Buche de Noel

 I made this cake last year for Christmas.  Instead of retyping the recipe, In case a yule log is on your Christmas list,  I got the original recipe here.  There are a lot of steps, but it really turned out to be easy to follow.  The only changes I made...

I trimmed off both ends so you could see the 'log' and then I put one side at an angle to make it look more like a log with some character.  I ran my knife over the buttercream to make it the typical wood texture, and I ended up with a lot of left over frosting, so next time I'd be more generous with my icing inside.  The icing turns out to be more like a mousse, which is delicious!  I also made some holly leaves and berries out of fondant and I bought a little sugar Santa from a nearby cake store.