That looks gorgeous - really lovely and very log-like. I'm truly impressed you did that just with a hand whisk. Thanks for taking photos of the process as well as the end result - that's a very tense moment in the middle there, where it's still a chocolate covered lump, before you transform it masterfully into a realistic log. I do like the photo of the off cuts - you captured the texture of the cake admirably (which for some reason I find hard to do in photos), which is sadly the nearest we'll come to tasting it. Lucky partygoers who go to eat it!