What girl doesn‚Äôt love a weekend mini break… the one I have just enjoyed was three days of snowboarding in the beautiful Austrian Tyrol with seven mates.

 

The first morning was straight up the mountain in flat light and tinged with the inevitable nerves, as it had been over a year since I had last strapped myself onto a snowboard and fired myself down a descent gradient. It was not until I executed my first turn successfully that I breathed a sigh of relief that I had remembered how to do it! That is not to say that there weren’t plenty of tumbles and failed applications to turn my board but generally things were going well.

Several runs, a hearty dinner and a few Gluhwein’s later and I was tucked up in bed in anticipation of what the next day had in store.

After a whole day and night of snow, the morning sun broke through to reveal the beautiful sight of fresh powder… and as it is the early bird that catches the worm we were up there at first lift to peck our own fresh tracks in the perfect conditions. The boys I was with (a seriously well qualified mix of ex pro‚Äôs and multiple-seasonee‚Äôs) helped me work on my technique, suggesting that I stopped trying to surf my way down the mountain (snowboarding is all about the legs and less about the arms). Although a quick stint in the half pipe felt like surfing a perfect point-break and unleashing the arms just felt natural!

With our smiles frozen in position and our faces rosy we reflected on an amazing day.

 

The third morning was a few dawny runs before our lunchtime flight home. the freshly bashed pistes glistened and greeted us as we indulged ourselves in our last few runs before heading off to the airport and back home…. As the plane took off I wondered to myself when would be the next time that I would be breathing the mountain air and sliding down it sideways.

 

This is mine… taught to me by my mother.

 

You will need

 

For the cake

170g butter or marg

170g caster sugar

140g self raising flour

30g cocoa powder

3x eggs

1x three-yr-old to help with measuring,whisking, decorating etc.

 

For the icing

60g butter or marg

120g icing sugar

1x tablespoon cocoa (mixed into a paste with hot water)

Various coloured chocolaty items to decorate

 

Preheat oven to 180 degrees and grease up two 8” cake tins with a little butter.

 

To make the sponge

Blend the butter and sugar together with an electric mixer (you can do this by hand if you want to work on your guns!) until the mixture is light and fluffy.

In a separate bowl sift the flour and cocoa together, and in a third bowl whisk the eggs.

Now add half of the flour/cocoa and half of the beaten eggs to the butter mixture and blend until smooth.

Then add the rest of the flour/cocoa and the rest of the eggs and blend again until smooth.

Finally divide the mix between the two cake tins and place in the oven for 30 mins.

 

To make the icing

Mix the butter, icing sugar and cocoa paste together until smooth.

Once out of the oven remove the cakes from the tins and leave to cool.

Once cooled, select your favourite plate and place one of the cakes upside down on it. Spread with half of the icing and then place the other cake on top (the right way up) and cover with the remaining icing.

Decorate as desired!!!!

Nah!!!

That is why I love being a girl… you can go from surfing to beauty and back to surfing in the space of a minute!

I am now the proud parent of a 3 year old surf grom as Luca caught his first stand up waves in the warm waters of Costa Rica. I think I have a future world champ on my hands!