Chocolate Yule Log

Would you look at this Honeybunches!! A chocolate log that looks and tastes fab-a-dab-dab, yet somehow gets away with being free-from the conventional ingredients that you would find in the O.G. ("original") version. I tested this recipe a heck-tone of times honeybunches, and that's a lot of chocolate logs (or rather broken up logs) to have on hand. So I am mega confident you'll find this one to roll to your liking and form one hardy, NOT fragile swirly-whirly log of wonderfulness. Woohoo!

Ingredients

• 2 tbsp mashed ripe banana
• 1/2 cup apple puree
• 1/2 cup coconut sugar
• 1/4 cup maple syrup
• 3 tbsp grapeseed oil
• 1/4 cup aquafaba (the starchy water from a can of chickpeas)
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 1 1/2 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp bicarbonate of soda
• 1/2 cup unsweetened plant milk
• 2 tsp apple cidar vinegar
• 1 cup GF plain flour (or sub for regular plain flour)
• 1/2 cup almond meal
• 1/3 cup cocoa powder
  Cream Filling
• 1 1/2 cups natural COYO yoghurt
• 2 tbsp vegan cream cheese (I used tofutti)
• 2 tbsp maple syrup
• 1 tsp vanilla

Method

1. Pre-heat your oven to 180C. Put it on the slow setting preferably over fan-forced, but both would work.
2. Take a large bowl and add the banana, apple puree and coconut sugar. Whisk until smooth, then add the maple, oil, aquafaba & vanilla and whisk again until combined.
3. Add the baking powder, bicarb, plant-milk & vinegar, then whisk again until combined. Add the flour, almond meal & cocoa and finally whisk gently from the center outwards until every is combined and smooth.
4. Grease and line a 28 x 35 cm (or 11 x 14 inch) baking tray (or similar) and pour the mixture into it and smooth out to all the edges with a spatula. The height should be about 1cm or a little more.
5. Bake in the pre-heated oven for 20-25 minutes, or until the cake bounces back at your touch. Let cool for 5 minutes.
6. Starting from the short edge, gently roll up your cake into a big spiral, wrapping all the baking paper up inside the cake. Don't worry if it looks like an interesting triangular architectural design, it will still work come assembling it. Set aside to cool completely.
7. Meanwhile, make your cream filling, by whipping together the COYO and cream cheese with electric beaters until thoroughly combined. Add the maple and vanilla and beat again until thick & smooth. Chill until needed.
8. When ready to assemble your log, gently unravel your cake, spread the cream filling all over the rectangle of cake, leaving a 1 inch gap where your log will finish rolling. Then you guessed it, gently roll the cake back up, so it looks like one lovely snail shell. Peel the baking paper away from the cake as you do this, so that it doesn't roll up inside of it. Take a large piece of plastic wrap and lift your log into the middle of it, wrap it up and chill for about 4 hours minimum until set and easy to cut.
9. When ready to serve, unwrap your log, top and tail it for flush ends (if you care about that), then slice and serve. To make it look nice, you can dust it with cocoa, icing sugar or chopped chocolate like I did. Chill, wrapped in something so to prevent it from drying out when not consuming. Enjoy honeybunches!