Hi Shell
You don't sound stupid at all
Colour genetics in Cockers is quite complex because there are so many colours in the breed but I will try & explain the basics as simply as I can. You can get a number of different colours in a litter depending on what colour genes each parent carries. In Cockers, black is the dominant colour & all other colours are called "recessives". For a recessive colour to come through, both parents must carry the gene for that colour. Two dogs of the same recessive colour mated together can only produce puppies of that recessive colour.
Gold is a recessive colour so for gold puppies to be born, both parents must either be gold themselves or carry the gene for gold. Two gold parents will always produce all gold puppies (except in very rare circumstances). Two black parents can produce some gold puppies if both carry the gold gene - if only one parent carries the gold gene, then all the puppies will be black. A black dog mated to a gold bitch will produce all black puppies if he does not carry the gold gene, but if he does, then around half the litter will be gold. A gold litter resulting from two gold parents does not mean all the dogs in the pedigree have been gold - this would be very unlikely. It's the fact that two golds have been mated together which makes the resulting litter all gold, although there could well be solid black ancestors in the background & possibly other colours too.
Hope this helps. I can go into more detail if you want but don't want to blind you with too much science to begin with
Jane