Chocolate Yule Log

This is really simple, but everyone loves it! I make this for Christmas every year, it lasts quite a long time in a sealed tin, but the fresher the better. My mum taught me to do this when I was very young.

I use 2 chocolate swiss rolls that you can buy from any supermarket.

1. Cut one end of one of the rolls at an angle. Use a cake board or something similar for the log to sit on.
2. Use a basic chocolate buttercream to cover, ratio of 1 : 2 butter : icing sugar with lots of cocoa powder.
3. Stick the cut swiss roll end from step 1 to the other roll just below the middle of the un-cut one with some of the buttercream, this creates an irregular shape, and makes it look more like a log of wood.
4. Use a butter knife or a palette knife to spread the buttercream over the swisss rolls. Make sure every part is covered, but be careful because if it is too thick, the cake can be quite sickly.
5. Using a fork or a knife, rough-up the buttercream. This makes it look more like wood.
6. Dust with icing sugar, it looks like snow!
7. In the picture below, I made a robin to go on the top out of ready made icing, using grape stalks for the legs to stick into the cake so it stands.