Buche de Noel (recipe: chocolate log)

It’s taken me til the ripe old age of [cough] to realise that Buche Noel may look impressive and imposing - but it’s ridiculously easy.

In fact the most difficult thing is finding somewhere cold to store it given that - like a lot of other people

on Christmas Eve - the fridge is a little more full than usual. Particularly because in these Covid-y times we probably keep more in there, to last us for longer, to save *horror* GOING OUT!  Add to that a turkey, cranberry sauce, a Camembert cheese that only appears at Christmas, alcohol etc etc, and it’s a bit busy in there.

The other difficult bit is not eating any before Christmas Day. We have a chocolate/fruit Christmas Cake but I’m not 100% sure the hubby and son will go for it (see previous post] so something like a buche de Noel is a sure fire winner.

The recipe is a Mary Berry one (and obviously most recipes of Mez Bez’s have success practically

guaranteed. It’s basically a fatless  chocolate sponge. Eggs and sugar whisked in the stand mixer while I measured out the flour and cocoa, fold it into the egg-sugar mix, bung it into the tray (hell, even my Swiss roll tray is a Mez Bez branded one...how could this NOT work?) and bake for 10 mins. It looked so incredibly bubbly and fluffy - I really wanted to look after it snd do it justice!

Turn it out onto baking parchment dusted with icing sugar, roll up and leave to cool (which happens surprisingly quickly). Whip up 300ml double cream (should’ve been whipping cream but I bought double cream by accident, oooops). Spread all that lovely whippy goodness across the cake and re-roll.

Cut about a quarter of the log off at a diagonal and reposition it on the side of the main bit, like a lopped-off branch sticking out. So far, so...errr...good. All I need now are the mad squirls from my garden to come snd climb it.

Meanwhile melt 250g dark choc and 250ml cream on a gentle heat in a pan (should’ve been 300 of each but the only choc left was my stash of beloved Hotel Chocolat  choc chips - a 250g bag so that’s bitten the dust 😣) They’ve been in the house less than a week! Mix it gently and turn off the heat, leave to cool a little. The recipe says put it in a piping bag and pipe lines all over the buche...couldn’t be bothered with that to be honest - it’s a LOG it’s supposed to look RUSTIC. Dust with icing sugar and ta-daaaah!

So, back to the problem of where to store it? Not in the garage - too much risk of mice (little buggers ate our bags of pasta a few months back so that’s now stored in big plastic IKEA boxes). The weather having turned seasonably cold in this case is a benefit: for one night only.... my buche de Noel is on the back seat of the car!!