O.k, first the confession. Forgive me cake critics for i have sinned. Its been many weeks since my last baking session. I have many excuses, but basically, life got in the way. The school holidays were a killer, the largest offspring was moved in to his new bedroom which set of a few autism inspired rages in number 2 son who was used to sharing with him. We're back to peeing in places other than the toilet. I can laugh about it now (whether you like it or not, seeing your son poke his peeing parts out of the zip of the trampoline netting and pee on to the grass while shouting "LUCA! You don't. wee. HEEEERE!!" is gonna cause a slight giggle fit) however mopping a lake of piss around the kitchen floor is not much fun. Thats not the extent of it but i won't bore you with the screaming, headbutting, flapping and constant asking for things he can't have details.
Add to that the smallest offspring ramping it up a gear with the crying, and you have yourself a nice little recipe for mummy thinking it may be best if she gives up on this parenting thing! I mean, only a mere 14 years ago I was well known for managing to kill 2 tamagotchi pets within 20 minutes of having them. Now all of a sudden i'm in charge of 4 kids, a house and a husband?! There's something worrying about that. I've never been trained or interviewed, I don't remember ever having any kind of police checks, for all we know i could be a maniacal serial killer...how do we know i'm not?! This is the kind of craziness your brain spits out when you're at the end of your rope people. So yeah, my cute little baby turned in to some kind of evil being, who only ever drew breath so as to make the screams louder. I turned in to some kind of mouldable jelly-type substance, who lived in a purple winnie the pooh dressing gown and only drew breath to pray for an end to come soon. Eventually the poor wee chap was diagnosed with reflux, which is baby-speak for acid indigestion. He has medicine now. Things are improving. Huzzah!
We also celebrated the princess's third birthday this week. Ooohhh the fun i had perusing the pink aisles of toys r us, and the pleasure we got from watching her open her presents! "Oh i love it!!!" And before you ask....the cake was from asda.
So anyway, back to the task at hand. Baking. The rock cakes came out lovely and were scoffed within an hour of coming out of the oven. The only problem was that at first check i didnt think they were cooked enough, 5 minutes later the raisins on top were burnt. Let that be a lesson to me! Definately one to try out though, especially if you have kiddies, they'll love getting messy mixing it all together, and they're ready pretty quickly for the impatient among us. Plus, it doesn't matter about making them look pretty. They're rock cakes, the aim is to make them look like rocks. I'm starting to worry a little about the aesthetics of the whole baking business. I have no artistic flair. In my head i picture a perfect sculpture, where everything is even, the roses/patterns/whatever look beautiful and perfect and the world will marvel at my cleverness and talent. Sadly my hands betray me every single time, and whatever i make looks as though its been hashed together by a slightly tired and emotional toddler who just wants to get the job finished. So to go hand in hand wth my new baking hobby, i've also signed up to a cake decorating magazine. I will be learning about icing and frosting techniques, how to create special effects and how to make things look like you've spent hours when in fact its taken mere moments. I'm a little bit sceptical that its going to work on me and my toddler hands, but we can live in hope!
This week i'm hoping to get my dressing gown off and my apron on to make victoria sponge. Everyone loves a victoria sponge! And not a lot of artsy-fartsyness is needed, just a little bit of icing sugar sprinkling. I might let Bella do it.
