Many years ago our son and daughter-in-law discovered a small, hand-cranked ice-cream maker, bought one for themselves and one for us, and proceeded to make their own ice creams from fresh fruit, yogurt and a number of ingredient combinations. The one they bought for us languished in our cupboard, brought out for use only when they visited and used it themselves to treat us to their brand of home-made ice-cream.

Recently we had another good look at the ingredients on commercial ice cream, after having read a kind of expose on what many of the chemicals included are also used for and decided we'd be better off foregoing that stuff. We looked around for that little hand-cranked thing, and it was nowhere to be found.

So my husband proceeded to do what he usually does when he's fixated on something, went out and procured an ice-cream maker. They're not easy to come by, sold for the most part only at household and kitchen specialist shops. The one he bought was many times larger, infinitely more simple to use because it was electrically mechanical.

This time when our son and daughter-in-law visited it was my husband who made ice-cream: vanilla on one occasion and chocolate on another, and since I'd baked a chocolate cake in honour of my daughter-in-law's birthday, the combination was irresistible.