Mary Berry's Yule Log

The good thing about being the designated pudding cook for Christmas is that you can make something that is actually nice I.e. not figgy pudding, fruit cake, mince pies etc. because they are gross.

I was originally going to make Nigella’s Yule Log but after seeing The Great British Bake Off Christmas special, I liked the look of Mary Berry’s much more. I think it’s because she used cream instead of copious amounts of icing which can be a bit sickly. I’m glad I did because this went down an absolute treat yesterday with some mulled wine.

Ingredients

4 large eggs

100g caster sugar

65g self-raising flour

40g cocoa powder

600ml double cream

300g dark chocolate (30-40% solids, I used Bourneville)

Icing sugar to decorate

Preheat the oven to 200⁰C. Lightly grease a Swiss roll tin and line with baking parchment. Mum had this weird wobbly silicone one from Lakeland. I would suggest putting it on a baking tray if you use one of these so you don’t do what I did and have a spaz when it almost fell on the floor…

To make the sponge, first whisk the eggs and sugar in a large bowl using an electric mixer, until it is pale and frothy.

Sift the cocoa powder and flour into the bowl and gently fold it into the egg mixture.

Pour it into the tin and spread it evenly.

Bake in the middle of the oven for 8-10 minutes, until risen and firm to the touch.

Cut a piece of baking parchment slightly larger than your tin and cover it generously with icing sugar.

When the cake is baked turn it out onto the sugared paper and peel off the bottom lining.

 

Gently cut a score mark about 2-3cm in along one of the long edges of the sponge.

Start at this edge and roll the sponge up tightly with the paper inside. Leave it to cool completely like this.

To make the ganache topping gently heat 300ml of the double cream in a saucepan. It should be just hot enough that you can still touch it. When it gets to this point, remove it from the heat and add the chocolate, broken into pieces. Still the chocolate and cream until the chocolate has completely melted. Pour it into a bowl and leave to cool to room temperature before transferring to the fridge to harden up. You need to leave it a good hour or so because the ganache has to be thick enough to pipe.

Beat the cream with an electric whisk until it holds its shape.

Unroll the sponge when it’s cool and spread the whipped cream evenly all over. Re-roll it tightly.

Cut a quarter of the cake off, at a slight angle and place it at the side of the main log to make a branch.

Fill a piping bag with a large star nozzle with the ganache and pipe thick lines all along the cake. Mine became a bit of a disaster here because my nozzle had some hardened chocolate blocking it, and it all got a bit messy. Luckily, icing sugar hides a multitude of sins- When you’ve covered the entire cake, including the ends of the logs, dust liberally with icing sugar.

Then if you’re a bit naff like we are, add some plastic snowmen or whatever you like really.

To be eaten with a fork, I reckon.