Bûche de Noël (Yule Log)

This is a simple recipe, it should work every time (famous last words I know, but let's hope not, it's christmas!). You only need very simple equipments for this, I actually went to my mum's and she barely has any baking equipment around, but it still turned out ok. This is a very nice alternative to traditional christmas pudding, which can be heavy and boozy, but if you are not a fan of those like me, then, please try this!

Ingredients 

• 100g caster sugar
• 4 large eggs
• 60g plain flour
• 40g coco powder
• 400 ml double cream
• 200g plain chocolate in small pieces (about 50% coco)

1. Pre-heat oven to 200 degrees C (fan assisted) 
2. Line 23 x 33 cm baking tray with baking parchment and push it down into the corners
3. Sift and measure flour and coco powder and set aside
4. Put sugar and eggs in a large mixing bowl and whisk with an electric whisk over a saucepan of simmering water, make sure the bottom of the bowl does not touch the hot water
5. Whisk until the eggs become a very light pale yellow and thick enough to leave a trail behind when you lift the whisks out of the egg
6. Very gently fold in the flour and coco powder with a metal spoon until they have evenly incorporated into the egg
7. Spread mixture onto the baking tray 
8. Bake in pre-heated oven for 10-12 minutes, or until risen and sponge springs back when touched lightly with a finger in the middle 
9. Let sponge cool down slightly in tray for 5 minutes and lift it out of the tray
10. Tip the sponge upside down onto another sheet of baking parchment paper and carefully lift off the parchment paper on the other side
11. Trim off 1cm of sponge from all 4 sides of the sponge
12. Cut with a sharp knife about 1cm in on the length of the sponge from one end, do not cut all the one through, half way would do
13. Use parchment paper to roll in the slightly cut end to start the rolling process and tightly roll the rest
14. Let it rest in that position for 10 minutes
15. Meanwhile prepare chocolate ganache by heating 200ml double cream until boiling and then take it off the heat and let it cool down for 3-5 minutes
16. Pour hot cream over chocolate and stir until chocolate has melted and let it cool down until room temperature
17. Carefully unroll the log and let it cool down in that orientation
18. One roll has cooled down completely, whip the rest of the double cream until still peaks and spread across the inside of log and roll up the log again and trim off a bit from either end of the log
19. Cut about 8-10cm from one of the log diagonally and place it on the side of the other roll 
20. When the ganache has thickened, spread a generous amount evenly over all sides of the roll including the 2 ends
21. Use the end of clean stick/fork/spoon or anything to make longitudinal longs across the length of the logs and swirls at the ends to create the bark effect 
22. Dust with either icing sugar or chopped white chocolate for snowy effect 

This recipe is entered to classic french challenge a thttp://bluekitchenbakes.blogspot.co.uk