Something that I love doing is baking. Baking takes me back to my childhood. It takes me back to my grandmother's wood fired oven, watching her beat eggs whites for ages with a fork until they were just right.

Listening to her tell me that if I use butter and flour in my pan my cake will not get stuck in the pan.
Her lovely orange flavoured cake from an orange tree she has in her garden, and how she knew just by feeling with her hands in the oven that the temperature was just right for the cake to bake.

It has been a life long dream to one day run a little cafe, and to bake the recipes that have been passed down from my grandmothers, aunts and mother.

Over the years I have also come up with my own recipes.
Sometimes you just throw some ingredients together and they work, other times you redo and retry different ideas and suddenly one day, you get it just right.

Today's prompt is chocolate and it had me going through photos of things that I have baked.

Now, when I think of chocolate I think of dark chocolate, I am not a fan of white chocolate, I find it much too sweet, but a dark chocolate that tastes more like cocoa than sugar, that's a winning formula for my taste buds.

On the other hand, my husband and children love sweet treats. So sometimes I have to find a balance so that we can all enjoy our treat.

I find this balance when I make what is known as "The devil's food cake", I then make chocolate ganache with a dark chocolate and cream. It is always a winner.

The cupcakes in the photos I made for a ladies charity event. These ladies spend many hours knitting baby clothes, blankets, bed socks, beanies and so on for under privileged families.
Once a year they have a function in which they all bring something to the table so that they can all share a meal together. When I heard of this, I decided to make something special for them, after all they spend so much of their time doing things for others, I thought it was only fair to do something for them too.

#yoorsdecember #chocolate