loopyloulaura

Chris and my dad share a birthday. In December. Cue panic double present buying…

Christmas in our house doesn’t really get started until after their birthdays. As a child, we used to decorate the house with my grandparents the weekend closest to Dad’s birthday. Chris remembers something similar in his home when he was growing up.

This year (and actually last year as well, thanks Facebook for the reminder 🙂 ) I asked Chris when he would like to decorate and he said the sooner the better! Phew, we are both big kids at heart and now we have kids Christmas is so much more magical.

Next panic is the birthday cake. I sneakily made a wheat free cake so that I could enjoy it too, hurrah!

Here is the recipe if you fancy making it yourself!

Chocolate madeira loaf cake

175g butter or soft marge

175g golden caster sugar

3 eggs

200g SR flour (I used Dove’s Farm gluten free)

50g ground almonds

1 tablespoon cocoa

1. Preheat oven GM3 or 170C

2. Butter and line 900g loaf tin

3. Whisk together butter, sugar and eggs.

4. Fold in flour, almonds and cocoa. Add a generous splash of milk if the mixture is a little dry (gluten free mixes usualy need extra liquid)

5. Bake for 55  minutes. Cover with foil for the last 25 minutes if starting to catch.

6. Cool in the tin for 15 minutes before transferring to a cooling rack.

7. For the butter icing I combined 100g soft marge, 200g icing sugar and 25g cocoa

8. I decorated with coffee chocolate beans and a cake topper from Inspired by Alma, yay!

This year Chris had the day off for his birthday and we treated ourselves to the brand spanking new Star Wars film. It was amazing!!!

But even more amazing is having Chris in my life. We are perfect together and our shared love of Star Wars is just one example (I’m wearing the Rebel Alliance symbol necklace he bought me for my birthday!) May the force be with you…