A right old chocolatey stodge

Another birthday, another cake disaster. This time it was Dave's birthday and armed with a new recipe that I have baked successfully before in the UK, I set about measuring, mixing, beating and greasing with the boys. I was confident of this cake. Really, I was. I mean, I'd already baked it once and it rose a treat, tasted great and was generally a cake worth eating. Also, it used plain flour (still haven't resolved the self-raising flour issue despite many attempts and associated flops) and all the other ingredients were readily available here. This was a cake that was going to work. I was going to break my Bosnian cake duck.

I felt like I needed this cake to be a success. I can bake cakes, I have baked quite a few in my time. But since we've been in Bosnia I have not managed a one. Also, I've been momentarily depressed that one of the most popular searches that lead visitors to this blog is 'stodgy cakes' which is not quite how I wish to be remembered.

We were hopeful as it went into the oven, but 40 minutes later, the skewer came out clean and the cake was as flat as a pancake, except for a little half hearted attempt at a rise around the edges. More chocolate orange brownie texture than light and fluffy cake. There was only one thing for it. Ice the thing, cover it in M&Ms, fizzy lemon cola bottles and sticky gummy dinosaurs and try to contain the excitement as we wait for Daddy to return so we can sing Happy Birthday. Actually it didn't taste bad, was just a bit - oh alright then very - stodgy. The boys wasted no time in tucking in and tuck in they did, they are mercifully forgiving of cake disasters. There's nothing quite like a birthday party to get excitement levels to a peak and all the adults then had to do was to sit back and watch the effects of large amounts of sugar on small boys. Dave hasn't had a birthday party quite like it for years.

PS - Brits In Blagai - the recipe is coming your way. Please can you try it and see if you have any more success or is it something in the Bosnian flour that is thwarting my attempts (oh, please let it be something in the Bosnian flour and not total incompetence on my part, although I have a terrible feeling that the incompetence may play a large role, sigh).

Of chocolate, eggs and sunshine

With 3 religions in Bosnia, Easter is not such a big affair. The Muslims don't celebrate it and the Orthodox church celebrates it next week so we were in a minority as we got into holiday mode. I went to find chocolate eggs and was gobsmacked to find that here, in Bosnia, the most chocolate obsessed nation I have ever come across, didn't do them. At all. No big eggs. No little eggs. I did find some chocolate bunnies, next to the chocolate Santas left over from Christmas, so we went with those instead and I found some other sorts of chocolatey things that could be hidden in the garden for a traditional egg hunt.

The Bosnians may not do chocolate eggs, but they do get very into decorating their eggs. A friend had us over on Friday afternoon to help paint eggs and they turned out really well. The boys were very proud of their efforts and they occupied a very pretty looking nest in the middle of the table whilst I considered what to do with them next. Then I read a post from Are We Nearly There Yet Mummy which gave me the answer and an egg rolling competition commenced. The boys took to the event with enthusiasm. We don't have any eggs left anymore.

After a long, hard, cold, miserable, dank, dark winter it is such a joy to see the spring sunshine. It is t-shirt and shorts weather here. We spent the whole weekend in the garden digging our allotment, planting a variety of herbs and veg (fortunately being directed by a friend who actually knows what she is talking about) amongst the blossoms of the fruit trees that surround the garden. Suddenly I felt that Bosnia is a good place to be. I'm looking forward to the summer.

chocolate chocolate and more chocolate

There is a Bosnian tradition that whenever you visit a house with children, you bring with you lots of chocolate / cakes / sweets for the kids. This seems to extend to whenever you see children as most people rush off to buy Adam and Luke chocolate whenever they see us.

As I mentioned before I'm a fully paid up Annabel Karmel kind of girl when it comes to feeding the boys. This kind of approach says that sugar, whilst tolerated as an occasional special treat, is to be avoided wherever possible. Extensive eating of chocolate in children tends to lead to really manic behaviour with lots of running around and shouting at the top of their voices.

The boys however can't believe their Bosnian luck. They believe in the power of chocolate to do great things, including making them run faster and shout louder than usual. And Bosnia appears to be the place to test out these theories.

What normally happens is that they have some and then I confiscate the rest of it when no one is looking. It then sits on top of the fridge whilst they forget about it and D and I then munch the remainder once everyone is in bed. I do have occasional guilt pangs about swiping all their chocolate, but not really. The amount of chocolate we have stashed away would keep them going for a year.