Chocolate & vanilla yule log

Another Christmas favourite, and a good chocoholic alternative to Christmas pudding!

Preparation time:  Around 50 minutes

Cooking time:  Around 15 minutes

This can be a bit of a fiddly one, but don’t get too hung up on the presentation, as the chocolatey richness of this dessert more than makes up for any minor mishaps.

Ingredients (one log):

• Butter – small knob to butter a baking tray

• Cocoa powder – 50g (plus extra for dusting), use a good quality, 70% cocoa powder

• Self-raising flour – 75g

• Baking powder – 1 tsp.

• Eggs – 5

• Golden caster sugar – 100g (plus extra for dusting)

• Double cream – 415ml

• Vanilla extract – 2 tsp.

• Dark chocolate – 150g, finely chopped

• Icing sugar – for dusting

Method:

1. Heat the oven to 170°C (for a fan oven), then butter a 30cm by 40cm baking tray, and line with greaseproof paper.  Dust with a sprinkling of cocoa powder;

2. Sieve the flour, baking powder and cocoa powder together in a small bowl, and mix together;

3. In a separate larger bowl, add the eggs to the golden caster sugar, then beat together with an electric whisk for about 8-10 minutes, until the pale egg/sugar mixture is thick and has trebled in size;

4. Gently fold the flour mixture into the egg mixture, trying not to knock out too much of the air in the egg mixture.  Pour the combined mixture into the prepared baking tray, tipping it from side to side once you have, to get the mixture evenly spread across the tray;

5. Put the tray in the oven and cook for 10-15 minutes, until it is firm to the touch;

6. Once cooked, allow the sponge to cool for a couple of minutes in the tray, while you lay a piece of greaseproof paper (slightly larger than the sponge) over a tea-towel, and dust the paper with golden caster sugar.  Then turn the sponge out on to the paper, remove the (cooked) backing paper from the sponge, then roll the sponge up using the tea-towel and greaseproof paper underneath.  I roll the sponge short-edge to short-edge, but you could do it the other direction if you found that easier;

7. While the sponge cools (in its spiral shape), whisk 300ml of the cream and vanilla extract together with an electric whisk, until it is firm but not too stiff.  Gently unroll the sponge, spread the cream over the sponge and then re-roll it up as tightly as you can without squeezing out the cream;

8. Heat the remaining 115ml of cream, then pour over the chopped dark chocolate, stirring the mixture until the chocolate pieces are all melted.  Allow to cool slightly, then spread gently over the top and sides of the sponge roll.  As the chocolate mixture begins to solidify, use the prongs of a fork to make bark-like marks on the exterior, then once it’s fully cooled, dust with icing sugar before serving.