Sounds too good to be true, eh!

But seriously, I have been loving looking at all the small balls of colourful scrap yarn in my stash. All the bits are stuffed into one of those Wool Warehouse organza bags so I can see what’s in there. I started down the rabbithole of a pattern search on Ravelry using only the search term “rainbow” and had lots of fun. Before I show you what I made, I have to tell you about these Rainbow Buddies which are so cute. It’s apparently a crochet-along but it doesn’t seem to be accompanied by any sort of group chat anywhere. It’s only free during February, and the first two parts have already been published. The second two parts are coming soon. I have already downloaded and printed out the first two weeks’ worth of instructions. No affiliation – just thought you might be interested.

This is what I made after sorting out the standard rainbow colours from the rest of the scraps.

The pattern is called Rainbow Slipper Socks and it’s on a blog here. The pattern calls for DK doubled, but I used worsted weight. The cream is an old skein of Bernat Berella 4 (in fact, I had to start a second ball right near the end). The bright colours are random brands from the stash.

It’s very simple, all half double crochet (half treble UK). You start at the toes and work up, so it’s easy to adjust the fit and try on as you go. She has you decrease a lot at the beginning of the leg, but I only did two decrease rounds there because they are more slippers than socks and I didn’t want to struggle to get my feet into them. And then it’s up to you how long you make the leg – mine have cuffs. The mystery of stash and scraps means that my organza bag seems no emptier than before!!

It’s Family Day here in BC. The five of us used to spend it snowboarding/skiing but considering I broke my wrist spectacularly back in 2018 (link to the day I had my dressing off after surgery – don’t look if you’re squeamish) on Family Day, I have been too chicken to get on a snowboard since. And times change, and youngest son is working today, and the only reason I’m not working is that I remembered to book the day off in advance. So we have no special plans.

And of course yesterday was Valentine’s Day and there were no special plans for that either. We don’t ‘do’ Hallmark holidays however I did feel that a bit of chocolate wouldn’t go amiss. So even though I’d been at work all day, and the guys had made pizza, I whipped up a chocolate cake for dessert.

I have no idea where I got this recipe originally. It’s been in my handwritten cookbook for years. It’s rich and decadent and vegan, and you don’t need to mess about with egg replacers. It might even work as a gluten-free cake with something like Bob’s Red Mill 1:1 All Purpose GF Flour, but I haven’t tried it.

Batter – 1 2/3 cups sugar (I use coconut), 2 1/2 cups flour (wholewheat), 1/2 cup oat flour (I use my Vitamix’s dry jug to grind some rolled oats), 2 tsp baking soda, 1/2 tsp or less salt, 2/3 cup cocoa powder, 1/4 cup chocolate chips (I use Costco’s Kirkland chips which happen to be dairy free), 1 cup hot coffee (I use instant – one mug of coffee will be enough for this plus the frosting), 1 cup coconut milk (the canned kind, one can will be enough for the batter and the frosting), 2 tblsp apple cider vinegar, 1 1/2 tsp vanilla, 3/4 cup vegan butter (eg, Earth Balance or Melt).

Frosting – 1 1/2 cups choc chips, 1/4 cup coffee, 1/8 cup hot water, 1/4 cup coconut milk, 2oz silken tofu (about 2 tblsp)

Mix sugar, flour, oat flour, baking soda and salt in one bowl. In second bowl, mix cocoa powder, choc chips and hot coffee. In a third bowl, mix coconut milk, vinegar, vanilla. Melt ‘butter’ and add to coconut milk mixture. Combine all into one bowl, pour into two 8″ sandwich tins lined with circles of parchment paper and oiled. Bake at 350 – 375F for 25 – 30 mins (my oven runs cool, I usually go for a higher temp) until a toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean. Allow to partly cool before turning out. While cakes are cooling, make frosting. Melt choc chips (I do this in a bowl over a pan of hot water). Add coffee, water and coconut milk. Pour into blender with tofu, blend until smooth, chill in fridge 1 1/2 hours. Whisk with electric beaters and use. I defrosted some frozen berry mix and added them in the middle plus a few on top.

It really is rich and you probably won’t be able to eat more than one slice at a sitting. It’s good for a special occasion.

It didn’t cut very photogenically – it crumbled – but it tasted good!