Chocolate and Black Cherry Cake

I've been planning this creation in my mind for some time and at the weekend I finally got the baking tins out and came up with this - Chocolate and Black Cherry Cake.  Not quite a Black Forest Gateau, due to the absence of any alcohol, but deliciously chocolatey with fresh cream and black cherries.

My "secret ingredient" on this occasion (i.e. cheat ingredient!) was a tin of black cherries in syrup.

I made a simple gluten-free chocolate cake mix cooked in two 8-inch sandwich tins.  Then I layered together with fresh whipped cream and some of the syrup from the cherries.  I spread another layer of cream over the top and piped swirls of cream all around the edge before filling the space in the centre with cherries and syrup.

I sprinkled crushed chocolate Flake all over the top, too.

I had leftover cherries and syrup, so I made individual versions - chocolate cupcakes topped with fresh cream, cherries and syrup and chocolate flakes.

Delicious!

We took the large cake to my mums for after dinner and needless to say within a couple of days all traces of this cake were completely gone!

Best wishes
Debbie

Happy Easter!

We've had the chance to spend lots of time baking and making in our house recently.  Here's Lizzie's Chocolate Nests - so easy for the kids to make and such an adorable treat for Easter!

The snow and cold weather may have kept us indoors (unusual for this time of year) but we have made the most of it instead by raiding the craft box and having fun coming up with Easter-themed creations.  Here's our paper chicks!

Now that the lighter evenings have begun and the daylight hours stretch out longer and longer, I'm hopeful that the snow is finally behind us and we can look forward to warmer, brighter days enjoying the outdoors!  First we have two weeks of school holidays to fill and enjoy, so I'm off to browse on Pinterest for more ideas!

I hope you have all had a lovely Easter weekend however you have chosen to spend it.  It's been an indulgently lazy day for me today; very much needed and thoroughly enjoyed!

Best wishes
Debbie

A Proud Mum

Little Lizzie took up a new hobby this month which has been keeping us really busy.  After deciding that her previous career aspiration to be an X-Factor contestant is no longer for her, she's decided she wants to take part in Got to Dance instead.  Fair enough - she is only seven, after all - and the world is her oyster!  So dance classes it is; she's enrolled in a local dance school and has thrown herself wholeheartedly into mastering the works - ballet, jazz, contemporary, disco.... to name but a few.

This week I had the opportunity to sit in on one of her lessons and I realised - as I watched her throw herself about, twirl and spin, pose in dramatic fashion and hang off her teacher's every word - that I had a lump in my throat and tears threatening to fall.  Not at her skills and dancing capability - yet - she has a long way to go and is very much at the Bambi-on-ice stage of learning to dance.  

I felt emotional watching her as I realised I was proud.  

Proud of my little girl, who joined a class full of other girls aged from younger than her right up to late teens, and didn't bat an eyelid at saying hello and making new friends.  Proud of my little girl, who had no hesitance whatsoever in launching herself across a room, swinging her arms for all her worth, running as fast as she could and exactly as she had been told to, without a shred of self-consciousness.  Proud of my little girl, who has quickly idolised her dance teacher and listened intently to every instruction, trying her hardest to please.  Proud of my confident, outgoing, determined and enthusiastic daughter...  All the qualities that frustrate me at times but ultimately I wouldn't change for the world.  

She may not end up with a career as a singer, or a dancer - she may change her mind a dozen times over before she even reaches her teens - but the qualities and attributes she has now, the confidence and interpersonal skills she's developing at seven I am certain will take her places in life - wherever she may wish to go.  

And that made me proud.  A very proud mum indeed.

Best wishes

Debbie