Salted caramel chocolate log dessert
For chocoholics at Christmas, this showstopper is the perfect alternative to a Christmas cake – a light, fluffy chocolate sponge is rolled up with whipped cream and salted caramel sauce, and then covered with a rich dark chocolate ganache. A big chocolate hit is just the thing to go with the deep fruity flavours of Quady’s Stardboard 2006, and the salted caramel echoes the port’s notes of vanilla and brown sugar. Although there are quite a few steps to this recipe, none of them are complicated, so don’t be put off – give it a go.
Ingredients
Serves 10
- 6 eggs, separated
- 150g caster sugar
- 50g Sugar & Crumbs Chocolate Cherry Cocoa Powder
- For the salted caramel sauce:
- 70g butter
- 50g light brown sugar
- 50g caster sugar
- 200ml double cream
For the filling:
- 300ml double cream
For the ganache:
- 300ml double cream
- 225g dark chocolate
To decorate:
- Icing sugar (optional)
Method
- Start by making the ganache – it needs to cool and thicken before you can put it on the cake, so allow a couple of hours before you want to serve. Break up the chocolate and place in a large bowl. Warm the cream on the hob in a small saucepan, until it starts to steam and get frothy, then pour it over the chocolate and stir well until it’s melted, smooth and glossy. Set aside.
- Next, make the salted caramel sauce – this also needs to cool. Measure out the butter, brown sugar and caster sugar, and warm on the hob, stirring occasionally, until the butter has melted and the ingredients have combined. Then, remove the pan from the hob and pour in the cream. Add a pinch of salt, stir well and set aside.
- After about an hour, you can start making the cake. Preheat the oven to 180°C (160°C fan). Separate the eggs, putting the whites in one mixing bowl and the yolks in another. Whisk the whites until soft peaks start to form, add 50g caster sugar, and whisk again to bring it back to the soft peak stage.
- Meanwhile, whisk the remaining 100g caster sugar with the yolks until thick and pale yellow. Add the cocoa powder, and then a spoonful of the whisked egg white, and stir.
- Next, add the remaining egg white a third at a time, folding gently to combine without beating out all of the air (folding is a crucial skill for this cake, because if you beat the air out of the mixture it’ll end up as flat as a pancake – so look it up on Youtube if you’re not
