Chocolate Muffins

There aren't many folk who refuse a slice of freshly baked chocolate cake. And a cake which one can whip up easily using the ingredients already found in the pantry, well that scores big points from me. This recipe calls for cocoa instead of actual chocolate but still has a robust chocolate smell and flavour. Handy because I cannot keep chocolate in the house, it gets devoured. By me. I whipped these up Sunday morning when Little Bean went down for his morning nap, filling the apartment with heady fresh-baked choco odours ready for the arrival of our lovely friends.

Chocolate Muffins (or cake), makes approx 18 medium muffins
(Recipe adapted from here www.innerpickle.com.au )

1 cup sugar
¾ cup oil
2 eggs
1 cup coffee
1 cup milk
2 cups plain flour (I used a mix of wholemeal and white)
1 cup cocoa (sifted)
1 tsp salt
3 tsp baking powder

Preheat oven to 165°C.
Mix together  sugar, oil, eggs, coffee and milk.
Mix together flour, cocoa, salt, baking powder.
Add dry ingredients to wet mix and beat well.
Pour into cake tin or muffin trays
Bake for approx 30 mins for muffins (longer for cake)

Giving Goodness

I love cooking. I love eating. I love crafty goodness. I love sketching a line then filling it with brush-strokes of gouache. I love the internet and the generosity of good folk who share their crafty know-how, edible treats, latest illustration adventures and and amusing anecdotes of mischievous kidlets. Plus I love the sweet support I receive from people who browse my net space place. So very touching, thank you.

I've decided to put a bit of order in this space and start posting recipes, categorising posts, detailing knitting patterns etc. Giving a bit more back. (Most of my giving during the past 11 months has been to the small person in our lives.). I'm just not sure what to label this post as? Hmmm, good start!

There is evidence in the above photo of a small person living with us who frequently inhabits my kitchen. Can you spot it?

Chocolate cake recipe up next, as soon as I  clear the crumbs from my table...

Bitchin'

I've got to have a whinge... I have allergies and often suffer from eczema, sometimes caused by eating too much sugar or fruit or dairy products, but sometimes nothing I can pinpoint and it's a pain in the bum but I do my best and live with it. (That is not the whingey bit). In an effort to reduce the risk of passing on this horrid curse on to my little man I was utterly determined to breastfeed from day one. But as natural as it may be, breastfeeding didn't come easy and was a million times harder than I thought it would be. No one really talks about the difficulties. They should. But in the end, we worked it out, and now eleven months down the track he is an expert little sucker, over and done in a few quick minutes, making his mama proud.

Here comes the whinge...During a recent conversation with my mother-in-law where I was saying how tired I was because of the breastfeeding, she turned to me shocked that I was still offering Little Bean the boob, and immediately and sternly instructed me to quit. Now. I felt steam coming out of my ears and flames roaring out of my flared nostrils. How dare she! Where is the love and support?! Why wouldn't she want what is best for the small person. All I heard was "in my day blah blah blah..." If only the conversation had've been in english instead of french I could've held the fort and not let the fury blur my vocabulaire and conjugaison. But alas, what came out my mouth was not ideal and I quickly decided to bite my tongue and let the fire pass. Sigh. But it rocked my boat. A lot.

What is it about our society and breastfeeding? My experience and that of my mama friends' has been that in the early days of the babies life we are often frowned upon for not breastfeeding, but be careful, if then if you breastfeed for too long, well tut-tut-tut, that's just not right.

Little Bean, your mama is so proud of you. You are my petit chou-chou champion and I love you to bits.
Photo: Little Bean mid strawberry-biscuit-fest

Thankyou

Thankyou for all your lovely well wishes. Our little champion is doing well and so are we all. Look what I found tonight, slightly distracted by old photos while attempting to clean up my hard drive. Chucky T's, me and skinny jeans (hand bleached by my own little teenage hands), circa 1988. Over twenty years ago, a whole nother lifetime, how old do I feel!