Ringing the changes

It's easy to get into a rut, and when I bake, over the past couple of years, I've tended to alternate between banana loaf and carrot & sultana cake, often determined by whether the bananas are turning black or whether we have a surfeit of carrots.

I rarely watch cooking programmes on TV, but I did find myself watching the amazing Mary Berry's Christmas Special, where she was helped (or hindered?) by Prince William and Kate, and found myself scribbling down her recipe for chocolate and beetroot cake. It sounded an odd mixture, but looked very tasty.

At last I got round to giving it a go. As the cake itself seems rather rich and calorific, I decided to leave double-cream out of the icing part of the recipe. Instead I simply melted dark cooking chocolate, followed by white chocolate for the feathering.

When we got back from our walk today (a longer-than-usual walk to make up for the likelihood of the coming weekend being unwalkable), it was time to taste the cake with a cup of coffee. Hats off to Mary Berry: it is moist and delicious! Can't say I could detect the presence of beetroot - just a lovely chocolately flavour. Shall definitely make it again.

Meanwhile, with storms and gales forecast for the weekend, I think it'll be time to start another jigsaw and/or some new knitting. Have a lovely weekend, blipmates, whatever the weather.