For the past few Wednesdays, I have been joining in with #BoothsCheers over on twitter. Each week they send out bottles of wine and beer that they have on offer for their 12 Deals of Christmas to bloggers, who try them and then suggest recipes they think would go well with. I’m certainly no wine buff, but I have really enjoyed taking part and hearing everyone else’s brilliant ideas.

This week, Booths put us in pairs and set us a challenge. I love a good challenge and, even though we only had one day to get something ready, I immediately switched my oven on to get baking, because my challenge was to brighten up the dull winter days with a chocolate log! Yippee, I love a chocolate log and this was the perfect excuse to practise ready for Christmas.

And here it is in all its glory (yes, there is a chocolate under there somewhere!).

I’m not one for reinventing the wheel so if there’s a perfectly good recipe out there then I’ll use it! So I tried this one on the BBC Good Food website, which turned out just fine, and made my own chocolate buttercream using 250g unsalted butter, 400g icing sugar and 125g melted dark chocolate. It made loads of buttercream so you’ll have plenty left over for another cake.

The elf, Christmas tree and snowflakes are made out of sugarpaste and the little pond is royal icing.

I loved making the little elf and I think he’ll be featuring on my Christmas cake this year.

If you’re on twitter tonight at 7pm, then do come and join in with the #BoothsCheers party – there are some prizes being given away, including a hamper (which will be given away in the last party on the 19th December and will arrive in time for Christmas).

See you there!