Feeling Sunday afternoonish

Had an uncharacteristically grown-up night last night, with a bunch of friends round to dinner. It gave me a good excuse to try out a new dessert recipe - gooey chocolate stack. It's from Nigella Lawson 'How to be a Domestic Goddess' - one of the finest book titles ever, in my opinion.

And watching over proceedings was Millie who arrived this week all the way from Australia. She was keen to dive in, but I managed to halt her by offering the beaters to lick.

I am always keen to use our dinner guests as guinea-pigs for new recipes (particularly dessert - because you usually know in advance if it hasn't worked out and can save the day by whipping out a bowl of artfully scooped ice-cream). But some folks are horrified at the thought of making something that is not tried and tested.

As luck would have it, it turned out delicious anyway - great mix of crunchy, gooey and chocolatey and amazingly, not sickeningly sweet (thanks to the 72% cocoa solids choccy which gives it a great bitter hit).