Salted Caramel Gluten Free Yule Log

Instructions

1. First, make the salted caramel sauce. Melt the butter, light brown sugar, caster sugar and golden syrup together in a small non-stick pan over a low heat. Cook very gently for 10 minutes or until it is simmering gently. Swirl the pan to mix the ingredients. Add the cream and the salt to the pan, swirling to ensure fully mixed, then remove from the heat and pour into a bowl. Set aside to cool.
2. Now onto the sponge! Preheat the oven to 180C (fan). Separate the eggs, place the whites in a large mixing bowl and the yolks in a second mixing bowl. Set the yolks aside.
3. Use an electric hand whisk to beat the whites until they form peaks. Add the caster sugar to the beaten egg whites and whisk again for 3-5 minutes until you have soft peaks.
4. Beat the yolks together with the milk, until frothy, then add to the egg whites and sugar before whisking them together for a couple of minutes.
5. Sift the cocoa, flour and xanthan gum over the frothy mixture. Now use a spatula to fold the dry ingredients into the egg mixture, without knocking out all the air. Fold and scrape at a slow pace, until fully incorporated. The mixture should still be quite mousse-like and full of air.
6. Line a rectangular baking tray (mine is 32cm x 22cm) with greaseproof paper, so that the base and sides are covered. Pour the cake mixture onto the tray and gently spread to the sides and corners using a small palette knife. Bake at 180C for 8-10 minutes, until cooked through - it cooks very quickly.
7. Allow to cool for 2 minutes, then lift out of the tray and onto your work surface. Ease the baking paper away from the sides, to loosen, then on one of the shorter sides of the sponge, fold the excess baking paper over the end of the sponge. This will stop it sticking to itself when rolled. Time to roll! Start from the short end and roll the sponge into a log shape, so the baking paper is on outside of the sponge. Set aside to cool completely, still rolled up (see image below).
8. While the sponge cools, make the chocolate ganache frosting. Finely chop the chocolate and place in a heatproof mixing bowl (medium sized or large). Heat the cream in a pan until gently steaming, but do NOT let it boil. Then pour the hot cream over the chopped chocolate. Leave it to set for 5 minutes, then whisk with a fork until you have a lovely, glossy ganache. Transfer to the fridge to cool for 30 minutes (stir after 15 minutes).
9. After chilling, the ganache should have thickened up a lot but not solidified (if it is has gone solid, warm it until you can beat it with a fork). Beat it with an electric whisk until it has fluffed up and doubled in volume. It should have the consistency of thick buttercream (if too runny, pop it back in the fridge). Transfer into a piping bag and set aside for a moment.
10. Finally, we'll make the mascarpone cream and then we can assemble the yule log. Simply mix the mascarpone, icing sugar and vanilla with whisk until smooth. Now add the double cream and beat for about a minute until you have a thick, stiff cream mixture.
11. Time to assemble the yule log! Carefully unroll the cooled sponge, then spread the mascarpone cream all over the inside. Make little gullies using a teaspoon and pour the salted caramel into the gullies using the spoon, in stripes (see image below). Now roll the sponge up quite tightly, until you have a lovely swirl of chocolate sponge and cream, studded with pockets of caramel. Trim the edges to neaten slightly - then the perk of being the cook is that you get to eat these bits as a treat :).
12. Transfer to your serving board and pipe the whipped chocolate ganache onto the yule log. If you don't have a piping bag just use a knife or spatula to spread it. Cover the whole yule log - covering the ends is optional, I like to leave them uncovered to display the swirl, but it's up to you :). Use a fork to create a bark effect in the chocolate ganache (I heat the fork in hot water, then dry, to create nice clear lines), dust with icing sugar, add your decorations and serve!

If you are making the yule log in advance, store it in the fridge to keep it chilled. Same with any leftovers, they should be refrigerated to keep the log at its best.