Today I had one of those rare and amazingly productive days, filled with 3 loads of washing, the tidying up of 4 bedrooms and two bathrooms, getting up-to-date with the washing up, and organising (again) the pantry...
The afternoon rolled around (a bit too quickly), and as I went outside to bring in some of the dried washing, I found my dog eating a shirt of my daughter's! Her Grandpa got it for her from overseas a couple of years ago, and (after getting so cranky at him -and everyone else in sight unfortunately-), I was heartbroken...
I'm not sure what others do when they are completely overwhelmed with all sorts of emotions*, but I often bake.
I had absolutely no idea what I was going to do with the cupcakes once they were done, but still made the mixture and spooned them into the patty cases, ready to bake anyway.
Not long after they were in the oven, I saw on Facebook that the church play group I take my youngest to was looking for someone to bring some morning tea in for the parents the next day... Brilliant! A plan was then underway to find out what animal we'd be learning about, and make cupcakes to match.
The animal was horses.
So, thinking quickly, I printed out little horse outlines and melted some chocolate in the microwave. With dark chocolate, I traced the horses' bodies. Then, with milk chocolate, I added their tails, manes and an eye.
With the icing, I thought that today I'd try something different... I made a batch of buttercream, separated it in half, and added cocoa to one of the halves... Then I alternated spooning each of them into a piping bag to pipe onto the cupcakes that had cooled down by this stage. This was the first time I'd combined different coloured icing to pipe, and I am happy with the result! After refilling the piping bag, I found that the colours then blended a bit more, but I was alright with that :)
The piping was done, and I added the chocolate horses on top!
I am feeling much better now.
In fact, I'm even hungry enough to eat a little horse ;)
* I'd actually really love to know what others do in these situations! Does anyone else find spontaneous baking therapeutic?
Baking is definitely the least expensive form of therapy & is definitely my go-to remedy when I'm anxious. The kids love it, their dad loves it - a win-win situation really. I love reading your blog!
ReplyDeleteThanks Kate! Glad to hear from someone who shares similar passions! And I am glad you enjoy reading my blog :)
DeleteEach day this week, I've offered cupcakes to my two eldest children to take to school. At the start of the week, they were keen for multiple cupcakes, plus extras for their friends and teachers. By the end of the week (today) they politely declined. I think they must be cupcake'd out for the moment!
Spontaneous baking would probably stress me out (where's the chocolate? How come I didn't check I had eggs BEFORE I added the milk! Who used all the sugar?!!!!!)
ReplyDeleteI tend to find tidying calming, oddly enough. And hanging out the laundry can be good for me too.
I'd better get us up to playgroup for some of those cupcakes though. They look yummy!