First an apology to those readers who asked, longer ago than I care to think, for the chocolate chilli recipe. I can only plead slipshod housekeeping. A purring, well-oiled website is all too easy to ignore. Until someone points out that you have 630 unanswered messages in your mailbox, and not all of them offering you cheap pharmaceuticals.

So for Emily, Keith and Avril (check out her fabulous stained glass at http://www.avrilsrainbowglass.com and for anyone else who’s been waiting, here is that recipe.

Preheat the oven to 180 degrees/Gas Mark 4. Grease an ovenproof dish of 1 litre capacity. Mix together 150 gm of self-raising flour, 1 tsp ground cinnamon, quarter tsp of chilli powder, 200 gm caster sugar, 25 gm cocoa and a pinch of salt. In a jug mix 125 ml milk, 1 tsp vanilla extract and 60 ml corn oil. Pour into the flour/sugar mixture and mix to a smooth glop. Spoon it into the greased dish. Combine another 25gm cocoa with 100gm soft dark brown sugar and sprinkle over the glop. Pour 175ml boiling water over the top, folowed by 60ml of dark rum. Bake for 30 minutes by which time the top will be cakey, the bottom will be runny and your kitchen will smell like heaven.

That’s that little bit of housekeeping taken care of. This week I also exposed to daylight the 8 square metres of floor around my desk that had been hidden under months’ worth of unfiled silt. Busy, busy. I’m building up quite a head of steam. By Tuesday morning I should be ready to get back to some (ahem) paid employment.