Time taken: 2 hours maybe (including the hour break in the
middle)
Ingredients: 4 free range eggs, 100g caster sugar, 60 g
self-raising flour, 40g cocoa, 600ml (a pint) of double cream), 300g dark/plain
chocolate (same thing), a little icing sugar, a little butter and festive decorations.
Hi readers,
If I’m honest I’m losing track of which day of the week it
is. I just had to check using the pop-up calendar in the corner of my computer
screen. How ridiculous! It’s Wednesday. OBVIOUSLY it’s Wednesday. Get a grip.
Somebody slap me in the face.
I think it’s so hard to even tell the day of the week
because I’m so entirely surrounded by Christmas. Little else has any meaning
these days. Two days ago? Geography Society Christmas Meal (which was a total
blast – wine by the bottle and outrageous dancing in Flares!). Yesterday? Flat
Christmas (again a blast – we carried off the cooking and had a major
quiz-off). Tonight? Christmas Meal with a bunch of the geography girls to
include those who couldn’t come to the official meal (at Fat Hippo – I can’t
WAIT). The day after? Christmas manicure and a gig with my friend, Woody. The
day after that? DRIVING HOME FOR CHRISTMAS.
So really, when measuring the days this way, it’s not shocking
that I don’t know the actual day of the week. But it is still ridiculous. Anyway, yesterday I found time to make it back into the kitchen,
readers! As a vegetarian, I didn’t play a major role in the Flat Christmas
dinner prep. Largely, I was in charge of chopping veg here and there.
And I set the table and crafted handmade placemats. AND BAKED THE YULE LOG!
That’s right! One of my flatmates took charge of Dessert Option
A (bread n butter pudding) and Dessert Option B was all for me to take care
of!! What a responsibility! I actually got really concerned about this. But it
the end it went shockingly to plan and I managed to muddle together a pretty
decent yule log, readers. I followed a Mary Berry recipe the whole way and it
did me proud.
Here’s the one just for you (slightly simplified for student readers)…
1.
Heat your oven to 200˚C.
2.
Using some kitchen roll, grease a rectangular
cake tine with butter.
3.
Line the tin with baking paper.
4.
Crack your eggs and measure your sugar into a
mixing bowl.
5.
Use an electric hand whisk to whisk these
together, until the mixture is pale, light and frothy.
6.
Measure your flour and cocoa into a sieve
together.
7.
Shake so that these delicately fall over your
egg mix.
8.
Use a spatula to fold the flour mix into the egg
mix, until they’re full incorporated and you have a chocolatey goo.
9.
Carefully pour the cake mix into your lined tin.
Tip the tin around so that the mix spreads evenly to every corner.
10.
Carefully transport your tin into the oven and
leave to bake for 8-10 minutes.
ChefBeHere Top Tip: Keep checking
on your sponge and maybe switch the tin around after 5 minutes so it faces the
other way, you don’t want any part of your sponge to burn!
11.
Meanwhile, lay a piece of baking paper on your
work surface that is bigger than the size of the cake tin. Rather than baking paper I used foil
again. And it worked again. I also hear you can use a clean tea towel.
12.
Use your sieve to dust icing sugar over your
baking paper/replacement-item.
13.
When your cake is well risen, firm to touch, it springs
back when you poke it and it’s shrinking away from the edges of the tin, take
it out of the oven.
14.
Run a sharp knife around its edges, to make sure
the cake isn’t stuck to the tin.
15.
Tip your tin upside down over your baking paper,
so that the cake falls out onto the icing sugar below.
16.
Remove the baking paper stuck to your cake,
which had been lining the cake tin.
17.
Along a long edge of your cake, use a sharp
knife to core a little line along the length of the cake, an inch away from its
edge.
ChefBeHere Top Tip: Don’t cut this
bit of the cake off, just draw a line with your knife. Try not to go too deep
into the cake with the knife. It should still be attached.
18.
Starting at this edge, tightly roll up the sponge
with the paper inside it.
19.
Sit the roll on its outside edge and leave to
cool completely (mine took an hour or so).
20.
Meanwhile, heat half of your cream in a pan.
21.
Break your chocolate up into squares.
22.
When the cream is reasonably warm, remove it
from the heat and add your chocolate. Stir it all in until the chocolate is
melted and you have a chocolate-coloured goo.
23.
Pour this into a bowl and leave in the fridge to
cool and firm up. This will be the outer coating of your yule log.
24.
Pour the other half of the cream into a mixing
bowl. Use an electric hand whisk to whip the cream.
ChefBeHere Top Tip: The aim here
is to make your cream a solid, like squirty cream. It takes about ten minutes.
You know it’s ready when the cream stands of its own accord in stiff peaks. Don’t
over-whip. Keep an eye on it.
25.
Pop this in the fridge to keep cool. Go chill for
a while.
26.
When your swiss roll feels TOTALLY COOL you can
uncurl it and spread the whipped cream evenly over the top.
27.
Re-roll your swiss role tightly, this time
without the paper.
28.
Cover it entirely, really thickly, with the
chocolate ganache topping that you have in the fridge. Coat the whole log with
it.
29.
Run a fork along your yule log to make lines in
the ganache, so it looks like proper bark.
30.
Cut a quarter of the length of the yule log off,
diagonally not straight.
31.
Transfer your bigger piece of cake onto a
serving plate or presentation board.
32.
Angle your small piece next to the bigger one,
so that it looks like a branch.
33.
Decorate your cake! This can mean just dusting
some icing sugar on it like snow. Or I had holly and berry sprinkles to use. Or
you can adorn it with fresh holly or a little plastic robin, maybe. Get
creative.
And that’s it! In just 33 steps (it’s a mammoth recipe, I
know) you’ve made yourself a yule log!! Well done! Here’s my baby from yesterday… part branch, part revolver...
Isn’t it amazing?? What do you think? I was pretty proud of
my work, I have to say. And my flatmates were so lovely when they tasted it!
Lots of compliments about my baking. :) It was a lovely end to a very special Flat
Christmas. Eating our yule log. I wholly recommend this recipe. Mary Berry never lets me down and
her yule log definitely has the X factor! Go give it a try this December. And
let me know how yours come out! You’ll be fine I promise. Ready, set, BAKE!
Roll safely kids,
Hayley
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