Not being able to be with Jessica this year for her birthday we decided to celebrate anyway. I found a recipe for a chocolate cake (Nigella's recipe http://www.nigella.com/recipes/view/old-fashioned-chocolate-cake-119 ) I only made half the mix as she sandwiched two cakes together and I didn't think we needed that much. In hindsight I could have made it all as it was a beautifully moist cake. As I didn't have commercial sour cream I used cream and a squeeze of lemon juice and it worked very well. Jessica also tells me sour cream in the UK is much thinner than what we get in NZ so maybe my substitute was closer to what the recipe asked for. I cooked it in Stanley and other than it sinking a little in the middle it really was a delicious cake. I iced it using just a butter icing (Nigella's looked abut rich!) and decorated it accordingly.
That evening, after talking to Jessica on the phone, we lit the candles, sang happy birthday and had a toast.
As for the birthday present we bought that on line and had it delivered to her directly. Very easy but I can see why our postal services are suffering. There was no cost re postage though a UK postie did deliver it so someone must be paying for the service.
HAPPY BIRTHDAY JESSICA
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Amazon presumably absorb the cost of the postage...and since they don't pay any tax on their vast profits, I don't think we should feel too sorry for them!! The present it lovely and the cake looked great! Since I didn't have a cake (only a pile of macarons) it was nice to see someone enjoying one on my behalf!! xx
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