Sunday Selections #170

It's time for Sunday Selections!
Sunday Selections is a weekly meme hosted by River at Drifting Through Life. 

The rules are very simple:-

1. post photos of your choice, old or new, under the Sunday Selections title

2. link back to River somewhere in your post

3. leave a comment on River's post and visit some of the others who have posted and commented: for example:

    Elephant's Child

    Andrew at High Riser

    Gillie at Random Thoughts From Abroad

    

This week I have photos from ... today!

The kids were determined to go to the park today - with a picnic - despite the weather.  

I packed some snacks and off we went.

The park looked like this:

When we arrived, it was raining hard, so we ate lunch in the car, the kids in the front pretending to be spies on a mission driving a car and me in the back pretending not to listen.

When the rain stopped - or more accurately, slowed down for a bit - we got out and the kids got a good half hour playing on the equipment before the rain came back.  They even had a swing by sitting on their jackets.

I walked around the park a few times, as I've decided to do every park visit now, instead of sitting on a bench.

Then we went to the supermarket to buy cake ingredients, and home to make chocolate cupcakes.

M. is into googling and baking at the moment, and this is a recipe she found herself.  It is from Taste, and is here. It is very easy, and makes quite a rich cake. The ganache on top is very rich though, and I would leave it off next time.

Instead of milk, the liquid in these comes from three eggs (instead of the usual two), and melted chocolate-and-water.

My favourite mixing bowl with the handle and pouring spout is not great for sitting on top of a saucepan to melt chocolate, but it works.

These photos are actually of the ganache-making stage later:

I had to double-check the recipe because the oven temperature is only 160 degrees (normal for cakes is 180) and cooking time is only 20 minutes. But sure enough, it was right - the cakes cooked to perfection and rose nicely too.

The icing - sorry, ganache - on top is made from more dark chocolate, melted with sour cream.  It is a bit too bitter for my taste, and very rich.  Also, the recipe makes a huge amount of it. I made two thirds the amount the recipe called for, and even after applying it generously to the cakes, had more than half of it left over.  As none of us liked the ganache that much, that went in the bin.

But the cakes were certainly easy and came up a treat.

What else to do on a rainy day?

The kids surprised me by pulling out an old toy from the cupboard, one they haven't played with since they were little. Because even Big Kids can play with Little Kid toys, after all.