Rise and shine

Gus and I always enjoy inviting people over for dinner. It gives Gus the perfect chance to show off his culinary skills. And occasionally I get to cook too. This time, I decided to make chocolate souffles. This was a bit of a brave move - souffles are tricky at the best of times - but in an untried oven...well this was a culinary disaster waiting to happen.

I have cooked this recipe before - using the finest Green & Blacks chocolate. So I sort of knew what I was doing - until I mixed the cocoa powder. The recipe said to add water and then boil for a few minutes - well as soon as I added the powder, it turned into a paste. I suspect that the Aussie cocoa powder is slightly different to the UK stuff. I was a tad stressed, and only felt happy after I had added the beaten egg white & sugar mix to the melted chocolate and cocoa paste and it all looked as it should.




And like a miracle, the damn things rose beautifully




and were quite delicious with the caramel sauce I made as well


We went for a summery hot pink theme for this party.


Which perfectly complemented our harbour view





I think our guests enjoyed themselves - they are still speaking to us and there are no reports of food poisoning.