Let's start at the very beginning

Lets start at the very beginning shall we. Why? Well as the song says it's a very good place to start, natch! One of my earliest memories of home baking is me lying on my belly, feet swinging back & forward & head cradled in my hands, on the sitting room floor in front of the three bar electric fire. My mam was in the kitchen singing away to herself as always, mixing up a chocolate sandwich cake with chocolate butter cream icing in the middle. Now it has been many years since I have tasted one of those cakes, possibly 20 or a little more, but I can recall that cake to the very last detail. The light texture of the sponge, the generous, thick layer of butter cream that oozed out with each bite and each squeeze from a little girls hand and the dusty cocoa powder that would catch in the back of your throat if you inhaled at just the wrong time. Now this was no gourmet creation, it was made very simply from store cupboard basics and was a weekday treat when there was an hour to kill and Mam wanted to give her girls a special treat. She loved to treat her girls and, could you kill with love we were all goners because she administered it in what would have been lethal doses. Now that I am all grown up I find that I have a real passion for baking. I love everything about it. I relish in a night curled up on the sofa with a stack of recipe books by my side scouring them for my next experiment, trawling the bakery aisle in the supermarket makes me positively giddy, measuring and laying out the required ingredients brings with it a sense of calm before the mayhem of flour puffing up my nose and into my eyes and eggs breaking onto counter tops. Then there is the anticipation as the creation rises, fingers crossed, in the warm glow of the oven. The temptation to open the oven door and stick my head in for a quick goo half way through is almost too much to fight, and then, joy of joys that little beep, beep, beep from the timer calls out to say its ready. Wohooo! The final stage and probably my most favourite is the destruction of the lovingly made masterpiece. Serving up generous chunks of cake or individual tarts and listening to the oohs and aahs of satisfaction from all assembled is what makes a busy days baking such a wonderful, glorious joy. I think you get the picture now, I loooooovvveee to bake, love to taste the mouthwatering creations the oven spues forth and love to sit around the table with family and friends and share that joy with them whilst loving and laughing. While I lay in bed last night pondering a million and one different things the memory of that simple but delicious chocolate cake came to mind. I don't have a recipe for it and unfortunately do not have the luxury of asking my mam for it. But, what I do have is a love for baking and a love for chocolate and I think with those two combined I will surely be able to rustle up something similar that will be enjoyed by all with equal gusto. And so, I resolved today to do that very thing and also to document my attempts and their success' or God forbid disasters. Sure while I'm at it I may as well document all of my baking and culinary forays and all that goes hand in hand with them. That is when I remember and probably more importantly when I can be bothered, because I am a bit of a lazy cow at times. So this is the very beginning, now lets see where we shall go from here.