It’s only a week to Christmas, can you believe it?! How time flies! 2020 has been one rollercoaster of a year and I’m more than happy to bid goodbye. I’m guessing we’re all feeling it? But there’s always a silver lining in everything and I do have a few things to be thankful for this year so I guess it’s important to focus on the good and be grateful for it <3 This calls for a celebration and what better way to say celebration than a decadent, delicious, stunning dessert! Say hello to Mr. Black Forest Roll. He’s gorgeous, he’s chocolatey, and most importantly, he will satisfy all your cravings! I’m gonna pretend that doesn’t sound wrong hahaha (parental alert!)

Growing up, black forest was always our go to cake for any family celebrations. We would get a large black forest cake from this bakery which was kinda like our resident bakery (everybody knew us and what we would order haha) for literally all the birthdays/events/anniversaries, you name it. Now, I have 4 siblings so you can only imagine how many cakes we would order every year. Sometimes we would switch it up and go with a white forest cake, which I didn’t know was a thing. It’s basically the same but with white chocolate curls instead. It looks like a little snow town now that I think about it. It was such a typical old school bakery style cake, if you know what I mean. The cream was so thick, you would have a frosting mouth afterwards. I loved it, and every time I go back home, I have to get a black forest slice for old times sake. This cake has been a part of my family’s celebrations for so long, and I hope it can now become a part of yours xx.

This year I’m really focusing on bringing a touch of southern hemisphere in some of the classic Christmas desserts and this is just one of them. With cherries flooding the markets, I knew I had to make a yule log with chocolate and cherries with chocolate shavings to create the ‘log’ effect. It’s a showstopper and will surely be a hit amongst your loved ones at your Christmas table. Don’t be fooled by its good looks, its actually super easy to make. It is also a very time efficient recipe because you can make all the different elements of it 2-3 days in advance and assemble it a day ahead to save you any or all of the baking time, slogging in the kitchen. The tempered chocolate curls are an option but they are quite fun to make. I understand not everybody is a master of tempering chocolate so you don’t necessarily need to temper chocolate for this. You can simply use a peeler and a block of chocolate and peel a few curls to resemble chipped barks.

If you’re not super confident with how to assemble a swiss roll, I have a little video tutorial that you can watch to help you out: click here. For a more detailed explanation on how to get your swiss roll right, you can read up all about it here.

Let’s get this show in the kitchen, shall we? Happy baking!

Recipe

Serves: 8

Ingredients

For the chocolate cake:

• 4 large eggs, separated

• 65 g castor sugar

• 65 g packed light brown sugar

• 15 ml strongly brewed coffee or 1 tsp espresso powder

• 60 g salted butter, melted and cooled

• 1 tsp vanilla extract

• 62 g plain flour

• 20 g good quality cocoa powder, plus more for sifting

• 1 tsp baking powder

For the filling:

• 200 g mascarpone cream

• 100 g double cream, or whipping cream

• 30 g icing sugar

• 1 tbsp vanilla extract

For the cherry compote:

• 175g pitted cherries, halved

• 1/2 tbsp sugar

• 1/4 tsp tartaric or citric acid

• 30 ml kirsch

For the chocolate ganache:

• 75g good quality dark chocolate, min. 55% cocoa

• 75g pure cream

• a block of chocolate for curls

Method

For the cherry compote:

• In a small saucepan, heat together the pitted and halved cherries and the sugar on medium-low heat. Cook it down until all the juices are released and the cherries are soft. Remove from heat and add in the tartaric acid and kirsch. Cool down completely. Preserve the syrup.

For the chocolate ganache:

• Place the chopped chocolate and cream in a microwave safe bowl and microwave until the melted has melted in 30 seconds burst~roughly 1.5 mins. Whisk together to form a smooth ganache. Place a cling film on the surface of the ganache and refrigerate for an hour or until a spreadable consistency. *

For the filling:

• In a stand mixer bowl, fitted with a whisk attachment, mix together all the ingredients until firm & medium peaks form. Refrigerate until use.

For the chocolate cake:

• Preheat oven to 180 C. Grease a 12″ x 17″ sheet cake tray with butter and line with parchment/baking paper. I suggest using parchment paper here instead of just greasing the tray for easier handling of the cake.

• Sift the flour, cocoa powder and baking powder together in a bowl or onto a baking paper. Keep aside.

• In a large bowl, whisk the egg yolks with the brown sugar and vanilla extract until pale and creamy ~ approx 2-3 minutes. You can do this either with a hand beater or by hand. Set aside.

• Using a stand mixer, fitted with a whisk attachment, beat the egg whites with a pinch of salt until foamy. Add the castor sugar gradually while still whisking and whisk until stiff peaks form. If using a stand mixer, you can simultaneously do this step while you whisk the egg yolks.

• Add the sifted dry ingredients, melted butter and brewed espresso to the egg yolks and mix until just combined.

• Using a spatula, gentle fold in the egg whites with the cake mix until just incorporated. Don’t overwork it, stop as soon as you can no longer see white streaks. Make sure to fold and NOT mix,  to not deflate the egg whites.

• Spread the batter evenly onto the prepared cake tray. Gently shimmy the tray to smoothen the top. Bake for 9-11 minutes, or until the cake springs back when you press gently. Mine was done in 10 minutes but I would check at 9 first. We don’t want to over bake the cake.

• As soon the cake is out of the oven, lift the cake along with the parchment paper and place onto a clean work surface. Dust lightly with cocoa powder.

• Carefully start rolling the cake with the shorter end with the parchment paper stuck on, tucking the seam under the cake. Allow to cool the cake completely in this position. (I usually put a bottle of something against the cake to support the cake and stop it from falling.)

Assembly:

• Place a large sheet of baking paper on the work surface. Once the cake has completely cooled down, gently unroll the cake. Take off the parchment paper from the cake and place the cake on the new baking paper.

• Brush the leftover cherry syrup all over the cake. Spread the filling evenly on the cake. Do not spread to the ends too much as the filling will spread once you roll the cake. Spread the soft cherry pieces on the cake.

• Start rolling the cake carefully and keeping it tight, making sure to tuck the seam under. If the filling leaks out a little, you can always scrape it off.

• Fold the baking paper over the cake and gently tuck at the bottom of the cake using a ruler to tighten the roll and also straighten it.

• Refrigerate the cake for at least half an hour or until use.

• Spread a generous layer of chocolate ganache over the cake. Use a spoon and create vertical indentations to resemble a log. Garnish with chocolate curls and a dusting of icing sugar. Cut into slices and serve! 

Notes:

*- If the ganache is set too hard, you can microwave it for 10-15 seconds to soften it a little to get a spreadable consistency.

If you enjoyed that and tried it at home, please tag me at @myyummyspatula on instagram so that I can see all your bakes! For more BTS stories, updates and fun, you can follow long here: