This is just fantastic. My mother could eat nothing else for the rest of her life. Moist, rich and delicious. I agree that the chocolate is very important - it really needs to be good quality dark stuff. Partly because the taste is so pronounced in the final product (it's not cake with chocolate on it, it's chocolate that's got a little cake in it), and partly because it's so much easier to work with higher end chocolate when you have to melt it for icing as there is a smaller chance that it will seize.

Again this is really a cake that should be eaten on the day it's baked, but I can't see that being a problem!

This is absolutely delicious and to make it even better, it can be put together in advance and refrigerated. Heats up perfectly the next day.

Even my bread sauce skeptical family became converts after trying it!

A basic Italian-style tomato sauce that's absolute child's play to make and tastes wonderful. Can be altered easily. I usually end up using tabasco instead of chilli, fresh tomatoes in summer, and a handful of black olives if I have them in the fridge. It's also good with balsamic vinegar instead of red wine, if you have one instead of the other as I do.

I keep this chunky for pasta, or give it a whizz with a stick blender for pizza. It freezes really well, which is a bonus as one batch produces quite a lot of rich, delicious sauce.

A good no-panic risotto that's really worth making. A bit heavy on the celery in the recipe (half a head) so I usually reduce that to a few ribs.

I tend to make this in Autumn as my dad is a great wild mushroom picker. If I'm relying on those wonderfully uniform looking white supermarket mushrooms I boost the flavour with a few dried mushrooms. Avoid using little button mushrooms though. They really aren't worth the effort for this.