Bank Holiday - Birthdays and Rainy Days

I love a long weekend. This Bank Holiday Sunday we travelled up to Richmond to celebrate my brother-in-law's and his twin sister's 40th Birthdays (coincidentally it's on the same day! Ha!) It was also my Father-In-Law's birthday on Monday, so it was a big group celebration. As usual, cake duties fell to me. So I baked a huge batch of my brownies and the Birthday Boy's specially requested favourite carrot cake. 

It was a glorious day - a beacon of sunshine in the midst of a week of solid rain. Much Pimms and white wine and delicious food was consumed. The children ran around together all afternoon, while the grown-ups chatted and laughed until the early hours. Perfect!

Brownies and Bling - Mother's Day Treats

As I type this my house smells like Wonka's chocolate factory. It is incredible. The little Wrens have friends coming for tea, so I am baking brownies. For the kids, you understand, because I'm just selfless like that. I may have made a rather enormous batch. Well it is 'Stuff-Mother's-face-full-of-chocolate-Day' on Sunday and apart from the odd very sporadic weekend loaf by Mr Wren I am the only baker in this house so I need to make sure we (I) are chocolate-filled.

Here is that recipe - any Mother in her right mind would be thrilled to receive a box of these on Sunday. Heck, any Mother in her wrong mind would too!

Chocolate Hazelnut Brownies