Christmas: Yule Log baking

On Saturday night we went to my best girl Georgie's flat-warming party. She's just moved in with her man, so they threw a party to celebrate. Being in December, it was only right that the party was Christmas themed! Saturday nights in December were just made for gatherings and parties weren't they?! I love this time of year when everyone is in the festive spirit. Lots of us were wearing Christmas jumpers, the mulled wine was flowing, we munched on mince pies and the Christmas tree was looking beautiful with the cutest retro baubles and coloured, twinkly fairy lights. It was such a brilliant night!

And what better excuse to bake, than a party?! I decided to bake a Yule Log to bring with us to share with everyone... I could have bought wine but I'm trying to cut back on alcohol at the moment. Yule Log has got to be one of my favourite, favourite Christmas desserts. Okay so it's basically just a chocolate-swiss roll, but sprinkled with icing sugar to look like snow, it looks really magical served up on a plate. And for those people who aren't too keen on mince pies or Christmas cake, then Yule Log is often the perfect alternative... because who doesn't like chocolate?!

This recipe is from Nigella's Feast, one of my all-time favourite recipe books. I was a little apprehensive that it wouldn't turn out quite so presentable as the photo in the book but honestly, it's such an easy to follow recipe and I was so pleased with the end result. It went down an absolute treat.

So here's the recipe for anyone who may want it!

For the cake:

6 large eggs, separated

150g caster sugar

50g cocoa sugar

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

For the icing:

175g dark chocolate

250g icing sugar

225g soft butter

1 tablespoon vanilla extract

& extra icing sugar to decorate

Preheat the oven to 180 degrees C, and line a swiss roll tin with baking parchment.

In a large bowl, whisk the egg whites until thick and peaking and then add 50g of the caster sugar. Continue whisking until the peaks are holding. In another bowl, whisk the egg yolks and remaining 100g of the caster sugar together until the mixture is thick and pale. It needs to be a thick, moussey consistency. Add the vanilla extract and the cocoa powder and fold both of these in. At this point the mixture will feel a little thick and stodgy.

Add a few spoons of the egg white mixture to the chocolatey egg yolk mixture and fold in. Then, carefully add the rest of the egg whites, folding as you go. Make sure that you don't lose too much air!

 Pour the mixture into the swiss roll tin and bake in the oven for approximately 20 mins. When baked, let the cake cool completely, before peeling off the baking parchment turning it out onto another sheet of baking parchment. Don't worry if it breaks a little, you wont notice this later!

Meanwhile, get started on the icing. Break the chocolate and melt in a bowl over a pan of simmering water (or you could use the microwave). Leave the chocolate to cool down. I put it in the fridge for 15 mins.

Seive the icing sugar into a bowl and then blitz with the food processor. Add the butter and blitz again. Add the vanilla extract and the cooled melted chocolate. Mix together until combined and smooth.

Lay the flat chocolate cake on a plate. Spread a thin layer of the icing over the cake, reaching right to the edges. Then, using a bread knife, trim each edge by a centi-metre or two to get rid of any uneven bits.

Then, with the long side of the log facing you, start rolling the cake. Make sure you get a tight roll from the beginning. Don't worry if it breaks a bit, mine did! Once it's all rolled up, roll it in baking parchment and give it a bit of a squeeze to make it all stick together!

Unpeel the baking parchment and place the log onto a dish of your choice. You can trim one edge at an angle to give the 'chopped log' effect, and you can use any scraps of cake to stick onto the log to act as branches. Now you can get icing! Spread thick layers of icing all over the cake using a spoon and use a knife to score lines along the edges to create a wood-like effect.

Cool the cake in the fridge to set. When you want to present it on the table, sprinkle with icing sugar. I used this amazing edible Christmas snow from Waitrose...

 You can also use any edible or inedible props you may have... snowmen, reindeer, trees... Be as creative as you like, the more festive the better!!

How could you deny a slice of yule log?!

Lydia xxx