{a bun in the oven}

Over the next few days, you might see my belly starting to expand. Is it a boy? Is it a girl? No, it's a batch of The Best of the British Bake-Off's double chocolate buns.

Like muffins, but a bit thicker and richer, the chocolate buns gave all of our kitchen equipment a work-out, including the little digital kitchen scale that I got for Christmas, and every single mixing bowl we own, plus a couple that I'd put in the garage to give away -- sorry, local charities, I guess we're keeping them!

I've never really enjoyed baking before, (eating, yes, baking, no), but I loved the challenge of this recipe.

"Fold in the flour with a metal spoon", it said -- could the book could see me, there in the kitchen, a cheap partially-melted plastic spatula in my hand, advancing towards the mixing bowl?

Mum? Is that you, in recipe form?

Anyway, if you like the look of the buns (or like the sound of anything with "double chocolate" in the title), here's a link to a similar recipe, by one of the Bake-Off contestants, which also has directions for filling the buns with more chocolate. Just when you think life can't get any better...