After she left I scrambled around and picked up every single coin, then lay on the floor until the crying stopped. When I could see through my tears, I went straight for a recipe book and made a chocolate mousse pie, my hands shaking as I crushed cookies for the pie shell, whipped the eggs, melted the chocolate.

-Julia’s Chocolate, Cathy Lamb

Lindt had sent me a few chocolates to try from their new Creation range, including Divine Hazelnut, Sumptuous Orange, Heavenly Creme Brulee and Velvety Vanilla Almond. It came at a perfect time, having just finished reading Julia’s Chocolate by Cathy Lamb. If you want chocolate ideas, boy, does Cathy give them to you.

I couldn’t relate much to her main character Julia, after all, my childhood was fun, carefree and safe, complete with wonderfully magical memories I hope I can create for my own (future) kids. That’s not to say you don’t create an attachment to the characters in Julia’s Chocolate. You get pulled into their lives, and find you can’t read fast enough to see what’s next. But Julia’s love of baking and chocolate I completely got.

I chose to make the chocolate mousse pie, but made it lighter flavoured using Lindt Velvety Vanilla Almond Chocolate and a buttery Scottish shortbread crust. The lightness and the fact it’s a no bake 4 ingredient pie makes it perfect for summer. In hindsight, a richer chocolate cookie base would’ve been better to balance the lightness of the chocolate, but either way, it was delicious.