Autumn is flying by way to fast for my liking as it already feels like winter where I live. No ice or snow yet but I don’t think it will be long as where I live is quite high up compared to other areas of County Durham. It is definitely the weather for homemade broth and dumplings or some homemade Potato & Leek Soup with freshly baked bread. Maybe I will set a dough away tonight and bake some fresh bread tomorrow 🙂
In my house, my children are already excited about “Christmas” as they have started watching the Christmas movies and listening to Christmas songs. A bit early for my liking but at least they have made their lists so it makes it a bit easier for my husband and myself to get organised.
On the homebaking front, I am busy baking Christmas Cakes some of which need to be stored in my kitchen as they are for collection and some are being posted early to the customers. Thank you for the orders so far – the Chocolate Fruit Cake is proving to be a hit. Please feel free to visit my webshop if you would like to order any Christmas Bakes in time for Christmas. Follow the link in Christmas Bakes for more details.
Talking of “being a hit” my Chocolate Gingerbread traybakes are selling really well too. The tray I made for my family was enjoyed over the weekend so it just shows you “that GIngerbread is not just for Bonfire Night”.!! Gingerbread is one of those bakes which just gets better the longer you keep it, so today, I imagine it will be super sticky and moist – just perfect with a cup of tea!! It is a versatile recipe too as you can add lots of other ingredients to it and make it just how you want it to be, for examplr, you can add walnuts or choc chips to funk it up a bit.
Tomorrow, I am planning to deep clean the kitchen cupboards as I am convinced that I will be getting an inspection soon from the Environmental Health and I want to be super prepared. Most of my paperwork is up to date now so I am almost there. When I checked on the hygiene ratings for County Durham there were about 650 businesses awaiting inspection so there is a very long list. I do still have my 5 star rating from Newcastle Council which is still active so I am covered for my hygiene standards and how I run my business.
The new rules around labelling of products has created a lot of work but I am almost done with these too 9thanks to several late nights) so that is another job which I can tick off my list soon. I can understand why the ingredients of every ingredient needs to be listed for a product but OMG the ingredient list alone is quite a read for many of my products. I will have to share the two different labels, one that I used in the past and the new style of label, for the same product, and I think you will see what I mean. 🙂
This last few days have been spent editing videos to share on different social media sites and it was actually fun to do and something a bit different for me to try. I have been checking my google analytics for any changes in views etc and where they may be coming from and my videos seem to have made a difference. This is something I must keep doing and improving on as I feel it will help in the long run.
Right back to the admin I must go as I have plenty to do before I start on my other job of taxi driver for my children as they have busier lives than I do!! I am hoping to get back to some painting this week so fingers crossed for that!