It’s April already and I feel like I haven’t baked a customer order for ages. 🙁 Closing the webshop has been hard as I was ticking along nicely – enough orders to keep me busy each week and that was great. Going from that to this has been very hard to get use to but I have found my time has been taken up with home schooling my children, studying for my course, jobs that needed doing in the house and family time. It’s quite calm in my house now – with no running children about to here, there and everywhere I think my husband and myself are feeling quite relaxed. A stress free home – what more can you ask for in this day and age. Long may it last!!
Yesterday, I decided to go and hide in the kitchen as having my husband work from home is starting to be a bit annoying. All I seem to be doing is telling my little boy to be quiet and to tell you the truth I am getting a bit fed up with the sound of my own voice. In the kitchen, I put some tunes on the radio and set about baking. What a great morning I had made even more special as my son followed me through to the kitchen – I think to get away from his Dad too!! 🙂
I baked Cookies and a Chocolate Slab Traybake for my family to enjoy but even better than that I used up some chocolate and made a few Easter Chocolate Treats for my family to enjoy. With the help of my son we have decorated and filled several Easter Chocolate Treat ideas. Don’t think these treats will last till Easter though. I am really pleased with what we have done and can’t wait to share these ideas with you. The only down side to this chocolateiring is that my thermometer which I save for tempering the chocolate has broken 🙁 so I am now searching for a new one.
It is so strange right now don’t you think? The start of the Easter holidays but I have had my children home for two weeks already so it isn’t really any different. No special feeling of picking them up from school this afternoon or anything just having to check what one of my daughter’s has completed schoolwork wise over the last two weeks before the holidays commence. Needless to say, I am feeling slightly deflated as I feel like all I have been doing is nagging her to finish the work – after all it is only what she should have been doing if she had been at school. I think she has had her lazy head on and been fobbing me off with any nonsense just to shut me up. However, I have the app on my phone and I can now check everything she is up to.
Enough about schooling, back to baking and the delicious Chocolate Slab Cake which I have just enjoyed a slice off with some squirty cream. A much needed reward after dealing with children. I love the topping on this cake and the sponge is softer and moister than a lot of cakes I have tried. I think this will be my new go to Chocolate Cake recipe and it is a one I found in a Mary Berry Cook Book called “Mary Berry’s Ultimate Cake Book: Over 200 Classic Recipes”. This book is packed full of lovely recipes, many of which, I have tried and tested, as well as, messed around with over the years to create something slightly different with the ingredients and results I am wanting to achieve. This book is a great base book to work from although I do have many more in my collection. In fact, I am thinking that I should really go back and rework some of my recipes books which are available to buy on Amazon. There is nothing wrong with going over your work and improving on it is there?
This weekend I have plenty to be getting on with so I won’t be bored at all. From working on image files, adding to social recipe sites to book keeping I may be slightly busy 🙂