Christmas Chocolate Log | 12 Days of Christmas Recipes

It's Day 4 of our '12 Days of Christmas Recipes' series. This 'Chocolate Christmas Log' recipe was given to me by one of our Bed and Breakfast hosts a few years ago. My daughter Cora loves to bake and we always prepare a 'Chocolate Christmas Log' together at Christmastime. It has become a bit of a tradition. We play Christmas music (Michael Buble of course) and sing along (badly) while we bake. The Chocolate Christmas Log really looks the part when finished and tastes delicous!

Ingredients

75g/3oz Plain Flour (less 2 tablespoons)
3 Eggs (separated)
Pinch of Salt
75g/3oz Caster Sugar
2 tablespoons Cocoa
1 level teaspoon Baking Powder
50g/2oz Butter
150g/5oz Dark Chocolate (broken into pieces)
1 tablespoon Golden Syrup
250ml carton of Cream
225g/8oz Icing Sugar (sieved)
Icing Sugar and Holly Sprigs

Method

1. Preheat oven to 200°C/400°F/Gas 6. Line a swiss roll tin 28cm x 18cm/11” x 7” with greaseproof paper.
2. Put the egg whites into a large clean dry bowl, add a pinch of salt. Beat until mixture is stiff and dry looking in appearance. Add the sugar and continue beating until thick and shiny. Finally beat in egg yolks until thick and trail of beaters remain. Sieve the flour, cocoa and baking powder together and gradually add to the egg mixture folding it in with a metal spoon.
3. Transfer to the prepared tin and spread evenly. Bake for 10 minutes. Lay a sheet of greaseproof paper dusted with caster sugar on the work surface. When the cake is baked, turn it onto the paper, remove the lining paper, and trim the edges with a sharp knife. Roll the cake up from its longest edge with the paper inside. Leave to cool.
4. Make the icing: Melt the chocolate and butter in a bowl over a pan of hot water. Take from the heat and stir in the syrup and 5 tablespoons of the cream. Beat in the icing sugar until smooth.
5. Whisk the remaining cream until stiff. Remove the paper from the cake, spread the cream and carefully roll up again into a log.
6. Cut a thick diagonal slice from one end of the log. Lift the log onto a plate and then arrange the slice on the side with the diagonal cut against the cake to make a “branch”.
7. Spread the icing over the “log” and the “branch” (don’t cover the ends). Use a fork to mark the icing to give the effect of tree bark. Dust with icing sugar to resemble snow and decorate with holly leaves.