My kids love it! It's a recipe for Chocolate Biscuit Cake which I got from my mother and everyone in our family loves it. Also it's incredibly easy to make and even very young children enjoy helping to make it.Miriam O'CallaghanRTÉ Current Aff airs TV PresenterChocolate Biscuit CakeIngredients2 packets Marietta biscuits(one large packet Rich Tea will do)50g/2oz butter2 eggs175g/6oz sugar2 tablespoons cocoaTopping 2 large bars Dairymilk chocolateMethod Put all the biscuits loosely into a plastic bag or bowl and break them into pieces. (Small pieces but not tiny and don't mash them into crumbs, whatever you do!). Put the butter and sugar into a pot on the hob over a low temperature until they melt and all the sugar is completely dissolved. Add the beaten eggs and the cocoa to the mixture, still on the hob, and mix them all well together, making sure that the eggs don't curdle. Add the broken biscuits and stir really well, making sure all the biscuits are included in the mixture.Put all of this into a grease-proof paper-lined loaf tin, and squash it all down into a loaf shape. Place in the fridge for a few hours. Ideally you should probably leave it in the fridge for half a day but in my house it only usually gets to stay there for about an hour as the children want to eat it as quickly as possible.When you take it out, remove it from the tin and cover it in lots of melted Dairymilk chocolate. Let it stand until the chocolate hardens and then ... sheer heaven! Everyone in the house gets to eat the most delicious chocolate cake out there!Sample recipe from the Cookery BookCookery Book available in our on line shop at www.isands.ie or by calling 01 8726996isands newsletter42

Christmas Cards 2009Our sincere thanks to everyone who bought our Christmas Cards in 2009. We are thrilled with another very successful year and apart from the tidy sum of ?6,997.10 we raised from sales, we are also thrilled that our cards travel all over the world to raise awareness.Thanks again.Rite Ingredients Cookery BookPauline Keena in association with the Rotunda Hospital invites bereaved mothers to take part in an Art Project following the one successfully completed in 2007."Through the medium of talking, writing, drawing, sculpting, painting, the experience and process of grief and loss will be examined"I am a visual artist and my art practice unfolds in the context of the work of linguist and psychoanalyst Julia Kristeva. Her ideas on the maternal, the mother's body and language in the mother's body are central to my work. I am interested in states of being that exist in the mother's body that are beyond the realm of spoken language and outside the resolve of thinking.Specifi cally I want to look at the vocabulary of the bereaved mother whose baby has died. I want to look at the presence and process of her grief as embodied state, how it might be made available to look at, to engage with and observe and how it might be transformed in that looking and engagement.In this regard I would like to work with a small group of mothers who have had the experience of neonatal death in order to explore and examine, make visible and available the nature of that trauma.A range of materials will be available to work with so that for example through the medium of talking, writing, drawing, sculpting, painting, the experience and process of grief and loss will be examined and made available to engage with. In this way through the medium of materials and making a tangible testimony can become established that names and honours the individual story of the mother on her own terms.This work will be carried out at the Rotunda Hospital where a safe, nurturing and confi dential environment is being provided.If you are a bereaved mother and would like to be part of this project I would like you to contact me atpaulinekeena@hotmail.com.I look forward to working with you.Pauline KeenaArt ProjectOur Rite Ingredients Cookery Book is still selling really well and gets a great response once seen.It features many international and Irish well known and prominent people. The recipes vary greatly and are all simple to make.It makes a wonderful gift for any occasion and is boxed in a beautiful presentation box which also includes a shopping bag.One of the good ideas coming out of the cookery book is a 'Tasting Evening'. Where recipes are made from the book and friends and family come along at a small fee to taste the fi nished dishes.The proceeds can be given to your favourite charity!.Maybe a useful idea to celebrate your baby's anniversary or birthday. Parents are always making contact with us for ideas for fundraisers or for ways to mark their baby's anniversary.If you haven't already got a copy of Rite Ingredients Cookery Collection it is really worth buying, not alone for the lovely recipes but it also includes beautiful painting reproductions from some of our top Irish artists and small pleasing anecdotes shared by many of the contributors.Available from on-line shop at www.isands.ie or from main offi ce 01 872 6996isands newsletter43