On Sunday I baked.

I am not normally one for baking but now that the holidays are upon us I decided that I would try my hand at this most precise of culinary tasks. I was also lucky enough to have my cousin and long-time cooking buddy here with me which meant that some communal cooking had to be done after a day of eating out on Saturday. For some reason the fact that it was a Sunday also made baking seem particularly appropriate.

So together we made a banana bread cake and chocolate chip cookies. Admittedly these are not the most adventurous possibilities but they fulfilled our desire to bake comforting treats that did not require exotic ingredients which would mean the long (10 minute) journey to the supermarket. Do not be fooled by the picture - there are no chillies in the cake, my cousin and I just thought they looked pretty!

Having scoured a fair few books we found a couple of recipes we both approved of and set to work. I am not normally one who enjoys communal cooking – I am a very particular about who I let in my kitchen – but my cousin and I share a lifetime of cooking experiences, both real and imagined, which meant that this was a thoroughly enjoyable experience. We both knew what we needed to do and didn’t have to decide on tasks but just fell into a natural division of labour.

So with my cousin mashing bananas and sifting flour and me creaming together butter and sugar and chopping up 70% cocoa chocolate for the cookies we managed to make a two batters ready for their tins and the oven. After the difficult wait that always accompanies baking we pulled our pale, lightly yellow cake and golden cookies out of the oven.

And then came the eating…The cake was dense and moist with a strong, but not overpowering banana flavour and chunks of walnuts to offset its almost fudge like consistency. Meanwhile the cookies were crisp and light and all the better for the luxury chocolate chips we used. We enjoyed our sweet delights in the dappled shade of a London plane tree during an improvised picnic of cheese, cake, cookies and home made ice-tea. In the summertime…