Ingredients
4 Eggs
100g Castor sugar
1 tsp Vanilla extract
65g sieved Self-raising flour
50g sieved Cocoa powder
300ml Double
cream
3 Tbsp icing sugar
Ganache
200ml Double cream
200g Dark chocolate
Method
1. Preheat your oven to 200c
2. Grease a Swiss roll tin and then line it with baking parchment.
3.
Now, beat together four eggs with 100g castor sugar and 1 tsp
vanilla extract using an electric whisk. You are looking to create a
mousse-like, creamy, airy mixture, so keep whisking until you get there!
4.
Fold in 65g sieved, self-raising flour and 50g sieved
cocoa powder. Do it gently — you don’t want to knock out all that air
you have whisked in.
5.
Pour the mixture into your tin — carefully, think about that air again!
— and nudge it into the corners so the tin is evenly filled.
6. Pop it into the oven and
cook for 12 minutes, until it looks golden, is springy to the touch,
smells chocolatey and is just starting to come away from the edges of
the tin.
7. Put a
clean piece of baking parchment on your work surface and cover it with
icing sugar. Gently tip your sponge onto it and peel off the paper from
the back. Do this while the sponge is warm or it won’t roll properly.
8. Score
a line with a knife about 2cm from the edge along one of the long
sides of the sponge — this will help with your first roll. Now use the
paper to tightly roll up the sponge. Wrap the paper around the sponge
roll as tightly as you can. If it doesn’t hold together, even when
you’ve twisted the ends, use some foil over the top to make it tight.
9. Leave
to cool to room temperature. Meanwhile, whip 300ml double
cream with 3 tbsp icing sugar until fairly stiff but easily spreadable.
Set aside.
10. Now
make your ganache. Heat 200ml double cream in a small
saucepan until tiny bubbles begin to appear at the sides. Add 200g dark chocolate, broken into pieces, off the heat. Stir until the
chocolate melts, then put in fridge to stiffen.
11. When the sponge is cool, unroll it and spread the cream evenly over it. Roll it up again.
12.
Place it, seam-down, on a serving plate or board and cut off a section
at an angle — this will be your ‘branch’. Arrange it next to the main
part of the log.
13.
Cover the whole cake in chocolate ganache with a spatula, leaving the
ends exposed, if you wish, then use a fork to make bark-like patterns on
top.
14. Dust
generously with icing sugar and, if you like, decorate with edible holly
leaves or your choice of festive frivolity. Enjoy!
Adapted from Daily Mail
