Many Christmas desserts include dried fruit but my family won’t eat it. Can you give me a recipe for a festive treat with no dried fruit in sight? 5.

I have the same problem; my sister-in-law doesn’t eat anything with dried fruit, so I always make alternatives, like a chocolate log. The recipe below serves 12.

Cut a piece of parchment paper slightly larger than the sponge. Sprinkle cocoa powder all over the paper and turn the sponge out on to it.

Fold the parchment paper over one edge and use it to roll up the sponge tightly, so that the parchment paper is inside the rolled cake. Allow to cool like this.

To prepare the icing, place cream into a medium-sized non-stick pan and heat it up to just before boiling point. Remove from heat and add the chocolate pieces, stirring until they melt. Set aside to cool.

To assemble the log, whip the cream for the filling until it forms stiff peaks. Unroll the sponge cake and spread the cream evenly over the sponge. Add the berries before carefully rolling the sponge up again, from the same direction as before, only this time without the parchment paper. Don’t worry if some of the cream oozes out of the ends.

Once rolled, stir the icing again before spreading it over the cake liberally, covering it from all sides. Lightly run a fork over the icing to create a bark-like finish. Then dust with icing sugar for a snow effect and refrigerate. Remove from the fridge an hour before serving.