minutes, until the mixture has thickened.  In a separate bowl sieve the flour and cocoa powder together and add 1 teaspoon of vanilla extract and fold this in to the egg mixture.  Pour this mixture into a rectangle baking tray and cook for 10 minutes, until light and springy to touch.

 

Place a large piece of greaseproof paper on a worktop and sprinkle with caster sugar.  Once the sponge has cooled, remove from the baking tin and place on the greaseproof paper.  Peel off the baking paper and roll the sponge, using the paper - this will set the shape of the dessert.

 

Leave the sponge like this as you prepare the filling. Whip the cream until it holds its shape.  Roll the sponge out and spread the cream over it and roll back again - this time without the paper.

 

The topping can be tricky to make as it takes ages to set.  Break the dark chocolate pieces into a glass bowl.  On the hob, boil the caster sugar and 200ml of water for two minutes.  Add the mixture to the chocolate and whisk well.  Once it begins to thicken spread over the roll and leave in the fridge to set.  If you have difficulty making the ganache thicker, use icing sugar.

 

I keep some extra ganache aside and heat it up when I served the log to pour over the top.  Add some holly and icing sugar to the top.

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