Hasn't the weather been awful recently? Cats, dogs and elephants down here. Gone (for a few months) are the days when I could put the girls in the buggy after tea and take them to the park for a roam around, getting home in time for bathtime at 6.15pm. Now, it gets dark at 4pm and the weather is so awful that it takes an age to get us all ready to leave the house.

I get terribly cabin-feverish if I'm in the house for more than a day at a time. I planned for today to be a lazy pyjama day as I was working at home and dh was around for most of the day but I got struck with an attack of the guilts at around 2pm, went for a shower and got dressed. I decided that the girls and I had to get out of the house for a little while.

We didn't have anything very exciting in for tea so we popped to the local M&S Simply Food (I say popped, it took about 20 minutes to persuade the girls to put their tights, boots, jumpers and coats on. As for strapping them into the buggy...) to get some treats. I picked up all the usual stuff: bread, milk, salad bits and in a moment of madness, decided that the girls should have cake for afters.

Not just cake. Oh no. Chocolate cake. With chocolate frosting and chocolate buttons. Yummmmmmmy.

The girls don't have things like cake and chocolate very often because I am a deeply cruel mother who only allows them to eat food that has been cooked by angels with gold-star hygiene certificates and water that has been purified in bubbling springs and drunk by gods but I thought they should have a treat.

They ate two (small) slices each and I may have had a bit myself and demanded MORE! MORE! I allowed them a piece more each and told them there was no more. G pointed to the kitchen worktop where approximately two-thirds of the cake was sitting, taunting us and wailed MOOOOOORE CAAAAKE PLEEEEEEEEASE. I hastily rushed over, stuffed some frosting in my mouth, put the cake back in its box and hid it in a cupboard. R knew I was pulling a fast one and joined in the yelling. I had to distract them with Teletubbies.

Considering they eat cake roughly every six months, I was impressed at how quickly they a. learnt what it was called and b. developed a taste for it. I think it's a girl thing. Eating healthily is all well and good but on rainy cold winter days, nothing beats chocolate cake.