Chocolate Work

“It’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas” in my house but we don’t even have the tree up yet. I’m blaming it on the baking as my kitchen smells divine as do my clothes. I think my new perfume should be “eau de chocolate” as my youngest child can’t stop cuddling me and has told me I should work in “Willy Wonka’s Chocolate Factory” 🙂

Speaking of Willy Wonka – “Charlie and the Chocolate Factory” – a film which my son loves, a couple of nights ago, I allowed him to make his own chocolate bar. When I say allowed – I tempered the chocolate whilst he made the golden ticket and label for the bar of chocolate. My son poured the chocolate into the mould then once the chocolate was set my husband and son packed the chocolate and golden ticket in foil before adding the homemade label. At first, he was going to take it school but my son and husband could not resist and the chocolate was eaten within 30 minutes. 🙂 I’m so glad that I completed the Chocolatier course last year so that I have a new skill to use in my homebaking business.

The last few days have been spent preparing for a large order for some unusual and rather bespoke cakes. So far I have done some sugarpaste work in readiness for the decoration of these sweet treats, as well as, a lot of online ordering for various items which I didn’t have in stock. Hopefully, everything will arrive in time as I still another week or so before I need to put everything together. In the mean time, I can carry on with the decorations – most of which are handmade 🙂 There will be mermaid tails, suns, moons and stars along with chocolate fairy wings. Very magical and well suited to this time of year don’t you think?

As most of this week has been spent keeping the house in order due to the number of viewings we are getting right now I have only managed to fit in the chocolate work which I wanted to get out of the way before the children finish school. I don’t have any orders this week, so I have made the most of it and tried to do loads of jobs.

Today, I am planning on spending my time – note I say “my time” (but we will get onto that sore point later) adding recipes to the different recipe sites which I have used in the past and maybe a coupe of videos to Youtube if I can find the time to edit them first :). My other jobs for today are :-

• to make sure the house is in order for later when we have another viewing.
• wait around for some important deliveries so I can hide things away before the children get home (Christmas presents).
• plan my week ahead as I really need to be organised to get everything done as it is now the season for school fairs, school trips and Christmas shows, as well as, dentist and doctors appointments in this household.
• have some time for “me”.

I think my “me” time is spending time on the blog doing what I want to do rather than what I need to do 🙂 My most favourite time is when I am in the kitchen – just creating – which I have managed to do this week 🙂

On Wednesday evening, I baked some Apple & Sweet Mincemeat Pies, a Cranberry, Cinnamon and White Chocolate Slice and some Choc Chip Cooffins??

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The Apple & Sweet Mincemeat Pies were inspired from the fact it is nearly December and I love Mince Pies especially my Mince Pies! The addition of the apples was due to the fact I had some apples from my good friend’s apple tree which I wanted to bake with. These Mince Pies are delicious even though I say it myself but I do have a few orders for them on the run up to Christmas. 🙂

The Cranberry, Cinnamon and White Chocolate Slice came about from my daughter’s request for something with cranberries so I baked a traybake for her. I added the cinnamon as I was still in a “Christmasy” mood from baking the Mince Pies.

Now the Cooffins came about from the cookie dough which I mixed and the need to try something else so I used a muffin tin to bake the cookie dough balls in rather than a standard baking tray. These were a novelty bake for the children to enjoy as part of their packed lunches. 🙂

I love experimenting in the kitchen don’t you? Just writing about what I have baked this week has put me in the mood to try out some other ideas but I think I will grab a cuppa and maybe a Sweet Mince Pie then take a seat and make some notes in my ideas book 🙂 Must get my thinking cap on! The other jobs can wait a little while longer 🙂