Owner of Benedicts and Great British Menu judge Richard Bainbridge helps try 2017's Christmas yule logs.

Both Richard and I agree, chocolate yule logs are a taste of our childhoods. As kids of the 80s, these jazzed up Swiss rolls were wheeled out after Christmas lunch and formed a magical ending to the feasting, with their dusting of icing sugar (at my house they'd often have a plastic piece of holly or a robin poked in the top too). So do today's supermarket offerings live up to our memories?

The Original Cake Co yule log (from Co-operative stores)

3/10

This is one of the offerings from the Co-op this year and both of us thought it was pretty bad I'm afraid. For starters it was called a yule log but looked more like a cross between a pound cake and a brownie. The fudge texture wasn't unpleasant (although it was no way anything like yule log) but the overall flavour was oily and artificial with no passable chocolate taste. Points though for the decoration of golden chocolate malt balls.

Tesco Chocolate Yule Log

6/10

According to the packaging this serves eight. Well, if you're Scrooge that rings true because a finger width of cake per person would be a bit mean! This log was too dry and too sweet. It would be alright for children, who wouldn't turn their noses up at it, but it wasn't our favourite

Deluxe Chocolate Yule Log, Lidl

7/10

A good effort in the decoration stakes from Lidl. With its neat piped finish and topping of bronzed white chocolate curls, it looked quite pretty. The overall flavour profile was very sweet as the cake was covered in sucrosy milk chocolate and a milk chocolate fudge icing. Some more cocoa in either would have ranked this more highly.

M&S Chocolate Yule Log

8/10

This came out in our top three. It had been generously iced and piped nicely and was good and moist. We found the flavour too sweet for our palates but agreed our kids would dive in head first to this.

Sainsbury's Chocolate Log

8.5/10

This one doesn't look anything special or out of the ordinary compared to your usual Swiss roll, apart from a sprinkling of icing sugar. But eating it was a trip down memory lane. This is the yule log of our Christmases past. Cool, crisp chocolate around the outside. And a decently (if a tad dry) cocoa-flavoured sponge with a not-too-sweet chocolate buttercream. If you're feeling nostalgic, this is the one for you.

STAR BUY

Asda Extra Special Hand Rolled Triple Chocolate Yule Log

9.5/10

Well done Asda for coming up trumps with this cake, which Richard said wasn't dissimilar to what he'd make himself at Benedicts Restaurant. Made with Belgian chocolate, it wasn't too sweet, the finish looked homemade, and the taste was rich but not sickly. The icing tasted of real butter and proper chocolate, and this was so moreish we went in for another bite. This is the one to put proudly on your Christmas table.