Salted Caramel Fudge Yule Log Recipe

Who fancies a slice of fudged-up chocolate yule log? I do!

Ruby had a lovely afternoon in the kitchen this weekend, tarting up Mary Berry's yule log recipe with her salted caramel fudge sauce and pudding pieces. It's so delicious, it was gone in days! If you're not a fan of salted caramel, our vanilla fudge sauce and pudding pieces will work just as well.

Thank you Mary Berry, you're an angel!

Ingredients

For the sponge;
4 large free-range eggs
100g/3½oz caster sugar
65g/2½oz self raising flour
40g/1½oz cocoa powder
For the filling;
300ml/½ pint whipped double cream
1 Bottle of Ruby's Salted Caramel Fudge Sauce
For the chocolate and fudge topping;
300ml/½ pint double cream
300g/10½oz dark chocolate broken into small pieces
One bag of Ruby's Salted Caramel Fudge Pudding Pieces
You will also need some icing sugar to hand and a sprig of holly for decoration.
Method
Preheat the oven to 200C/400F/Gas 6. Lightly grease a 33x23cm/13x9in Swiss roll tin, and line with non-stick paper or baking parchment, pushing it into the corners.
To make the sponge;
Whisk the eggs and sugar until pale in colour, light and frothy. This can take a while, so keep going until the mixture has really fluffed up.
Sift the flour and cocoa powder into the mixture, then carefully fold in with a spatula until all the cocoa and flour are mixed in. Take your time with this - you don't want to beat any more air out of the mixture than is necessary.
Pour the mixture into the lined tin and spread evenly out into the corners. Bake in the middle of the preheated oven for 8–10 minutes, or until well risen and firm to the touch. The sides should be shrinking away from the edge of the tin slightly.
Place a piece of baking parchment bigger than the Swiss roll tin on a work surface. Dust with icing sugar generously. (I would like to emphasise the word "generously," as I wasn't generous enough when I made this!). Carefully invert the cake onto the paper and remove the bottom lining piece of paper.
Cut a score mark (not too deep) 2.5cm/1in in, along one of the longer edges. Starting with this edge, begin to tightly roll up the sponge using the paper. Roll with the paper inside and sit the roll on top of its outside edge to cool completely.
Make the ganache topping;
Heat the cream in a pan, just so as you can keep your finger in it. Remove from the heat and add the chocolate, stirring until it is melted - do make sure that every piece of chocolate is 100% melted before cooling to room temperature. Once cooled, put into the fridge to firm up (this icing needs to be very thick for piping).
Let's put it all together!
Here's the fun bit! Uncurl the cold Swiss roll and remove the paper. Shake your fudge sauce bottle well.
Now I'm leaving it up to you as to how much fudge sauce you put in this. I like to pour just over half of the bottle on to the sponge and leave the remainder to drizzle over the top of the log just before serving. Once you've poured your sauce onto the sponge, smooth it out with the back of a spoon. You may now lick the spoon clean!
Next, spread the whipped cream on top, and re-roll tightly. Cut a quarter of the cake off diagonally (cutting in shorter at the base of the log). Transfer the large piece of cake to a serving plate and angle the cut end in to the middle of the large cake to make a branch.
Put the chocolate icing into a piping bag fitted with a star nozzle. Pipe long thick lines along the cake, covering the cake completely. Alternatively, just use a palette knife to spread on the icing and create rough bark texture with a fork. Cover each end with icing, or if you wish to see the cream, leave un-iced.
Sprinkle with as many of Ruby's salted caramel fudge pudding pieces over the top as you wish.
Dust with icing sugar and decorate with fresh holly.
Delicious served with vanilla ice cream and the remaining salted caramel fudge sauce.
Happy Christmas!