Continuing with the seasonal Cakes & Bakes recipes, this week I made a Christmas Yule log. It’s the perfect sweet course alternative for people that don’t like dried fruit-filled Christmas pudding, Christmas cake or mince pies.
This cake is basically a chocolate Swiss roll with chocolate filling and chocolate icing on the outside. Apparently, a Yule log can trace its history back to the time of the Druids. It was later taken up by Christians: “As the fire grew brighter and burned hotter, and as the log turned into ashes, it symbolized Christ’s final and ultimate triumph over sin.”
I still don’t have a proper Swiss roll tin, so I used a rectangular, loose-bottomed tart tin. So that the sponge didn’t turn out too thin and biscuity, I didn’t allow the batter to spread all the way into the corners.
The trickiest part of the process was rolling up the still warm sponge with a clean, damp tea towel. It helps stop the sponge from cracking when rolling it up after filling. Don’t worry if it does though – it will be getting covered up with buttercream… which can hide a multitude of mistakes!
Serve it sliced with whipped or brandy cream. Save the recipe to Pinterest here.
- 3 eggs
- 75g caster sugar
- 1 tbsp cocoa powder
- 50g plain flour
- 50g butter, softened
- 75g icing sugar
- 1 tbsp cocoa
- 75g butter, softened
- 75g icing sugar
- 75g dark chocolate
- Pre-heat the oven to 200°C, 180°C (fan), 400°F, Gas mark 6
- Line a 23x32cm/9x13" Swiss roll tin with parchment
- Separate the eggs into two bowls and beat the whites until stiff
- Add the sugar to the yolks and beat until thickened
- Sieve the cocoa powder over the yolks and beat again
- Gently fold the egg whites into the yolks with a metal spoon, using a cutting and turning action
- Sieve the flour into the bowl and gently combine by cutting and folding with the spoon
- Pour the mixture into the prepared tin, spreading it out to the edges
- Bake for 10-12 minutes
- Slightly dampen a clean tea towel
- Slide the hot cake, still on its parchment, onto the tea towel
- Roll up the sponge, on the parchment, in the tea towel and leave to cool
- Put the filling butter into a bowl and beat it until it is light and fluffy
- Sieve the icing sugar and cocoa powder into the bowl and beat until combined and soft
- Gently unroll the cold sponge and loosen it from the parchment paper
- Spread the filling evenly over the inside of the sponge
- Roll up the filled sponge
- Put the topping butter into a bowl and beat it until it is light and fluffy
- Sieve the icing sugar into the bowl and beat until combined
- Gently melt the chocolate and mix this into the bowl
- Spread the topping over the rolled up sponge
- Drag a fork or skewer through the icing to create a log texture effect
Cakes & Bakes: Chocolate fudge tart
In the days following Christmas, there are lots of recipe ideas for the food leftovers knocking about. So we thought we’d offer the same service after Easter. You know, for all that chocolate that you’ve not eaten. Are we being a bit optimistic that you’ve got chocolate leftovers?!
This is a lovely, simple recipe. The cake is perfect as an indulgent afternoon coffee accompaniment – or dinner party dessert.
It incorporates readily available ingredients and can be rustled up in a few hours – with time between stages to get on with other jobs if required.
The cake delivers everything that you might expect from a chocolate fudge tart – it’s intense, rich and smooth on the palate. A small amount of salt flakes add a delicious, subtle contrast to the sweetness. There’s flexibility regarding the chocolate that you incorporate depending upon your personal taste or budget. You also have the option to add a bit of booze if you like. Rum, brandy, Cointreau, amaretto, Kahlua – maybe a bit of whisky. Perhaps you’ve got some of those left over from Christmas (or is that wishful thinking again?). Wherever you get the ingredients from, make sure to give it a try.
Click here to save the recipe to Pinterest
- 150g/5¼oz Hob-nobs
- 45g/1½oz cocoa powder
- 45g/1½oz light brown sugar
- ¼tsp table salt
- 80g/2¾oz salted butter, softened, plus extra for greasing
- 1 x 400g/14oz tin condensed milk caramel*
- 375g/12¼oz dark chocolate
- 150g/5¼oz double cream
- Pinch of sea salt flakes
- Line the base of a 25cm round tart tin with greaseproof paper, grease the sides with some extra butter
- In a food processor, blitz the Hobnobs, cocoa powder, sugar and salt
- Add the butter and pulse a few times to incorporate
- Firmly press the crumb mixture into the tin, taking extra care with the sides and aiming for an equal thickness throughout
- Chill for 10 minutes in the freezer
- Bake the tart case at 200ºC/390ºF/Gas 6 for 10-12 minutes. Set aside to cool
- Put all the ingredients (apart from the salt flakes) into a saucepan and gently warm over a low-medium heat. Keep stirring the mixture until the chocolate has melted and the ganache is smooth and glossy
- Pour the filling into the cooled tart case and chill in the fridge for a couple of hours
- Just before serving, sprinkle with the salt flakes
- *I make my own by boiling an unopened tin of condensed milk for an hour. I boil a few tins at a time and keep them for making things like banoffee pie and millionaire's shortbread.
Cakes & Bakes: Natural red velvet layer cake
I’ve made & posted a version of red velvet cake on the blog before. Today, I’ve used an alternative recipe to produce a natural red velvet layer cake.
I’ve done a lot of research into getting that bright red colour naturally. Beetroot powder instead of red food colouring and un-dutched cocoa powder instead of the usual alkalised type found more usually in the shops.
You see, this cake is all about chemistry. It’s the pH magic that’s created when the acid of the non-alkaline cocoa powder, the buttermilk and the vinegar are introduced to the bicarbonate of soda.
As an aside, our local supermarket was out of buttermilk so I had to make my own. It’s really simple and a good tip to remember. Add a tablespoonful of white vinegar or lemon juice to a cup (235ml/8⅓fl oz) of milk, allow to stand for 5 minutes – there’s your home-made buttermilk!
The cake wasn’t the radioactive shade of red that you get when using food colouring. I think I’d add a little bit more beetroot powder next time to get a slightly redder shade however – my natural red velvet recipe is work in progress! Some people comment on an ‘earthy’ taste to their cake when using beetroot, but I can’t say I noticed any. A delicious taste was detected that’s for sure!
Click here to save this recipe to Pinterest!
- 200g/7oz unsalted butter, at room temperature, plus extra for greasing
- 420g/15oz plain flour
- 75g/2¾oz cocoa powder
- 50g/1¾oz beetroot powder
- 375g/13oz golden caster sugar
- 3 eggs, beaten
- 1½tsp vanilla extract
- 335ml/11¾ fl oz buttermilk
- 1½tsp bicarbonate of soda
- 1½tsp white distilled vinegar
- 75g/2¾oz unsalted butter, slightly softened
- 450g/1lb icing sugar
- 190g/6¾oz full-fat cream cheese, chilled
- 1tsp vanilla extract
- Preheat the oven to 180ºC/350ºF/Gas mark 4
- Grease 4 x 20cm sandwich tins and line with baking parchment
- Combine the flour, cocoa and beetroot powder in a large bowl and set aside
- In another large bowl, cream the butter and sugar together
- Slowly whisk in the beaten eggs, then the vanilla extract
- Start adding the flour mixture to the butter mixture in batches, whisking well but slowly after each addition
- Add the buttermilk and stir until smooth
- Working quickly, combine the bicarbonate of soda and vinegar in a small bowl, then fold it into the cake mixture
- Once incorporated, divide the batter between the prepared cake tins
- Bake for 25 minutes or until a skewer inserted in the centre comes out clean
- Remove and cool slightly in the tin before turning out on to a wire rack to cool completely
- Trim the cakes so they're level
- Rub the butter into the icing sugar to resemble fine breadcrumbs
- Add the chilled cream cheese and beat until smooth
- Stir in the vanilla extract
- Fit a large piping bag with a plain nozzle and fill with the frosting
- Place the first cake on a cake stand or plate and pipe large pearls of frosting on the top, starting at the outside and working your way inwards
- Top with the next layer of cake and repeat until all the layers are lined up and the top is fully decorated with frosting
Cakes & Bakes: Sourdough coffee chocolate cake
This will be my final recipe celebrating Sourdough September – fitting really, that it’s a recipe for a dessert – sourdough coffee chocolate cake. I’ve lifted the instructions from one of my new favourite websites – King Arthur Flour. Their recipes quick-convert between Imperial, metric and US cups – a really useful feature!
As well as Sourdough September, this cake also honours International Coffee Day which happens each year on 1st October… and while I’m at it, why not honour Chocolate Week which runs from 9th-15th October. There… I’ve covered all the bases and no one was left out!
Another good thing about this recipe is that it calls for ripe sourdough or discard. I love using up leftovers! It also lists espresso powder as an ingredient; I ground some espresso beans on the finest setting and that worked perfectly.
The resulting sourdough coffee chocolate cake is HUGE – almost a kilo of icing alone! You may want to halve the recipe. The two of us will be eating a slice every day for a week… not that I’m complaining. It’s soft, moist, sweet and gorgeous!
There are three separate parts to the process; the cake, the icing and the drizzle. If you don’t think you’ll have enough time in a single day to do all three, you can break it up into stages across two or even three days.
This would be a great one to make as a celebration cake. You could even divide the batter into two tins and make a layer cake if you prefer.
Click here to save the recipe to Pinterest for later.
Sourdough coffee chocolate cake
Ingredients
For the cake
- 240 g/8½oz sourdough starter ripe or discard
- 225 g/8oz whole or evaporated milk
- 240 g/8½oz organic plain white flour
- 300 g/10½oz granulated sugar
- 200 g/7oz vegetable oil
- 2 tsp vanilla extract
- 1 tsp salt
- 1½ tsp baking soda
- 65 g/2⅓oz unsweetened cocoa
- 1 tsp espresso powder optional
- 2 large eggs
For the icing
- 680 g/24oz icing sugar
- 170 g/6oz butter
- 115 g/4oz plain yoghurt or buttermilk
- 1 tbsp + 1½tsp espresso powder
- 15 g/½oz hot water
For the drizzle
- 50 g/1¾oz dark chocolate broken into pieces
- 15 g/½oz milk
- 20 g/¾oz golden syrup
Instructions
For the cake
- Combine the starter, milk and flour in a large mixing bowl
- Cover and rest at room temperature for 2-3 hours
- Preheat the oven to 175ºC/350°F/Gas mark 4
- Lightly grease a 23 x 33cm (9 x 13-inch) cake tin
- In a separate bowl, beat together the sugar, oil, vanilla, salt, baking soda, cocoa and espresso powder - the mixture will be grainy
- Add the eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition
- Gently combine the chocolate mixture with the starter/flour/milk mixture, stirring until smooth. It will be gloopy at first; however, the batter will become smoother as you continue to beat gently
- Pour the batter into the prepared cake tin
- Bake for 30-40 minutes or until a skewer inserted into the middle comes away clean
- Remove the cake from the oven and set it on a wire rack to cool while you make the icing
For the icing
- Sift the icing sugar into a large mixing bowl. Set it aside
- In a small saucepan set over medium heat, melt the butter and add the buttermilk/yoghurt
- Dissolve the espresso powder in the hot water, add to the pan, and bring the mixture just to a boil
- Immediately pour the simmering liquid over the icing sugar in the bowl, and beat until smooth
- Pour the warm icing over the cake. If you wait too long and the icing stiffens up, just spread it over the cake with an offset spatula
For the drizzle
- Combine the chocolate pieces, milk and golden syrup in a microwave-safe container. Microwave until the chocolate softens, then stir until smooth (a couple of 10-second bursts)
- Drizzle the chocolate sauce over the icing
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