Ridiculous brownies

Me and the boys are currently having a mini holiday with my marvellous mum and dad whilst Handsome husband is off in America visiting Wagyu farms (more on this later) So, taking the advantage of being nearer to London than normal, we scheduled a much needed visit to our dear friends.  Its so great to meet up with old friends, especially when various bumps are due to turn into babies any time soon.

  

We sat around and chatted and the kids romped around and played.  Darling boy and Little brother were delighted to rush in and out, playing in the garden and with the girls, or rather 'ladies' as Darling boy put it.

Naturally, one does not arrive empty handed when visiting.  A hand-tied bunch of hot pink roses, gerberas, and some other handsome looking blooms were bought from the local florist and I had made a batch of double chocolate brownies.  I was feeling in the mood to pimp my brownies, and so added some glace cherries, and then a mix of almonds and cranberries were thrown in too, as well as a smashed up bar of dark chocolate too.  They went down well, and the cherries added a juicy fruitiness which would easily pass as one of your five a day.


Incidentally, my favourite line of the day went as follows

Darling boy:  'Where are the ladies?'
The Mini greek: 'I'm not a lady, I'm a princess'

...Too true, the mini greek is a properly beautiful creature, with eyelashes that just won't stop. And at this point was wearing an irresistible Disney princess dress that calls out to all little girls to be worn straight away, over whatever they are already wearing and flounced around in, in a way that all grown ups only wish they could too.

Marble cake with chocolate frosting

For Grandads birthday, a cake was called for that fitted the bill exactly.  Grandad shares with Handsome husband a distrust of puddings containing fruit, as well as a preference for the plainer things in cake.  However, he also has a very very very very very very very sweet tooth.  This is the man who I have seen sink a tablespoon full of sugar in a jug of double cream and transfer the lot to his waiting mouth several times.  Now that's dedication to the sweeter side of life.

So, for his birthday I went for a traditional chocolate and vanilla marble cake, but coated with a thick gooey layer of chocolate frosting.  The perfect mix.  It went down well with everyone after tea, perfect with a nice hot cuppa.   Little brother wasted no time in efficiently scoffing the lot, calling for more and more cake when he had finished his.  I wonder where he could possibly get this trait from?...

Oaty cookies

The first cookie I ever blogged about was these oat cookies.  Soft and chewy and surely good for you with their low GI (well, its oats, innit)

I have volunteered to make refreshment cookies for the Devonshire Guild of Bellringers meeting (I know....) which is taking place this year at our tower.  So, to refresh my memory of how these bad boys taste, I thought I would whip up a batch.  They are just as oat and chewy and moorish as I remembered and so I think they will do.  These and something chocolately that is.  Perhaps my triple chocolate cookies.  After all, there always needs to be chocolate, doesn't there?

The wonderful thing about tiggers

 Darling boy has been as pleased as punch all week.  He has been in charge of the class mascot, Tigger.  It has been Darling boy's job to take Tigger everywhere, and it is mummy's job (or rather homework) to write up our wonderful, home-spun, creative and wholesome adventures in the class mascot diary....There is serious potential for one up-mumship in this innocent project and can I smell just the tinniest whiff?

We dragged Tigger to the farm, to meet Jimmy and Max.  They joined in the fun at Grandads birthday teatime, had tea with us and joined the zoo of teddies in Darling boys bed.  Tigger is due to go back to school tomorrow, and in a style true to my own homework when I was at school, it's the night before it's due in, and I haven't done it yet!

 

Sausage time

I know this blog is called Adventures in Cake, but who can resist these bangers.  My amazing friend- she of the many many skills, has made these sausages from her own pigs and they are d.e.l.i.c.i.o.u.s.  Quite frankly the best sausages ever.  Reared by my friend and made by my friend, on her farm, just up the road.  Now thats what I call 'going local'.

Fairytale plans

It has been our dream for years now to renovate the barn on the farm to live there.  It's more than a dream, it's a plan.  The planning application has been in for 4 weeks now, and we have another 4 weeks left to wait till we hear if the planning officers and conservation officers agree to our design.

Although it's an actual proper plan, written on actual paper, with all the various structural reports, wildlife reports and whatever needed, at times, it seems so distant it's almost a fairytale. We had hoped to be well into the building process by now, but for various reasons, we have been hugely delayed.  

Each night before I go to sleep, I imagine walking around our barn.  I've been imagining it for so long, I can see every nook and cranny. 

Who wouldn't want to live here?

You just know you'd have fun.