Grandma is in the town and a cake to celebrate the happy occasion

All parents out there, whose parents are not living next door, do appreciate an occasional visit from their parents, as this is their possibility to do something for themselves. 

My mom is visiting us for the next two weeks and this means that my husband and I are going to have some time off....time off of the parenting hood. For the next two weeks Pablo is going to be the responsibility of my mom. I know how it sounds, but I think you all know what I mean. 

Pablo loves his granny a lot and does appreciate her visits too. He also is going to have a time off of our parenting hood, as with granny live seems much more relaxed. She would never say no, she will support him in everything he is doing and she will do everything what needs to be done to make him laugh, How can a child not love that?!?

To welcome my mom at our place, I made a chocolate cake with cream cheese frosting, with a "beach vacation" theme. After all it is going to be her vacation.....

 Chocolate cake (for 15 cm baking form)

• 1 cup of flour
• 1/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• pinch of salt
• 100 g butter (softened)
• 3/4 sugar (brown)
• 2 eggs
• 50 g melted chocolate (dark)
• 1/2 cup milk

Preheat the oven to 180 C. In a smaller bowl sift together flour, cocoa powder, baking powder and salt. In a bigger bowl mix butter and sugar, till light and fluffy. Add the eggs, one at the time, and mix well. Melt the chocolate and add it to the butter-egg mixture, combine everything together. Add milk and flour,alternately, ending with the flour...mix well till you will get a smooth and shiny batter. Pour the batter into the baking dish (all at once or divide between 2). Bake for 35-40 minutes (if all at once) or 20-25 minutes..make the stick test. Let it cool completely on a cooling rack before frosting the cake.

Cream cheese frosting

• 100 g butter (softened)
• 100 g powdered sugar
• 1 teaspoon vanilla essence
• 250 g cream cheese (Philadelphia cheese)

Mix the butter and powdered sugar, till light and fluffy. Add vanilla and the cream cheese and mix till all is good incorporated.

I put some fresh blueberries in between the layers, any kind of fresh berries are good to go with this cake. Put a generous amount of frosting and cover it with the berries, then place another cake layer and frost the rest of the cake.

To create an ombrelook on the cake, I used some blue food colouring. Cover half of the cake with a darker blue frosting, and the rest with the lighter one. The easiest way would be to use a piping bag and pipe the frosting as needed, put the spatula 90 grad up, close to the cake and spin the cake around, while holding the spatula right up. Decorate as you like...I used crashed cookies to make sand, black fondant for fishes and towel and a cocktail umbrella for the beach umbrella.

Enjoy!