It was clear when I first heard that a good friend was leaving to return to England I had to make a wonderful chocolate cupcake. But I wasn't quite sure what chocolate cupcake it was to be. Chris likes his Cadbury Boost Bars, I thought about chopping up the bar to top the chocolate fudge cake but I didn't want him to have a heart attack, so rice crispies instead. The cake is deliciously dark in colour and is wonderfully rich but not heavy in texture. The ganache is silky, glossy, liquid SIN.

Once when I was maybe 4, I went on a covert mission that lead me to crawl onto the kitchen counter top so I could procure the monster tin an of Milo in the overhead cabinet. After securing the highly valued object, I rewarded myself by grabbing a big spoon and proceeded to fill my mouth with abundance of Milo. Amidst of the pleasure and excitement of it all, I failed to anticipate the possibility to choke on enormous amounts of powdered Milo. I started to choke on it, dropped a wonderfully BIG can of Milo onto the floor - which broke my heart as I saw in slow motion the dramatic spill of precious particles of Milo powder fall across the kitchen floor.

I was caught, scolded and I cried. Not because I was scolded but because I lost my big can of Milo.

Another decadent recipe I used to make for myself as a child was Milo bread. I would spread a layer of condensed milk onto white bread and very generously sprinkle Milo powder over it. I think that was probably my first personal creation of food - I thought about it all by myself and made it. I was quite impressed with my invention - soon I learnt it has been done by others. I was disappointed that what I thought was a genius original idea wasn't so original after all, but still I was proud of my ability and I think it sparked the beginning of food creation that was to follow years later.

So this is my ode to my first ever recipe, Milo Muffins with white and semi sweet chocolate chips!!

Happy New Year! It's been a while since I blogged - I got lazy during the holidays.

Wanted to blog about our Christmas lunch but was too tired from all the cooking (I cooked for 2 days) and people started eating as soon as the food was ready, so I couldn't take any nice photos of the wonderful meal. I was quite pleased with my turkey, it was quite juicy and moist. Maybe this year I shall be more organised time-wise and take some photos.

Today we have Peanut Butter Choco Chippers and with an effort to be healthier I've lowered sugar and fat protions and added wheat germ in it. Fear not, the result isn't a dry healthy cookie. It has enough sweetness to it and has actually a soft and tender crumb! It has an overall quite chocolatey flavour because I used chopped chocolate instead of chocolate chips, the result would be different if chocolate chips were used. In this case the peanut butter dough and tiny chocolate crumbs melded together - so it's great for chocolate lovers!