Yule Log

For a friend's Christmas do, I was thinking of making a Swiss Roll. Ambitious, since I never made one before, and the possibilities of failing - cracks in the cake - is so high! After a lot of though, I decided why not make a yule log? It is that time of the year, and it is basically a chocolate swiss roll with icing on top. 

This turned out to be a great decision given that the cake comprised a few too many cracks. I'm not sure what when wrong, but I could possibly attribute it to first the cake not being light and fluffy enough because I found out that my electric whisk has turned hazardous and had to resort in manual whisking, which was clearly not effective enough. And secondly to my cake tin which may have been a little too long resulting in a thicker and short cake, thus harder to roll. However, the heavenly chocolate ganache covered it and made it look absolutely divine! So all was good.

I used the recipe from BBC which I found to be very concise and simple to follow. It was a hit with the cake being wiped clean off the plate. I am really pleased how it turned out and look forward to making it again and improving. The chocolate ganache was not too sweet and neither was the cream. Further, the cake was a good slice of chocolate cake, albeit mine being a little bit more dense than what it should have been. I would definitely highly recommend anyone to attempt this for a dinner party, especially since the chocolate ganache really acts as a saving grace, and it is such a crowd pleaser. 

Recipe: 

Chocolate Sponge

4 large eggs

100g caster sugar

65g self-raising flour

40g cocoa powder

Chocolate ganache topping

300ml pint double cream

300g dark chocolate

Cream Filling

300ml double cream, whipped

Method:

1. Preheat oven to 200C. Lightly grease Swiss roll tin with non-stick paper, make sure you push it into the corners.

2. For the sponge, whisk eggs and sugar in a large bowl until it is pale, light and frothy. It should enlarge until approximately triple in size. Sift in the flour and cocoa powder, mixing it using a spatula to avoid beating out the air.

3. Pour mixture into the tin and bake for 8-10 minutes.

4. After the cake is baked, place it on a baking paper bigger than the Swiss roll tin. Dust with icing sugar and carefully invert the cake onto the paper and remove the bottom lining piece of paper.

5. Cut a score mark 2.5cm along one of the longer edges. Start rolling with the paper inside and sit it on its outside edge to cool.

6. Meanwhile, get started on the ganache topping by heating up the cream. Remove it from the heat and add the chocolate mixing it until the chocolate is completely combined and melted. Cool to room temperature and store it in the fridge.

7. Unroll the Swiss roll and remove the paper. Spread the whipped cream on top and re-roll tightly. Cut a quarter of the cake off from the end on the diagonal. Transfer the large piece of cake to a serving plate and angle the cut end to  make a branch.

8. Spread the chocolate icing on the Swiss roll and use a knife or fork to create a bark tree pattern. You can choose to cover up the ends of the cake or leave them as they are.

9. The recipe calls for dusting with icing sugar, but I don't mind foregoing this as the icing sugar dissolves very quickly into the icing. So it stays as a decoration for only a very short period of time.

I had a good time making this cake and an even better time eating it. People were impressed and it certainly is a good addition to any Christmas table. Go get yourself some chocolate, flour, eggs and sugar and get starting on this Yule Log! You will not be disappointed.