Christmas would not be Christmas without the food and a Yule log is something that is easy to make, looks impressive and taste good. I use a Swiss roll basic recipe and cover it with chocolate butter cream. So first we will make a Swiss roll, which is basically a fatless sponge. You will need:
2 eggs
3 oz Caster (superfine) sugar
3 oz Self Raising Flour
1 tablespoon hot water
Vanilla essence/extract
Prepare a Swiss roll tin by greasing and lining well with baking parchment. Oven 220 C, 425 F or gas mark 6-7.
Whisk the eggs lightly and then add the sugar and whisk well until thick, creamy and almost white in colour. Lightly fold in the flour with a metal spoon, (take your time and fold in thoroughly) then add the hot water and vanilla essence. Pour into the prepared tin and bake for 10 mins. Test by pressing gently but firmly with a finger if no impression is left your sponge is done. Turn the sponge out onto sugared paper and trim the crisp edges off. Make a shallow cut at one end to aid the rolling process. If you are using jam and cream roll the sponge up with the paper inside and leave to cool. Warm the jam first before spreading it. Once cool spread your filling and roll up tightly. Cover the whole thing with chocolate butter cream, I used equal quantities of butter, icing sugar and Cadbury’s Milk chocolate. (I used milk chocolate because I do not like plain but plain gives it a better colour so if you like plain use it!) Fork over the butter cream to make it look like the bark of a tree. I have cut the log into two pieces for the photograph so you can see the inside. Again I used a plain sponge because our family are not keen on chocolate but by adding 1 oz of cocoa powder in place of the flour you can make a chocolate Swiss roll.
~JB
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