Oh wow, what fab weather we have right now in the UK – dangerous weather don’t you think? The past week my kitchen has become much more uncomfortable to work in which forced me to find my mesh screen for the kitchen window and the door so that I could work in the kitchen with doors and windows open knowing that no insects could get in whilst I was baking. I have now changed my hours of baking to first thing in the morning before it gets too warm and last thing at night before I go to bed. The rest of time is spent doing admin work, checking stock, working online and ferrying children around.
This heatwave has made me think twice about offering the chocolate treats on my webshop but as of yet I haven’t removed them as I think here in the north east the temperatures are quite comfortable (well apart from last Sunday) but in the rest of the UK (south of Durham) the weather must be exhausting to say the least. 🙁 I would be really worried if the temperatures keep rising – even more than what I already am about my orders melting in this heat on their way to the customers so I am playing it by ear. Thankfully I receive feedback from my customers when their orders arrive through the post so I know where everything is most of the time. 🙂
It is Tuesday already and so far I have baked and posted a pack of the Empire Biscuits to a new customer. I really hope they enjoy them as much as I enjoy baking them. My bakes for the rest of the week include a tray of Lemon and Blueberry Slice (something I haven’t baked before but I have an idea in my head what to do as I don’t think this is too difficult to bake) for a regular customer and a couple of savoury bakes – Corned Beef Pies and Cheese Scones 🙂
This is the penultimate week for school and next week my children will break up for the summer 🙂 Where has this school year gone? My son has several activities to enjoy over the next two weeks as he finishes primary school so this will be the last sports day for us to go to as parents. Very sad but very happy as lots of changes to be made for September 2022.
I’m looking forward to the holidays as I won’t have to be getting up early or doing the school runs so I can spend more time at home and as the house is going to be full of people I won’t be able to clean as much 🙂 What a shame 🙂 Maybe I will allocate one day to upstairs where the young ones hang out where they all help to tidy up their own mess and they can earn their pocket money in the process. I can spend more time on my business as long as the children are occupied elsewhere and hopefully get up to date with everything. Of course at some point I will be closing the webshop for my own summer holiday with my family and I can’t wait as I feel like I have been stuck in this house for years and yet it has only been 16 months or so!!
Right back to the baking I must go as I have ingredients to check ready for my orders this week as I may have to go to the supermarket if I don’t have enough of a certain ingredient. I do use a wholesalers for some of my ingredients now as I use so much of certain ingredients but for the rest the local supermarket is fine. This self employed home baker act is a balancing act involving, ingredient levels, stock rotation, good hygiene routines, sourcing packaging suppliers plus marketing the products, after sales communication, book keeping and so much more but I love it and I wouldn’t have it any other way 🙂