Well overdue indeed… not with a baby, thank goodness, but with an update of said baby, and of course a baking post. I would start to apologise, but anyone with kids will understand why I would rather catch up on my shows during these precious few minutes of ‘me time’ at the end of the day instead of penning a detailed apology. But what I will say is that over the past seven months I have learned (at least) these seven things:

• Babies are crazy
• I can achieve ‘sufficient’ sleep at the rate of one hour at a time
• It is possible to get used to washing clothes and nappies every day
• There’s no such thing as a ‘routine’, just a pattern – that continues to change!
• Colic doesn’t last forever
• Baby giggles are the best form of entertainment
• One little person makes my heart burst every time I look at his handsome, chubby face

So in brief, parenthood has been the hardest but most rewarding stage of my life, and I wouldn’t change my little bunny for all the world.

I’ve been back to baking for awhile and with Christmas peering around the corner of the weekend I thought it was time to come back to the blog with some festive food.

This brownie is based on my go-to fudgey brownie recipe, which in turn is based on the Whittaker’s Peanut Butter Chocolate and Caramel Brownie from their cookbook (I’ve talked about that before). I prefer brownie to be on the gooey side – rather than cakey – and this recipe fits the bill with the perfect degree of goo. It doesn’t hurt that you can make this entirely in the pan you use to melt the butter and chocolate, too easy…

I used three smashed candy canes in total, one in the batter and two on top, but adding more crushed canes to the batter would give your brownie more crunchy texture. The crushed candy on top melts a bit in the oven, so it’s not as crunchy or shard-like as I thought it would be, more a sweet pepperminty glaze.

Candy Cane Chocolate Brownie

Adapted from Whittaker’s

• 225g butter (salted is fine)
• 250g dark chocolate (I used Whittaker’s Dark Cacao 62%)
• 2 cups sugar
• 1 tsp peppermint essence
• 1/2 cup cocoa powder
• 1 cup plain flour
• 4 eggs
• 3 candy canes, unwrapped and crushed into small (less than pea-sized fragments) using a rolling pin

1. In a large saucepan over low heat, melt the butter and chocolate, stirring with a heatproof spatula to mix. Add the sugar and stir until combined. Remove from the heat, add the peppermint essence and allow the mixture to cool for 15 minutes.
2.  Sieve the cocoa powder and flour into the chocolate mixture and stir together with a hand whisk.
3. One at a time, whisk in the eggs until all combined. Stir in one crushed candy cane.
4. Pour the mixture into a 9″ x 12″ slice tin lined with non-stick baking paper. Scatter the remaining crushed candy canes across the top. Bake at 180 degrees C for approximately 45 minutes, or until a skewer comes out with only cooked crumbs on it. Cool to room temperature before removing from the tin and cutting into pieces.

I hope you enjoy this treat (and others!) over the holiday season. I’m looking forward to our first Christmas as a family of three 😀