Back in my happy place

Been back in the kitchen, getting my bake on. Haven’t baked anything for a week or two for various reasons, so it was great to be back in my happy place after a particularly difficult week.

Fortunately my BakedIn box arrived, so that avoided any difficulty decisions having to be made.

I’ve never made butterscotch before. It does warn you in the recipe card that it will be hot, but that didn’t stop me sticking my finger in it for a taste 😋

How long do you think is a polite length of time to wait before scoffing some? Quite frankly, I’d happily tuck in now but C is busy putting together my new desk and chair for the study, and we need to go up the tip to get rid of all the stuff we’ve decided to chuck out during the clear up to make space for said desk, and we haven’t had lunch yet. Maybe it’ll have to wait a bit until afternoon tea time.

I had thought at one time, reasonably seriously, about going into a baking business, or having a little tea shop and selling homemade cakes. Trouble with that is, you have to have the space and facilities to meet all the necessary food hygiene and safety requirements, and actually doing it all would take too much of my personal time up, which would impact on my #bellringing time. I do make the odd cake for friends and family, and I have been commissioned in the past to make cakes for a fee, but I do it very much on my terms. If I’m not “feeling” it or I simply don’t want to, I will say no. I make cakes because I want to, not because I have to, in order to make a living. I absolutely applaud those who have turned their hobby into a business and if I wasn’t so consumed by #bellringing, maybe I’d think a bit harder about it. But for now, I’m happy making simple things to enjoy.

I wonder what my grandad would make of it. I used to love watching him mix a cake together without weighing anything, just by feel. He was a master Baker in his day, and didn’t bat an eyelid at making my sister’s wedding cake, including the Royal icing from scratch, in my mum’s kitchen. I sat round the table watching him work.

I wonder whether that was an early influence on me. My first full time job out of school was as a cream finisher in a bakery, putting all the finishing touches to cakes, doughnuts and all sorts of yummies. I’ve always said that if I did set up my own cake business that I would name it after him. Duffell’s Cakery. And the logo would be a side profile of his face in ginger to reflect the colour of his moustache.

We would have had fun in the kitchen together.