Light Chocolate Cake

Light Chocolate Cake

The Babies have gone out of the house to play without permission. So I've locked them out. Will not let them in until the sky turns dark and the air cold. When you cannot cane your children to punish them, you have to devise other ways to get their attention and help them remember your instructions. And while they are waiting outside, you roast a chicken and cook rice with ginger and garlic so that they can smell the aroma coming from the house...Will they or will they not get to eat dinner?

My mother would tell you that she never had such a hard time bringing us up. Are kids today more of a pain, or am I an ineffective parent?

I had the piano tuned this afternoon. The Chinese piano Tuner came by bus and walked who-knows-how-many kilometres into my compound. An hour's work for slightly more than 20 euros. I offered him a glass of orange juice and a slice of freshly baked Light Chocolate Cake. He told me I was kind and beautiful. I should consider distributing cake, it seems good for my self-esteem.

My kids like cake but will usually not eat more than a slice, maybe 2, at a time. They each had 3-4 slices of this cake today and I had to stop them from eating more of it or they'd surely fall sick. I adapted it from Trish Deseine's I Love Cake and she meant it when she called her cake "Léger". It was a light and simple chocolate cake, a recipe to be kept and used again and again.

Incidentally, I was not concentrating and accidentally used 4tbsp of cocoa powder and 2 tsp of baking powder - but the result was very good, so maybe in the future I should continue with this mistake?

Light Chocolate Cake (adapted from Trish Deseine's I Love Cake) :

120g butter or margarine (softened)

120g sugar

2 eggs

120g flour

2 tbsp cocoa powder dissolved in 2 tbsp hot water

1 tsp baking powder

20-cm round mould

Preheat the oven to 180°C.

Put all the ingredients in a large mixing bowl and whisk till you get a smooth batter.

Pour into a paper-lined 20-cm round mould and bake for 25 minutes.

Let it cool for a few minutes and de-mould the cake on a cooling rack.