baking help - buche de noel/swiss rolly thing

[apuppydaviesisforlife]

i have a delicious looking recipe for buche de noel filled with fresh cream and raspberries that looks like a damn fine alternative to xmas pud (can't stand it, girls not too keen either).

question: the directions say to leave the cake bit "at least 2 hours" to cool - could i make it a day in advance and assemble it with the cream on the day?

anyone done this? would it still roll okay the next day or might it dry up too much? sponge is made with just eggs, sugar and chocolate, no flour at all

I haven't done it but I would put greaseproof paper on top of the flat cake and then roll it, and wrap the roll in cling film or foil. Then unroll the next day and then assemble. If you are going to coat in chocolate butter icing or similar it will hide any cracks or let you piece it back together if it should break!

just have my nigella christmas book to hand she has what sounds like pretty much the same recipe and says you can make the whole thing and store it in an airtight container in a cool place up to 1 week in advance. she does a buttercream rather than fresh cream filling though - guess sugar helps preserve it.

however making it on christmas eve and then storing it airtight and somewhere cool should be fine for christmas day even with cream - how about the boot of the car or garage if you have either?

alternatively, her buttercream recipe is 175g dark choc, 250g icing sugar, 225g butter, 1tbsp vanilla extract. Melt chocolate, cream together butter and iucing sugar, add in cooled melted choc and vanilla. Use it as filling and as icing on top.

very cunning lilo looking at the pic int he book i fear it may crack pretty badly at first rolling - i wonder whether attempting to unroll and reroll might result in an enormous pile of (delicious) crumbs!

def want fresh cream but car boot sounds like a great alternative to squeezing it into the fridge with a crowbar.

cheers

I think more likely to crumble if you don't roll whilst fresh. Why not make one of each, see which one works best and use the other for trifle sponges once dried out?