A chocolate cake to CELEBRATE the terrific A Level results

you have to be QUICK in our house to grab a slice!

a slice of chocolate cake!

a slab of cake!!

and a tray of choc chip cookies!

You do have to be quick, generally, in our house to grab a slice of cake before I eats it all!! and with CHOCOLATE cake even quicker on account of no.2.son is very quick!!!!
Yesterday, part in post celebration of my recent birthday in which I ran out of time to bake myself a cake on the day and no.2.son declared himself unable to face baking (one for me!) I decided to bake a celebration cake from the new book I got recently - and THEN asked dh would HE like to make it?
Ever since he nearly retired he has been saying he'd like to start cooking and I thought baking a nice cake would be a NICE thing TO eat I mean cook!
SO. with a brief glance at the instructions, a bit of a sort out of the ingredients list to check we had everything IN I failed to spot the "SERVES 20" and poor dh set about flinging saucepans bubbling over with LITRES of chocolate mixture screeching about how to CONTAIN it all ..
turns out this "family chocolate cake" is meant to feed the extended complete family including inlaws and kids and neighbours and feed the pets too.
ITS HUGE.
this is just one HALF! (the OTHER half is cut in slices and buried in the freezer!!!!)
note to self : in future read the entire recipe including the number of servings especially in a NEW BOOK!!
anyway, its a lovely cake - I wouldn't bake it again as I've done other chocolate cakes far easier method than this complicated one of the bubbling boiling and leaving for 3hrs to cool and cook for 50mins .. sigh .. BUT it is rather yummy!
too bad our no.1.son doesn't eat chocolate cake!
HE has had a terrific result this morning with his A Levels and confirmation of his first choice place at Uni for the course he prefered - 3 grade A's! in Politics, Geography and History! hurrah!!
He has done particularly well as he'd had a set back last year with his Geography and had to resit the paper which we did wonder whether or not to bother/pay for but now, of course, we're glad! This year he had another minor set back with a History paper and when initially he got his "results" via the pc this morning, he was rather glum in announcing that he had achieved 2xA and 1xC .. which to US is brilliant what ever the grade on account of between us we manage a handful of "o" levels and RSA's for typewriting BUT it appeared it wasn't enough for his preferred course at his first choice of Uni.
HOURS of trying to log on to the wretched and complicated system OF checking had he been offered a place and failing we finally decided to bundle him in the car and dh ran him up to the College armed with phone and paper to try ringing about to find out WHERE he could go to, then, in October ..
20mins after he left - the POSTMAN arrived! with two letters for him - immediately we rang him and got his permision to open/read said letters which confirmed he'd got his PLACE! phew!

Poor dh had in the meantime LEFT him at College - set off for home - got home and had to turn round and pick him up!! there was no one at the College the place was deserted! 'cept for a handful of students and tutors he didn't know personally. the one GOOD thing to come out of it, was that he visited one of the advisors who congratulated him on his 3XA's!!   it turns out our son had been looking at the WRONG section - the "expected" grades and not the "actual" grades that he HAD achieved ..
stress and over excitment in the house promptly resulted in poor Bertie coming over all funny and was found heaving and hiccuping in suspicous manner in the lads' bedroom - HE was put outside and the door shut.  LILLY meanwhile managed to trip everyone up and generally get under our feet and on our nerves SQUEAKING pitifully and "begging'" for "meat" so SHE too got flung out and they've since spent most of the day curled up fast asleep and IGNORING us!!

While most of this was going on, I meanwhile had shot down to frighten the GP further with my fast HR and we did decide between us that provided I came home, had a rest, and resumed my meds I could probably get away with improvement sometime next week .. bah!!  slightly sidetracked into screeching a bit about the unfairness of this we had a sort of mini argument about whether MY theory of leaving myself with a fast HR was a good idea or not and IF not - then WHY NOT?  the poor GP obviously couldn't think of anything accurate enough to threaten me with without FRIGHTENING me with possibilities and he latched on to my proposed suggestion that maybe I was "wearing my heart out" then? by letting it run away at top speed? .. he DID seem to regret this swift approval of theory when I ventured, then, to ask well how LONG will I have LEFT, then? IF I use up my alloted HR's at double speed?? it doesn't, apparently work that way.  bah.
TRYING to get an answer out of a Dr is like trying to listen to an interview on the News with a Politician.  I keep trying to understand, but end up getting on no.1.son's nerves when I fail to grasp the concept of the political theory being put forward.  (although. it doesn't HELP when to ME as an "ordinary" middle aged "mum" I can't help but think, but wouldn't it be EASIER to just do a/b or c/, then? .. then again I'm not with one with bits of paper saying A .. ).

GOT to end the post with saying how pleased PROUD (and relieved!) both dh and I are of our son and now the next hurdle will be in saying GOODBYE to him as he embarks an independant life at Uni away from home!! I'm sure I'll be blubbing I mean blogging lots about this in the near future!
I do hope that others are also celebrating their children's achievements and enjoying seeing them progress with their education and next week it will be no.2.son's turn when he gets HIS GSCE results ahead of attending College for his shot at the A Levels next month!
WHO said it gets "different" not necessarily "easier" as the "children" grow up? different ages, different challenges? but all stressful and exciting for us as parents nonetheless! xx