Our big four-year-old boy!

When I found out our second child was a boy, I was terrified! I didn't care which gender we had, but I thought I wouldn't know how to care for a boy. Of course, I have learnt, and continue to. The moment he was handed to me, I melted and wondered how I could have been concerned about caring for such a precious cherub.

Now he's four. Already? So excited today, he's had anything his heart has desired. His choice of breakfast (Fruit Loops, a rare treat), his choice of lunch - roast chicken sandwiches using white bread and he's asked for pasta with tomatoes for tea. Easy to please. He's also spent a lot of time at his favourite park, and the rest of the time playing with his big sister and little brother and his new 'Cars' racing track.

Yesterday, The Birthday Boy and I made the cake he'd decided on. An Ice Cream Cake which he'd spied on a Nigella Express episode. Happy to oblige. The recipe is easy, and of course, being ice cream, there is not the worry of the cake going stale before it can be finished.

The cake can be served with a sauce, which I was initially going to do, but in the end, there seemed to have been enough sweet things, what with 'pink sivvy', Lolly Gobble Bliss Bombs and Twisties that I felt the cake alone would be enough. There were no complaints! My version (mostly through necessity of available ingredients) varied slightly from the original:

Ice Cream Cake

1.5 litres ice cream
100g honey roast peanuts
200g Butterscotch bits or chocolate chips of your choice
2 x 80g Crunchie bar, broken into shards and dusty rubble
100g Chocolate chocolate chip biscuits, broken up into crumbs and rubble


Let the ice cream soften either in the fridge for a while, or out in the kitchen.

Line a 20cm (I used 23cm) spring form tin with clingfilm, both in the bottom and sides of the tin so that you have some overhang at the top.

Empty the slightly softened ice cream into a bowl and mix in the nuts, morsels or chocolate chips, Crunchie shards and biscuit crumbs.

Scrape the ice cream mixture into the spring form tin, flattening the top like a cake, cover the top with clingfilm and place in the freezer to firm up.

Serve the cake straight from the freezer, unmoulding from the tin and pulling the clingfilm gently away, before putting on a plate or cake stand. Let it stand and soften for about 5 minutes before cutting.

Sprinkle the top of the cake with the extra crumbled Crunchie.

Serves 10-12


Ready and waiting for the song to start!