Level 2 Chi Kung. Microcosmic orbit.

Everyone back at school and no sign of Dash sickening. Result! Sherlock was like an escaped prisoner on the morning school run. Although he is little, he is fiendishly strong and, when he goes for it, he can almost pull me off my feet. This was a slight problem as, after a week of intermittent rain, the unswept autumn leaves Katie and I had delighted in scrunching through have become a slimy deathtrap. The steep downhill section of the route to school was very slippery and, with Sherlock pulling like mad, I had to work hard to stay on my feet.

Level 2 Chi Kung. Microcosmic orbit.

Jack and Katie both home today. Everyone a bit better, so really a nice cosy day and I was grateful not to have to go out in the dismal weather. Sherlock is getting a bit stir-crazy though, missing his walks.

Since giving up work, I have found keeping up with the children’s laundry something of a labour of Sisyphus, so I am delighted to have found a positive slant on it: when I’ve got about 3 or 4 loads to fold I drag it all into the parent’s living room and fold it in front of Downton Abbey. Best of all, Katie is getting to like Downton too, so today I had my wee girl cuddled up to me on the sofa while I folded :-).  Nice to have another girl in the house!

Level 2 Chi Kung. Microcosmic orbit.

Katie wasn’t well enough to return to school so we prepared for another day cosied up at home. I was feeling quite feverish, so after the boys had gone I set Katie up in bed with a fully charged iPhone and a pile of books (I sat down to read to her but she said ‘oh I just read that one, just get me three books from that box’) and went to bed. Unfortunately I just couldn’t warm-up – I had been lying, shivering under a winter weight duvet, clutching a freshly heated wheat sack for nearly an hour when the phone rang. It was Nick, telling me that Jack’s school had called to say that he was ill and needed to be collected. So now we’re officially a plague house. Nick is walking wounded and Dash is still fine – no doubt he’ll start running a temperature just as the other two recover. Hey ho.

Level 2 Chi Kung. Microcosmic orbit.

In the middle of the morning rush, Katie announced that she felt too ill to go to school. This necessitated a rapid reassessment of my plans for the day but, with the weather looking particularly uninviting, it was actually quite nice not to have to venture outdoors.

Sherlock clearly felt differently – I think he suspected that we had snuck off on the school run without him and was, accordingly, rather put out.

Level 2 Chi Kung. Microcosmic orbit.

Nick’s turn to have a morning off, so he was off for a long bike ride to test out the cycle computer he got for his birthday. I fed everyone, then, discovering evidence that Jack had spent the dawn hour ransacking the tins in search of chocolate cake, I thought I had better make the ganache for the cake I baked yesterday. Then, since it is now properly autumn, my thoughts turned to rice pudding, so I grabbed the Edmonds book and, while the ganache was cooling to room temperature, I got a rice pud in the oven, and filled the house with the smell of freshly grated nutmeg. Mmmmm mmm!

Level 2 Chi Kung. Microcosmic orbit.

Dropped Katie at Stagecoach, then home to drop Sherlock off and collect Dash for his guitar lesson. Much more successful this week as Dash had practised conscientiously during the week. About halfway through the lesson, Mr Baulch introduced a new, very simple, exercise

Mr Baulch: ‘Now, this is the most difficult, complicated piece you’ve ever seen.’

Dash: [looks confused]

J: ‘Sarcasm, Dash’

Mr Baulch: [looking guilty] ‘Of course, I’m not meant to be sarcastic, am I? Oh well, he seems to be coping ok.’

J: [rolling eyes] [Sighs].

Oh well, indeed.

Collected Katie from Stagecoach and headed home. Nick then took Katie across town to collect her new cello, while I waited in to interview a new dog borrower. While waiting for the dog borrower, I decided to crack on with making the Ruby Tandoh layered chocolate cake featured in The Guardian a couple of weeks ago (recipe below) and these brownies, except with prunes rather than dates.

http://www.annabel-langbein.com/…/the-ultimate-chocola…/543/

Haven’t tried the cake yet as I will leave the ganache to do tomorrow, but the brownies are fab – no obvious taste or texture of prune, just a lovely rounded richness.

Ruby Tandoh’s chocolate fudge cake

200g dark chocolate
200g butter, cubed
4 large eggs
200ml milk
100g soft dark brown sugar
160g caster sugar
50g cocoa powder
200g plain flour
2 tsp baking powder
½ tsp bicarbonate of soda
¼ tsp salt

Heat the oven to 180C (fan 160C)/gas mark 4, and grease two 20cm round cake tins, preferably loose-bottomed or spring-form, and line with baking parchment.

Melt the chocolate, either in short bursts in a microwave or in a bowl suspended over (but not touching) simmering water in a pan. Off the heat, stir in the butter until melted, then whisk in the eggs, milk and both sugars.

In another bowl, combine the cocoa powder, flour, baking powder, bicarbonate of soda and salt. Add this to the wet ingredients, gently whisking for just as long as it takes to combine. The batter will be thick and satiny, inviting you to take first a little finger, then a teaspoon, then a ladle to it.

Divide the mixture between the prepared tins and bake for 25-30 minutes. Chocolate cakes suffer for being even slightly over-baked, so be vigilant: test at 25 minutes and keep a close eye on it thereafter. If a knife inserted into the centre comes out with no more than a couple of crumbs sticking to it, it’s ready.

Leave the cakes to cool for a few minutes in their tins, then turn them out on to wire racks to finish cooling to room temperature. Sandwich and ice the cakes with the following frosting.

Chocolate fudge ganache

This dark, fudgy ganache is an event in itself. Chocolate with a high percentage of cocoa solids (65% or more) will give a richer, more chocolatey ganache, while a lower-quality chocolate will create a frosting with a very different (but no less interesting) flavour – more mellow, caramelised and sweeter. Makes enough to fill and cover one 20cm sandwich cake.

200g dark chocolate
200ml double cream
100g soft dark brown sugar
Pinch of salt
4 tbsp golden syrup

Finely chop the chocolate and set aside in a large bowl. Heat the cream, sugar and salt in a pan over a low heat until scalding – it needs to be steaming hot but you mustn’t let it boil. Slowly pour this over the chopped chocolate, let the mixture sit for a minute, then stir to combine. The chocolate should melt into the cream, leaving a smooth, shiny ganache mixture. (If any chunks of chocolate remain, heat very gently over a pan of simmering water or in the microwave.) Stir in the golden syrup.

Leave the ganache to cool to room temperature, then use some to sandwich together the cake layers. Spread the rest on the top and sides. It’ll set too firm to use if you keep it in the fridge, but if you want a firmer set, put the whole cake in the fridge once iced.

Level 2 Chi Kung.

Got up early to make sure of having time to do Katie’s witch make-up (thick black eyeliner, lots of black mascara, heavy eyebrows and bright-red lips). This, plus broomstick and toy black cat, seemed to make up for her lack of enthusiasm for the dress and she went off feeling happy and looking like the cutest witch in town. The newly-cleaned Sherlock was relieved to be included in the school run once again.

Took care of some of the admin bits and pieces that have built up. Went to collect Katie from school.

Level 2 Chi Kung.

An exhausting day. A few weeks ago, Katie’s school announced that Friday the 3rd would be Roald Dahl day and the children should come dressed as their favourite Roald Dahl character. Katie announced that, because Roald Dahl wrote a biography called Boy (I’ve read at least the first volume – it’s great) then Roald Dahl himself could be considered a Roald Dahl character, and that’s who she wanted to go as. I was delighted – both by her clever lateral approach and because dressing her as the young Dahl would be dead simple – some of Dashi’s outgrown clothes and a cap would be all that would be required. Unfortunately, she decided last night that she wanted to go as a witch instead. I suggested black leggings, a black t-shirt and a witch’s hat but no, she insisted that it had to be a black dress. So there I was today, wandering disconsolately around Lewisham, trying to find a suitably witch-like dress, and sure that whatever I came up with would be met, depending on mood, either by total rejection or by Katie’s trademark ‘polite disappointment’. I eventually settled on a loose black dress with a small cat motif, which I thought Kate would like and had the advantage that it was both inexpensive and had the possibility of future wearability.

Level 2 Chi Kung. Microcosmic orbit.

A week or so ago I phoned our elderly neighbours from down the road, as I had heard that Julian was ill in hospital and I wanted to check if Margaret, his wife, needed anything. To my surprise Julian answered the phone and announced that he was out of hospital and greatly improved but that Margaret was very ground down by hospital visiting and feeling rather low. He put Margaret on the phone and we made a date for her to come down for coffee and cake. On impulse, I invited three other people: another neighbour I know Margaret is fond of, a woman from my print-making course, and a friend who I have been trying to catch up with for weeks. Then of course I kind of regretted it when I developed a streaming cold, but it seemed bad to cancel. Anyway, it was successful in that everyone seemed to enjoy themselves (those that came anyway – the poor friend with whom I have been trying to have a catch-up had to drop out on account of being trapped at home with a projectile-vomiting 7 year old) but I felt too woolly-headed to participate much in the conversation (unusual for an extreme extrovert like me). Everyone was full of praise for the ginger crunch and elderflower cake though, and especially for Nick’s apple pate (in the French sense of pate de fruit – English people would probably call it fruit cheese) made from our own apples. I didn’t get feedback on the banana cardamom bread (which had had a rather chequered career as it was 5 minutes off being cooked when I had to rush out the door to pick up Katie yesterday and ended up being left in the turned-off oven) as people mostly took slices home with them, unable to fit another bite and muttering that, next time, they’ll skip breakfast! I sent a box of ginger crunch home for Julian, and got this lovely message back:

‘Dear Jessamine,
Thank you very much for your excellent and interesting home-made confection. It is delicious and it is a kind thought that I warmly appreciate.’

I do love old-fashioned manners – particularly when they sound like they might have come from one of the more charming Wodehouse characters.

In the evening we went to the NT Live showing of Stephen Fry live at the Royal Festival Hall. Very funny, very gossipy, definitely made me want to download the new book. Fry talked very movingly about Oscar Wilde and what reading first his works, and then various biographies had meant to him growing up as a gay teenager in deepest Norfolk. The highlight however, was a wonderful story about Prince Charles coming for afternoon tea on New Year’s Day, when Stephen had a houseful of guests including Hugh and Jo Laurie, Rowan Atkinson and John Canter. Oh to be a fly on that drawing room wall…

On the way to the show, I realised that, what with rushing about tidying the house and entertaining the guests, I had had nothing to eat all day except a small piece of cake. We didn’t have time to eat dinner before the show but we did pop in to the Rivington so that I could have one of their famous Scotch eggs. Well, what a revelation: a soft-yolked egg in a subtly-spiced coating of yummy pork, served with really good tartare sauce and a big green salad. So good!