Cake and more cake.

The initial reason for writing this blog is to suggest suitable destinations for mums and dads with babies and the paraphernalia that goes with them. One of my favourite haunts is Thurmaston Shopping Centre. Oh yes, life doesn't get better than this! It isn't Oxford Street or even Meadowhall, but it is close and has car parking, an M&S, Boots, Next and a Starbucks. As a self confessed coffee addict, I need a fix every day. Starbucks does a good skinny latte and I have recently become a big fan of their Classic Cake Doughnut. Thurmaston has free parking, which is a massive bonus. There is baby changing in M&S (right at the back of the shop) and Starbucks. And if you need a pint of milk, which I invariably do, there is a huge Asda next door. Not tried Asda with a baby yet. I haven't braved the crazily busy road you have to cross to get there. It's a bit daunting with a pushchair. Having said that, Asda has its own massive car park.

 As well as suggesting where you can sample the best cakes in Leicestershire, I have made some baby steps into creating my own. Bearing in mind my incredible prowess is the kitchen (there is a large helping of sarcasm here) I thought I would start with something really complicated......chocolate cornflake cakes. I googled the recipe and came up with James Martins version. I substituted dark chocolate for milk chocolate as my eldest son would not give dark chocolate the time of day. I understand this is some people's definition of sacrilege, but I am not making cake that won't get eaten.

 They are sooo easy to make.

 You need;
100g of butter
200g of chocolate (in this case milk chocolate)
5 tbl spoons of golden syrup
160g of cornflakes

Melt the butter, chocolate and syrup in a pan on a low heat. When it is all melted and looks even, add the cornflakes and mix them in. Put the mix in little cake cases and put in the fridge to set. Makes 24 (as long as you don't eat the mix as you go along).

They are going on sale at a cake bake organised by my mother in law, so I will see if other people appreciate them as much as number one son.

This could be the beginning and the end of my cake baking. In real life, I don't get time to cook much, but while I am on maternity leave, I will try and be more of an earth mother.

I got a calendar for Christmas with a cupcake recipe for every day of the year. I was thinking of just looking at the pictures of the delicious lovelies (ricotta and lime cheesecake cupcake for example). Maybe I could go crazy and make them!