By now, our dense and moist Christmas fruit cake is well past half way to drunk. But we need a few more weeks of bathing in spoon fulls of Sherry, before our cake is ready for icing. So in the meantime...
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| Photo: Mary Berry "The Good Food Channel" |
I feel in the mood for chocolate...erm - ok when am I not in the mood for chocolate?!
But this time round, I want squishy, gooey and creamy chocolate heaven all rolled up in what's known as a yule log!
Mama never had a short supply of chocolate. After all, a chocolate maker needs plenty of supplies and not even I could make a dent in the mountain of chocolaty slabs stashed away in the pantry. Mama would make her yule log with a mix of dark and milk chocolate, and we would make decorations out of white chocolate.
In the kitchen, was an enormous wooden table, painted in white enamel and as far as I understood - came all the way with Mama and Bumps when they sailed from England to Rhodesia. Underneath this same white table, was where my Dad was born. It was in the middle of a bomb raid and Mama and her Mother could not "nip off to the hospital" - and so that's where my Dad was born!
It was on this table that we would place all our ingredients, and where I was in charge of breaking up the chocolate for the cake. By the time I was finished snapping bits off a huge chocolate slab, my hands were coated in melted chocolate (nothing like working with chocolate in the middle of summer) and my mouth bore the mark of the much used "one for me" and one for the cake...methodology.
After the yule log was decorated and icing sugar dusted over the top to look like snow, we would invite the neighbouring ladies over for afternoon tea. Sitting under the flowering Flamboyant tree, sipping on English tea, savoring the intense chocolate festive cake and listening the chattering of Mama's friends is a memory from deep within my heart.
A beautiful cake, one that should always be eaten soon after baking! So worth the effort!
What you need:
- 1/2 cup sifted cake flour
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 1/2 cup white sugar
- 3 eggs, separated
- 150 mls milk
- 200 grams dark chocolate, melted
- 100 grams icing sugar
- 300 mls cream whipped
- 250 grams milk chocolate
- 1/4 cup butter, softened
- 200 mls single cream
- 100 grams white chocolate
How to make:
- Preheat oven to 180 degrees and grease a Swiss role tin. Line with waxed paper and grease paper.
- Sift together flour, baking powder, and salt.
- Beat together sugar and egg yolks at high speed until light and fluffy.
- Add the milk, melted dark chocolate and flour mixture into egg mixture.
- Beat egg whites till soft peaks form. Fold into the batter.
- Spread batter in prepared pan; smooth top.
- Bake until set, about 12 minutes.
- When still warm, turn cake out onto a clean tea cloth. Remove waxed paper. Trim off any crispy edges and starting with a long side, roll up cake, Swiss roll style and leave to cool.
- When cooled, gently unroll the cake and spread the whipped cream over cake - leaving space on the sides as the cream will squish out... place on your chosen serving tray with the "seam" down.
To ice the cake:
- Melt the milk chocolate and add the cream and butter and stir until glossy and smooth. Leave to cool until a "spreadable" consistency. Spread over the cake. Run a fork down the sides of the cake to form wood patterns.
- Melt the white chocolate and drizzle over the cake. Dust with icing sugar and adorn with holly - serve and enjoy!
YUM!!!
That looks amazing! I am too lazy to bake things like this!
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