Pink and Green and Chocolate all over...

So, it was Friday night. Noel was away for work, I was in a lazy don't-want-to-cook kinda mood, and the girls and I just wanted to hang out. The obvious choice: let's make chocolate cake for dinner!
Oh yes, I am the coolest mum ever; you better believe it.
Setting aside all thoughts of late-night sugar-induced madness, I rounded up the overly enthusiastic troops and got started.



I make chocolate cake just using a basic butter cake recipe. When adding the flour to the creamed butter, sugar, vanilla and eggs I just whack in however-much-looks-good of cocoa powder (I like to use lots so it tastes properly chocolatey!), and then add a little more milk to make up for the extra dry ingredient. Even better is to add some real melted chocolate too but I didn't have any around last night.
It's always an anxious moment handing over the ingredients to the small people; you never know what's going to end up all over the floor! But it's fun, and I find if you just expect them to do well, they appreciate the trust so they tend to rise to the occasion and live up to your expectations (um... mostly... more on that soon...).


See - lots of cocoa... mmmm....

So the cake was done, all baked and cooling down. Time for the icing...

Ooops! "Mummy the bowl was moving by itself!" Yes darling, of course it was. I took the photo because otherwise I was going to lose my temper! Grabbing the camera gave me a second to breathe, put on my happy Mary Poppins voice and say "oh well, accidents happen!"

Now, can you tell that we had conflict over which colour the icing should be?
And... dinner! Yum. :)

Oh and yes, the girls did go a little mental at bedtime, but a few giggles and bed-swaps later, they were asleep for the night by 9.30. Success!