Domestic Madness & the best tasting Chocolate Cake

Have you ever had one of those days when nothing goes right and domestic madness occurs? Well, I can answer "yes" to that today. My day started at the crack of dawn due to my boys cricket commitments. Up at 6am, bacon sandwiches all round, 3 loads of washing and ironing by 7am, then off to cricket. There are 2 different cricket grounds of course; home to supervise the homework that was not done yesterday, shopping to do, lunches to be made and its only midday. I thought Sunday was supposed to be a sacred day of rest.

Well this is where I really want to be today. Any one of those boats would make a great getaway vehicle. What do you think?

This is the bay at Sorrento, doesn't it look gorgeous

We're going to share with you not only our successes in the kitchen but also our failures. Today I set out to make a chocolate cake for my boys for Valentine's day tomorrow, the cake turned out perfectly but the icing all melted. It tastes great but sometimes things just don't always turn out the way we hope. Never mind. Perfection is not everything.

The best tasting Chocolate Cake:

This is a recipe my mum used to make for us and I think she got it from the back of a cocoa packet many years ago. It's quick, simple and delicious.

1/4 cup of cocoa
1 cup of water
150grams of butter
1 1/2 cups of sugar
1/2 teaspoon of bicarb of soda
2 eggs
1 teaspoon of vanilla extract
1 1/2 cups of self raising flour ( can use white wings gluten free )
1 teaspoon of instant coffee powder

Method:

Preheat oven to 180c.

In a saucepan place the water, butter, sugar, cocoa, instant coffee powder, and bicarb of soda. Bring to a simmer, stirring occasionally until you see the mixture start to froth up. Remove from heat and set aside and cool. Whisk the eggs lightly and add to the cooled chocolate mixture, then add sifted self raising flour and mix well. Pour into a greased baking pan( 20cm) and bake for about 50 minutes. Test to see if the cake is cooked by inserting a skewer into the centre of the cake and if it comes out clean the cake is cooked... ice with your favourite icing.

I will let you in on a secret. Andrea is the fabulous photographer in this partnership not me. I am just a beginner.

Excuse my photo today, I'm not at my best today as I have just rescued the dog from our fountain. She decided it was fun to hunt for the golfish today.

I used Maltesers on the top of the cake along with 2 chocolate hearts, the boys will have it later with ice cream.

My gorgeous dog Miss Poly is the only one in the James family who behaved herself today or almost behaved. May be she can come away with me on the boat.She is hiding in the grass as the boys are having a very competitive game of cricket in the backyard and she and I get very scared as to where the ball will land. Duck Poly!!!