Justin the chef does not like making puddings. Last week he asked me to come in an make them if I had the time. So as well as making the smoko treats I did the puddings – this week I did crunchy chocolate cornflake balls, cheese straws, chocolate cupcakes, chocolate chip muffins and some savoury scones.

On Monday I was on Gash so I made profiteroles which means piping 320 balls of chough pastry and then filling each one with cream after cooking them. I made a chocolate sauce of chocolate, milk, butter, honey and a dash of coffee. On tuesday I didn’t have time as there was so much going on at the boatshed but on wednesday I was back in with a steamed lemon sponge cake and custard. Thursday was a sticky chocolate marbled cake with a chocolate sauce. I had friday off as I was busy with Clive doing a second night in the crevasse. So many people wanted to go on the crevasse trip on thursday we had to do two nights in a row.

For Saturday night dinner which I ended up missing as I was up the hill staying in the caboose I made chocolate mousse in individual ramekins with rasberries and a bit of icing sugar on top. So a week of cooking in the kitchen I think I will have the week off this coming one!

Winter is coming here on base with two days of snowfall making the skiing at Vals beautiful and making the base look less like a quarry! The nights are drawing in and it is getting dark at 10pm now and not light until around 5:00am so gone are the days of 24 hour sunlight.