I’ve only recently discovered the delights of baking; I’ve tended to avoid it in the past, given I can’t manage not to eat the proceeds and I more or less put on weight by looking at calories. But lately I’ve had an urge to send my children out of the house with something filled with a little more love than shop bought snack bars and so I’ve taken up cooking batches of muffins to put in their packed lunch boxes. Admittedly the novelty of home baked cakes means they don’t always last long enough for the pack up but it is good to know they open up their sandwich box and find something I made for them inside. Since I’m never going to be one of those Bento mums, it’s the best I can do and it means I get to lavish muffin love on them more regularly than just on their birthdays.
A couple of years ago I pledged to bake a cake for each child on their birthday and decorate it according to their likes. Since I can only bake one cake, all the interiors were identical but I had a lot of fun icing them to suit a theme or passion of each child – from trains to Smurfs, it was a lot of fun. SO the new Stork campaign to Bake Yourself Happy on World Baking Day on the 17th May seems like a good time to treat my children to something mummy made and remind them that even if I do spend a lot of time dashing about and being busy, they are my number one people at heart.
Stork have created the World’s happiest Cake recipe, using ingredients such as mango and coconut and lime; it won’t be baked here since bizarrely those are two ingredients people here are allergic to – so I’ll be browsing Pinterest for cake recipes I can rely on. Since happiness for me is mostly about having actual quality time with my family, perhaps we can take our cake on a picnic and get some fresh air and sunlight along with it. I’m busy facing my cookery demons at the moment and learning new skills so cross your fingers I have success and it all turns out well. That will definitely make me the world’s happiest mum 😉
You can join in with World Baking Day and follow the recipe, or plan your own treat for someone special. I best go out and buy myself some Stork!
You can visit the World Baking Day Facebook page to find out more or follow them on Twitter or even Instagram but the photos might make you absorb calories through the screen 😉
Disclosure: My World Baking Day post is in association with Stork. Pop back next week to see what I baked. Why not join in too and make someone you love happy.
I need to branch out in the cake flavours. Current obsession here is rainbow or multicoloured marble cakes. Also love the themes. Just taken four days to create a 3d tardis for my son. He had a Death Star last year which was my first (and I think last) foray into spherical cakes. Littlest has predictably requested an Elsa cake for hers. I’m not very good but the eyes of children are very forgiving and they all think I’m amazing at cooking so that’s good enough for now! Not sure they’ll think the same when they’re older and see the photos of the effort that meant well but never quite turns out as it is in the minds eye but maybe the memory will be enough to remain forgiving.