A Taste of Birmingham

I am a confident baker…..OK, I will be honest I am a confident baker when I know what I am doing; which means that when I make a ‘Easy banana cake’ I am like Chef Kel in the kitchen, but I can also be nervous if trying something new – I mean what if it goes wrong?!

However, I do love to try new recipes (especially if it is for something sweet), I find baking relaxing and of course there is the added bonus of getting to eat the product afterwards.

I was recently pointed in the direction of a recipe on the Millennium Hotels website provided by Chef MIchael Chambers. Michael has worked with Millennium and Copthorne Hotel, Birmingham for the past year and is developing a new menu and if this recipe is anything to go by the food is going to be amazing!

This recipe [in true Birmingham Style] is chocolate based and is definitely something I want to eat, I mean try!I got the ingredients together and started out on my first ever Chocolate Yule Log and set to work. I was a little worried about how it would work as I have never done any kind of swiss roll before. There are three parts to it, the cake, the filling and the icing (you can find all the instructions on the website). I was surprised by how easy the sponge was to make, and when it came out of the oven it made me smile as it looked like it should, the filling again is easy enough to make; it does use ingredients I haven’t used before, but would now consider using again.  By the time I had filled and rolled the cake, I was impressed with myself! 

The icing for me was a little more difficult, only because I couldn’t get it to look like the picture of Michael’s, but I have challenged myself to have another go and work on the icing, to make it more attractive. Hubby has said that the photo doesn’t do it justice and it looks better in real life.

To add to this it tasted delicious! If you have a sweet tooth then this is definitely for you. Do you fancy it? Head over HERE and give it a go yourself!

Disclaimer: I was sent the ingredients to tell you about this recipe, I remain honest at all times!