Choc Cherry Log

This no-bake Choc Cherry Log is the perfect accompaniment to your favourite nightcap.

The recipe makes four small/medium logs which can be stored in the fridge for up to one week. So it's also perfect to gift or take along when you're visiting and don't want to turn up empty handed.

With cocoa, glace cherries, slivered almonds and coconut, it's a fabulous festive treat that will have you going back for "just one more little slice" – more than once.

A quick chat and a recipe swap

The original recipe for this wonderful treat comes from a cafe in Darling Harbour, Sydney. My mum, who's always up for a chat, got talking to the owner of this cafe, an Italian man.

He was happy to share one of his best-selling recipes with her – and although she didn't get the name of this treat, she's made up the recipe countless times since.

It was a bestseller at the bakery where she worked at the time, and we always especially loved to enjoy it at Christmas time.

We hadn't made it for the past few years as the original recipe contains raw egg and we'd avoided this due to increased awareness of the risks of consuming raw egg.

However, my mum came up with a great substitute for the raw egg recently. I tested it with this new ingredient and, wow, it's just as good as I remember it.

The closest recipe I can find to this one is Italian "chocolate salami." It's not quite the same, though, and given we did not know the original name of this recipe, and we've changed it up a bit, we've given this recipe a new name: Choc Cherry Log.

Choc Cherry Log: the ingredients

To make up this recipe you'll need:

• pavlova magic or meringue powder (the ingredient we've used instead of raw egg, often used in royal icing instead of egg white too)
• Marie or other plain biscuits
• cocoa
• unsalted butter
• glace cherries
• slivered almonds
• desiccated coconut.

The quantities can be found in the recipe card at the end of this post.

Melt and mix: making no-bake Choc Cherry Log

First, you'll need to prepare three bowls containing:

Bowl 1: melted butter

Bowl 2: finely crushed biscuits, cocoa, cherries and almonds

Bowl 3: pavlova magic and 140 ml lukewarm water (mixed on high speed for 1-2 minutes) and coconut.

You then mix the contents of each bowl together and stir until combined.

Place the mixture into the fridge for half an hour and then take it out and divide the mixture into four equal parts.

Roll each part into a log shape and then roll in coconut.

Wrap in aluminium foil and place into the fridge to set overnight.

Once set, slice into rounds before serving.