The picture that featured in my first blog was,I believe that of a large chocolate cake, today I made another even more chocolatey cake. There is to be a party here tomorrow for a member of my sons gaming group, it is a tradition that the members celebrate their birthdays here and it is also the tradition that I bake a very large cake. Today's offering uses the same recipe as the first but the decoration is a little different. Apart from the usual chocolate truffle icing and various types of chocolate shavings and chocolate chips this one has shards of home made chocolate crisp around the side which gives it a rugged look, it is a cake more suitable for a man than many of my usual confections. The chocolate crisp is made by melting a large block of plain chocolate and then spreading it on to a slab of a board covered with cooking foil. When you have spread the chocolate evenly all you have to do is sprinkle it with some Demarera sugar and leave it to cool. Once cool it becomes brittle and you just break it into pointed shards and stick it on to the sides of your cake with a little of the icing. Any left over shards are very good with iced cream. This chocolate crisp can be flavoured with orange or peppermint. I used the plain version recently to decorate a cake with chocolate rum truffle icing, it went down well with the troops.
It took up a large part of the afternoon along with the two lemon drizzle cakes which I finally managed to make, they should have been done on Thursday but I was rather busy with other things that day. I managed to get most of the preparations made for a Mexican meal this evening so it all worked quite quite well.
The new collars which I ordered for my little cat arrived and she is now proudly sporting a beautiful green collar complete with crystals and a green bell to match. She seems pleased with it I am happy to say as she can be very fussy as far as collars are concerned. I actually ordered three different types just in case and also because I was spoiled for choice as there were so many nice ones to choose from.
I got a really bad fright this morning. I believe I have mentioned my musical budgerigar of whom I am extremely fond. This morning when I uncovered his cage he was crouched up a perch looking very seedy and did not respond to any of the usual blandishments, I really thought that something was wrong. On close inspection I discovered that he is loosing a wing feather and it had twisted round awkwardly and must have felt very uncomfortable to my poor Charlie Bird. With a Little help and a rousing Strauss waltz, a favourite piece he recovered his love of life and was soon bouncing about in time to the music and playing his tubular bells with all his usual vigour I almost cried with relief.
I am planning a quiet evening watching a film and have squirrelled away a few of my favourite treats to eat while I watch, these with a coffee and brandy will be my reward to myself for the hard work of the last few days.
Pa has been so much better for the last couple of days that I almost feel as if I am on holiday. He has been kind and helpful and fun to be with, his lovely old self in fact. I treasure days such as these as the are becoming rarer as the months pass.
I will not end tonight on a sad note though today has been a good day and for me for now at least all is well. I wish you all the same good fortune and a happy and relaxing weekend.
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