...helps everything go down. If you've read my blog before you'll no doubt be aware of my vicious sweet tooth and compulsion to bake frequently. I started as a savoury girl and would choose a chunk of oozy cheese or packet of mouth puckering salt and vinegar chips every time. Then I spent some time with buns in my oven and realized my preferred method of growing them to full term size was to shove handfuls of m and m's accompanied by caramel slice into my greedy face. I've never been the same since.
It didn't take long to realize that being sleep deprived and breast-feeding a hungry baby makes one rather prone to cravings for foods with far more butter than most arteries are comfortable with. And so I began baking in earnest.
Baking has, in the four years since, become a staple activity for me. The process brings me a sense of calm (except when I have two sets of sticky hands scooping gloop-fuls of mixture from beneath my nose while I try in vain to add the next ingredient). It gives the sense that all is well in the world if a golden lump of yum is cooling on the cake rack, even if the kids have dropped their bundles and I'm being driven up the wall. I also tell myself we are all far better off eating home made treats than things in packets from the supermarket with encyclopedic ingredient lists of unidentifiable, ooky, kooky, numbery things. Then there is my kitchenaid sparkling alluringly on my bench. It was a highly extravagant and much adored birthday present I can't bare to neglect for more than a few days.
In fact, putting together various combinations of sugar, fat, butter, eggs, nuts or chocolate is such a norm in our house I'm starting to see patterns. I'm collecting data. I'm beginning to analyze results and develop theories. Yes, I know I'm stark raving bonkers, but it's becoming clear that what I bake says a lot about how my head is.
I'll elaborate. When the bikkie tin is filled with a plethora of brightly coloured confections with faces and or ears and tails it's highly likely I'm in a birthday/sugar induced, walking coma. I've had way too much food dye, as have the children and I'm likely to be coming unravelled, so check my seams.
Contrastingly, and often in the weeks following a birthday, you are likely to find fruity muffins, vegetable based cakes like carrot or zucchini with calcium rich cream cheese icing or some kind of muesli style, protein dense health bar. This is a sure sign I'm in detox. I'm feeling good about myself and wanting to put good things in. I'm also likely to be reigning in the terror that is sugar dependent kids and feeling like a highly responsible, bad cop Mum.
Two more broad categories.
Firstly, the hastily slopped together, super rich, super comforting, super gooey yum stuff. This occurs in my oven when I'm a touch fragile, feeling a bit sick or worn out by life's demands. It's often chocolatey and takes about five minutes to prepare. Be quick to catch a glimpse, though, because the first opportunity I get, I escape to a far away place (usually one side of a locked door, kids on the other) and miserably seek solace while filling my face with piece after piece of glorious guilt.
The final category I've identified so far is the Masterchef indulgence. Not necessarily decadent, but always pretty, fancy or clever. If there's something impressive in the tin I'm in a top sort frame of mind. I feel like I've got all the time in the world, I have plenty of patience with the kidlets and we happily potter and chat in the kitchen together while I piece my creation together. Sometimes these goods come from a spirit of generosity and are made to be shared, other times it doesn't matter because I'm so horizontally laid back I don't care whose mouth it ends up in (as long as I get a bit!). So today I've just finished icing a thick, custardy snot block with hot pink raspberry icing (in lieu of passionfruit). Can't wait to warm up my knife and slice it into golden cubes. Can you pick my mood?
This is my latest project and if you've been following me on Facebook you'll have seen the beginnings of 26 (obviously!) alphabet cards, each with a special little individual featured. I'm enjoying revisiting the baby name book, I've got plenty of spare names saved up and I think this puts them to good use. The cardboard boxes arrived flat packed from the UK this morning and now I can envisage the finished product, I just have to fiddle around with a label of sorts, finish the drawings, have them printed, package them up...and they're ready to go. Nearly there, sort of, not much. Stay tuned! Oh, and note the lovely paper bag they were bundled in (see pic). Nothing beats a parcel in the post unless it's a PRETTY parcel in the post!
I'm also still scrawling away at some drawings to be made into prints. At some point I will need to bite the bullet and make a decision, but for now I think I'll play a bit more, with the intention of having some ready for the silly season.
My next market is on grand final day, pre match. So if you're looking to fill in the morning, head out to the Daylesford primary school and say hello. I promise you'll be home well in time to heat the hot dogs, tip the chips into bowls and sling a stripy scarf about yourself!
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