Chocolate cheesecake brownies and jigsaws

When you've been happily dating someone special for a while, you forget what life was ever like before.

Back then, you felt like "He's Just Not That Into You" was a documentary about your relationship history. Back then, you admired that special someone from afar through star-struck eyes, and dreamt of the day they would finally wake up and notice you.

Now, you forget how lucky you are to be enveloped in the love and support of someone so awesome every single day.

When you’ve been dating someone special so happily for so long that your roots have become joined together, you forget that there was ever a time when you were two trees and not one.

You forget that the other piece in your jigsaw puzzle isn’t exactly the same person as you. That they have different habits, different skills, different ambitions. That it might be hard to understand the choices they make sometimes, when their natural instincts tell them to take a leap to embrace an exciting opportunity, and yours say to stand still to avoid the potential risks.

But it’s important that you remember the jigsaw puzzle at these times.

Remember that the asymmetry between jigsaw pieces is necessary. That the pieces wouldn’t be able to fit together if they were identical. That their differences complement each other – just like the heart complements the head.

It might not be clear at first, but if you keep working at the puzzle then the pieces will all slot into place to complete the bigger picture.

In honour of the jigsaw, and the special someone that’s got my back every single day, I decided to whip up a batch of these delicious-looking marbled chocolate cheesecake brownies.

But sadly my baking skills are minimal, and my version ended up looking like this…

…a far less impressive demonstration of my adoration than I had hoped for!

I could have thrown these brownies away – but I knew that their sweet flavour and rich consistency was worth saving. I realised that with a bit of work and attention these cakes could be transformed into a crumble mixture, ideal as the basis for a hot pie or as a topping for a cold icecream.   

These cheesecake brownies might not be identical to the original version – but they taste just as good it’s vital to remember that ultimately that’s what matters!

Sometimes you just need to look at things from a different perspective, and to allow yourself to be flexible, in order to realise how it all fits into the puzzle as a whole.