it was my husbands birthday this past week so i decided to be a domestic goddess & bake him a cake….. a cheesecake to be exact.

two woolworths & one deli later – no mascapone cheese – the major ‘piece de resistance’ ingredient in the cake….. i was going to start bitching to a staff member about their constant lack of ingredients which is sooooo infuriating when i overheard another customer giving someone what for because he too had been to 2 woolworths’ & neither had potatoes (!!!)….. i figured he had a better case than me so just left him to it….. so we shelved that cheesecake idea…… option 2 was a caramel pie (or banoffee pie)….. a firm favourite in our family….. so off i set to buy a ‘flan’….. ho, ho, ho….. what a joke….. most people didn’t even know what i was talking about….. which i found rather weird as my mum definitely used to make us caramel pies when we lived here as kids & she definitely bought the flan! anyhow in the true spirit of birthday cake baking (& serious perseverance i might add) i then decided on a third option – black forest cake….. cherries???? ha ha di ha!!!! don’t even go there……

anyhow at this stage i was so frustrated i just decided to combine all the ingredients i had & hope for the best – so we ended up with a chocolate cake with caramel & banana filling & cream cheese icing…..

the proof is in the pudding – it was SO good i didn’t even get a picture as it was completely devoured!

it seems that living in south africa is definitely going to force me to ‘get creative’…… now that can only be a good thing!