Five little lifts of last week

Rex was not happy with the prices in the gift shop.

Sunny delight

Don’t look now, but a certain big, bright, shiny thing has returned to our skies from its winter holidays. Expect lots of half-naked pasty people spread around the parks and beaches of England, making the most of the sixteen degree heat wave. In the mean time, I will be sporting a pair of giant, pink sixties-style sunglasses which look ridiculous but make me feel like I’m in Mad Men. Roll on summer.

Mmm, donut pyjamas

While pyjamas for donuts would be adorable, if a little tricky to pull off, I am referring to blue pyjama trousers in a donut print you could just devour. While they’re perfect for ‘vegging out,’ carrot-print pyjamas are just not as relaxing as those covered in desserts, even if it does make you feel a bit peckish. There's something cosy about donuts, which explains why they're called comfort food.

Digging up the Jurassic Park DVD

Not only did these films teach us valuable life lessons, such as how to make dinosaurs, don’t go in the long grass, and T-rex can’t see you if you don’t move, but they were fantastic entertainment. Suddenly the terrible lizards in picture books were not just vague myths akin to unicorns and clowns, but living and breathing monsters capable of destroying cities. My interest in palaeontology may have ultimately proved short-lived, but the tenseness and magic of this classic trilogy remains preserved throughout the years.

Hot mess

As I’ve mentioned on this blog before, I have a deep and abiding love of making, baking and especially eating brownies. Even when they go wrong, they taste fantastic, and my latest batch went horribly, oozily, beautifully wrong. In Year 5, I wrote a story about a woman who caused an explosion when she put too much baking powder in her Christmas pudding. I can now confirm that baking powder doesn’t do this (for anyone left wondering), but putting three times the amount in does have some interesting effects. They weren’t brownies so much as a massive mess of gooey chocolate. With peanut M&Ms. And marshmallows. And white chocolate chunks. Best mistake ever.

Reading Rehab

Once upon a time, I could curl up with a book and be satisfied for hours. Jump to the end of my literature degree, and even looking at a book that doesn’t require long hours of making notes, reading critical work and crafting essays makes me feel guilty. This week, I entered book rehab, and while it’s been slow progress, when I reached the end of  Junot Diaz’s This is How You Lose Her, I was greeted with the familiar warm glow that comes with learning the twists and turns of a new story. Although I am now an abhorrent book snob, my degree has made me better able to appreciate the nuances of a well-written book. You could say that this is a new chapter in my reading experience. But that would be corny.

Why brownies are bliss

All that cooking had left her with a lot on her plate. 

Whenever the world is too full of work, rain, vegetables or all of the above, the only solution is a big, good-to-be-bad batch of brownies. Oozing with rich gooey goodness, it is impossible to contemplate brownies and not feel a rumble of longing in the stomach.

Some of the joy derived from these chunks of chocolate heaven comes from my memories of baking as a child, when everything should be covered in chocolate and the handheld mixer was a demon just waiting to mangle any tiny hand that got in its way. Even though I now know the latter to be a myth, there is no denying that brownies are one of the most fun cakes to make. The thick, rich chocolate mixture, dotted with treats, feels reassuringly like a proper cake mix, or even a magical sludge of the variety usually seen in a witch’s cauldron.

This mysterious quality makes me feel adventurous; like a giddy child testing the boundaries, I love adding things to brownie mix to see how it works out. Anything from marshmallows, raisins, Mars bars, Mini Eggs, cookies - the list of dangerously delicious extras goes on. As the mixture bakes, that warm, inviting brownie smell fills the air and draws you to the oven window to watch as the spell is complete and the potion transforms into glorious gooey cake.

And then comes the eating. These are not dainty little sponges, with a light-as-air texture that lets you pretend they don’t really count, but delicious blocks of knowing chocolate sin. While other cakes are expected to be perfectly iced in a careful swirl and topped with delicately sculpted flowers and silky smooth fondant, brownies are a sensational exception. The rebels of the cake world, they are allowed to ooze and crumble, staining your plate with a telltale chocolate smudge.

So joyous are brownies that they have spread to brighten up other desserts. From cookie dough topped with brownie, to brownie cheesecake, brownie sundaes and brownie ice cream, these traditional childhood treats have conquered the world as the ultimate comfort food. So next time the work piles up and the rain comes down, reach for the chocolate, marshmallows and mixer and make some magic.