Somewhat trickier was the obligatory - in our house at any rate - yule log. I'm no domestic goddess in the kitchen department and, whilst I do have shelves of cookery books, most of them have accumulated more dust than Miss Havisham's wedding dress.
So I was quite relieved when presented with "the alternative yule log" - a very impressive affair comprising a vanilla swiss-roll style sponge heavily encrusted in soft buttercream. At least I was until I read the instructions. Now I can manage a basic sponge - it might not make GBBO but it's edible and the chaps like it. But a swiss roll? This requires more than just dolloping mix into tins and slapping two halves of cake together. Hmmmm...
This is where a cake-savvy friend comes in very handy (especially one who can be bribed with yarn). And this is how we did it (I use the term we loosely - my input was mostly of the moral support variety).
The mix for the cake (yes, 5 eggs!)
Only fair to have a pic of the person who did most of the work so here's Julia hard at work...
The roll (the tea towel was part of the instructions)
And cake 2 - for the crumbly coating (I cannot tell a lie -there may have been "a bit" more extra cake than we strictly needed here. But don't worry, it didn't go to waste).
And - ta dah! - the cake (yes, it's sitting in a garlic bread dish - it was a bit liable to rolling)
The lovely jammy, buttercream interior...
And a slice to show it off in its full glory...
With grateful thanks from the Tomkies family to the Telegraph's Rose Prince for the recipe and to Julia for culinary expertise. Yule will never be the same again :-)
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