Cake

I've managed to get the keyboard back from those two girlies after their debut blogging experience. I swear, I didn't bribe or coerce them in any way to write what they did about me and I was very touched by what they said.
In addition to heaping the praise, they did this:

Yummy choccy cake

(Excuse the gratuitous second picture but this is a first in our house - a cake that wasn't made by me!)
I can happily report that the cake tasted every bit as good as it looked although there was some doubt as to whether it would actually evolve from the curdled lump of stuff in the mixing bowl into an edible item. There was mass hysteria in the kitchen along with threats of violence and some actual bodily harm. ( In all my years of baking, it had never occurred to me that a food mixer was a weapon but apparently it is.) Anyway, the devastation of the kitchen was made good (yep! they even did the washing up) and now there isn't a scrap of evidence left to suggest that the cake ever existed apart from the warm chocolatey feeling in my tummy.
The anguish of turning 43 (oh my god, I can't believe I've admitted that in public) was made bearable by the lovely presents I got - lots of money (not sure yet whether it will be used to fund my habit increase my stash or go towards the object of my desire (ssssssshhhh, whisper it.........a spinning wheel), a Johnny Depp DVD (thanks Lucy), earrings and an incense holder (thanks Bethany), new cosy slippers, chocolate, and a whole host of "Clover" accessories for applique, bias tape-making and patchwork (from Simon, my SO). I also got some lovely cards, which I should post pictures of, but they'll get squashed in the scanner. Thank you, thank you, thank you, I'm such a lucky girl!