Christmas Chocolate Log

This a plain, simple old fashioned cake.

It is our cake for Christmas Eve and tree decorating. It doesn’t have to look perfect and it won’t have time too anyway. If drinking chocolate makes the icing too sweet swap some of it for cocoa powder.

Merry Christmas and a Happy 2011 to you all.

Swiss roll

3 eggs

75g caster sugar

75g sifted plain flour

Line a Swiss roll tin with baking parchment and set the oven to GM5 / 180˚C.

Whisk the eggs and sugar together until very pale, then gently fold in the flour.

Spread the mixture on to the prepared Swiss roll tin and bake for about 15 minutes.

While the cake is baking lay a clean tea towel on the counter.

When the cake is done it should be golden brown on top and spring back when poked with a finger.

Turn the cake out onto a clean tea towel and roll it up from one of the narrow ends. Leave to cool on a wire rack

Chocolate Icing

100g soft butter

100g icing sugar

100g drinking chocolate powder

2 tbs warm water

1 dsp extra icing sugar for dusting

Put the butter, sugar and drinking chocolate powder in to a bowl and slowly start to mix with an electric mixer. Add the first spoonful of water and whisk a bit faster and then the second spoonful. Keep whisking until the icing is pale and fluffy.

Unroll the cold Swiss roll and spread with a third of the icing and roll up again.

Cut a 5 cm slice off the roll at an angle and place it at the side of the roll to create a branch.

Put the roll on a serving plate and cover with the remaining icing.

Decorate using a fork to make rough bark like ridges on the roll and in circles on the ends like tree rings.

Use the extra dessertspoon of icing sugar and a sieve to dust the top of the log with some snowy icing sugar.