I was at home one weekend afternoon when I went into our bathroom to have a shower. I stripped off and climbed into the shower only to face the new neighbours who were on their balcony, just metres away. They looked at me wide eyed, I looked at them even more wide eyed, we both smiled at each other tentatively and I slowly, gingerly shut the window a frozen smile plastered on my face.

So my neighbours have seen me naked now…don’t you just love close quarter apartment living in Sydney?

That weekend afternoon it seemed as though every one of our neighbours were out on their balcony. I looked outside my kitchen window and three groups of neighbours faced me and of course I had my new “friends” (I think we’ve started dating after the flashing incident) across from the bathroom window and a group of kids were playing in the garden downstairs.

My first instinct was of course to close the window and pull down the blinds and have a bit of privacy and silence but I soon forgot about the neighbours once I set about making the avocado pound cake, a recipe I had been dying to try ever since I saw it on Leah’s site The Home Empress site. Not only did it sound delicious and simple but I had some perfect avocados brought back from Ticoba Berries on the mid north coast.

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When we were little my parents rarely gave us dessert. Dessert was a piece of fruit or nothing and I recall keeping Christmas or birthday sweets for months afterwards hanging them up in a big up at the end of my bed and taking one piece out very occasionally and savouring its taste and feeling the sugar hit course through my body. When I would get a tiny bit of pocket money, even 10 cents I would go straight to the corner store and stand in front of the display chewing my lip and biting my thumbnail deep in thought as to how best spend my hard begged ahem I mean earned money. Red frogs were always a good choice but I also liked Redskins and Toffee Apple bars because they seemed to last forever.

One day when my parents went to visit one of my mother’s friends. I found most adults quite strange and creepy and they would always lean down and cluck “She’s becoming a big girl isn’t she! But so skinny!” and I would recoil and feel slightly nauseous at the thought. I didn’t want to grow up and I certainly didn’t want to be examined as if I were on a sample on a petri dish by my parent’s friends. It felt icky and they always said it in a way that gave me the heebeejeebies as if it were planning to cook me and eat me.

Anyway, one of my mother’s friends was one of the adults that I liked. And do you know why? Well, she owned a corner store and one day my parents popped in to see her with my sister and I. This woman also refrained from commenting about how big I had grown (and therefore wasn’t likely to eat me) plus she uttered the very best words my sister and I could have ever heard. “Help yourself to anything that you want girls” she said smiling. She must have seen us looking around her store wide eyed devouring the sweets and ice creams with our eyes and our glance settling on row after row of colourful packaging. She seemed to stock everything and the boxes of treats reached up to the ceiling to the heavens.

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So about four years ago, I started this blog and never did I think ever that it would become not only a job but the best job in the world. This month, I celebrate my four year blogsoversary and today I celebrate my 1,477th post. I must admit I didn’t do anything out of the ordinary because sometimes it feels like my life is out of the ordinary and I daren’t upset the fine balance. But don’t let me get all philosophical on you… now where was I? Oh yes cake!

Cake is an item that I always think of when I celebrate. Cake has much more meaning than the combination of flour, butter, sugar and eggs. It means friends, it means happiness and it means giving and it means love. I mean who ever gave a cake to someone that they hated? Cake also means relief or a sugary repast with stopping in the afternoon for a much needed break and it always present whenever something fun or wonderful happens. I first saw this cake on Vicky’s lovely gluten free site Sweets by Vicky and she adapted the recipe from Willie Harcourt-Cooze from Willie’s Chocolate Bible. She made it to celebrate her 100th post and I though it fitting to make it to celebrate the blog’s four year blogsoversary. And not just because I wanted to eat it I promise

The cake itself is a gorgeously moist and chocolate gluten free concoction filled in the centre with Nutella. The whole shebang is then drizzled in chocolate sauce and served with whipped cream or ice cream. It is a gloriously decadent cake but portion limited in size which is a measure designed to allow you to enjoy it and not go too overboard and it became an instant favourite in our household. Not only that but it is really quite easy to make too and you could have this ready and on the table in about 30 minutes. The only warning I will issue is that you will be asked to make this again. Repeatedly. I know of no human that can resist the lure of melted chocolate. And if like me, you’ve had some issues turning out these gloriously molten centred cakes, you could always serve them in the ramekins (and that way you can make sure that they’re appealingly gooey in the centre).

So where we we? Oh yes the four year anniversary. In these four years there have been a lot of posts. The lovely Anna from The Hospitality Guru tagged me to reveal seven posts for seven reasons so I thought now was as good a time as any to do it.

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