What I did this weekend

It was DH's birthday this weekend. We went away to the South coast (2-1/2 hours from home) for a weekend with friends in my favourite holiday house we have ever rented. Wow. How much do you love the slide off the verandah? The colour of the ocean slid from olive green to turquoise to deep midnight blue. Bee-you-ta-full.

Peter and Linda's birthday cake

250 g butter
1 cup sugar
3 eggs
1/2 cup milk
1 teaspoon vanilla
50 g cocoa
70 g ground almonds
150 g self-raising flour

Preheat oven to 180C. Line 23 cm pan with baking paper. Beat butter and sugar. Add eggs/milk/vanilla. In separate bowl mix dry ingredients (cocoa/almonds/flour) and then stir into wet to combine. Bake 35-45 minutes.

Decadent icing: melt 150 ml cream and 200g dark chocolate in a saucepan over very low heat. Allow to cool until thick (I usually put in the freezer and stir every couple of minutes to check) then ice the cake.

Oh man oh man oh man. The icing hardens into pure essence of chocolate. So delicious as to be unphotographable.