The First Day of Summer

The calendar says it's officially the first day of summer, but the thermometer tells a different story. When I think of summer, I think of sun and heat. Though the sun has peaked through the clouds every now and then the past few days, the heat just isn't there. When I came out of work going on 5pm, it was 21°C or 69.8°F, which is not exactly summer weather. It became considerably cooler, though, within a couple of hours with the increase of clouds.

But I have to say this is one of my favourite days of the year... not necessarily because I have to remember my brother's birthday on this day every year, but because it is the day with the most sunlight. At 9:15pm I took these pictures:

(No, I'm not showing you the roofs of houses... look closely.)

It amazed me that there was a rainbow so late in the day. It was a full rainbow, too! However, by the time I got my camera out and ran upstairs to get a better shot out the top window, it had already begun to fade... oh, well... in a land of cool temperatures and plenty of rain, I'm sure there'll be many more rainbows this summer.

Chocolate Diet Coke Cake

"Seriously? Diet Coke in a cake?" is what I thought when I saw the recipe on the Weight Watcher website, "I've got to try this." So I did yesterday, and because it is so chocolatey and yummy, I thought I'd share the recipe with you. (Sorry, it's in metric measures since it's from the UK website.)

Ingredients

	250 g Flour, Wheat, White, Self Raising
	45 g Cocoa Powder
	1 teaspoons Bicarbonate of Soda (Baking Soda)
	150 g Sugar, Light Brown
	150 g Butter
	200 ml Coca Cola Company Diet Coke
	150 ml Buttermilk (I used Light Fromage Frais, since Sainsbury's was out)
	2 medium Egg, Whole
	1 teaspoons (level) Vanilla Extract Frosting
	100 g Chocolate, Plain, (70% cocoa), broken into pieces (a great excuse to buy a tablet of Lindt!)
	45 ml Coca Cola Company Diet Coke
	45 ml Buttermilk (I used Greek Yogurt with Honey that I had in the fridge, again since I didn't have buttermilk)

Instructions

• Preheat the oven to Gas Mark 4/180°C/350°F. Grease a 20.5cm loose-bottomed, spring release cake tin and line the base with baking paper.
  
  
• Sift the flour, cocoa powder and bicarbonate into a bowl. Stir in the sugar.
  
  
• Put the butter in a saucepan and melt over gentle heat. Add the Diet Coke to the butter and stir to mix, making sure mixture does not boil. Remove from the heat.
  
  
• Beat together the buttermilk, eggs and vanilla extract.
  
  
• Quickly whisk the cola mixture into the dry ingredients, then whisk in the buttermilk mixture. Mix gently but thoroughly.
  
  
• Pour the mixture into the prepared tin. Bake for about 40 minutes or until a skewer inserted into the centre comes out clean.
  
  
• Leave to cool in the tin for about 15 minutes, then turn out onto a cooling rack.
  
  
• To make frosting, place the chocolate and Diet Coke in a saucepan. Cook over a gentle heat, stirring until the chocolate has dissolved. Remove from the heat and stir in the buttermilk. Place the cake on a plate and spoon over the chocolate mixture. Allow to set.

I added strawberries and blackberries to the cake since I had them in the fridge.

A rose on our rosebush just after the rain (I made the cake while a storm came through.)