Name: Buche de Noel
Prep time: 35 min
Cook time: 10 min
Total time: 45 min
Yield: 6
Ingredients: Cake; 3 eggs; 85 gram caster sugar; 85 gram plain flour; 2 tablespoon cocoa; 1/2 teaspoon baking powder; Filling and topping; 225 gram dark chocolate, broken into squares; 75 gram butter; 280 millilitre cream; 1 1/2 tablespoon golden syrup; 300 gram icing sugar, sifted, plus extra unsifted to serve; berries, to garnish

Buche de Noel

Buche de Noel is a chocolatey Christmas cake that's filled with cream and rolled into a log. Try this simple recipe - it's a great introduction to this festive dessert

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Serves 6

Prep

35M

Cook

10M

Total

45M

This recipe first appeared in Food magazine issue 86.

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Ingredients

Cake

3 eggs

85 gram caster sugar

85 gram plain flour

2 tablespoon cocoa

1/2 teaspoon baking powder

Filling and topping

225 gram dark chocolate, broken into squares

75 gram butter

280 millilitre cream

1 1/2 tablespoon golden syrup

300 gram icing sugar, sifted, plus extra unsifted to serve

berries, to garnish

Method

1.Preheat the oven to 200°C. Grease and line a 23cm x 32cm Swiss roll tin with baking paper.

2.To make the cake, beat together the eggs and sugar with an electric whisk for about 8 minutes until thick and creamy. Mix the flour, cocoa and baking powder together in a bowl and sift onto the egg mixture. Fold in very carefully. Pour the mixture into the prepared tin and tip the tin from side to side to spread the mixture into the corners. Bake in the preheated oven for 10 minutes.

3.Lay a sheet of baking paper on the work surface. When the cake is ready, tip it onto the paper, peel off the lining, then roll the cake up from its longest edge with the paper inside. Set aside to cool.

4.To make the icing, melt the chocolate and butter together in a bowl over a pan of hot water. Remove from the heat and stir in 7 tablespoons of the cream and the golden syrup. Beat in the icing sugar until smooth.

5.Whip the remaining cream until it holds its shape. Unroll the cake, remove the backing paper and spread the cream over the surface. Carefully roll up again into a log.

6.Cut a couple of thick diagonal slices from one end of the log. Lift the log on to a plate, then arrange the slices on the side with the diagonal cut against the cake to make branches. Spread the icing over the log and branches (don’t cover the ends), mark the icing with a fork to give the effect of tree bark. Dust with icing sugar to resemble snow and garnish with berries.