Wedding cake and surprises

Friday was a busy, busy day. I had my first official order for a wedding cake, as well as 40 cupcakes (vanilla, lemon and chocolate) for a charity tea party and a carrot cake to make.

The only hiccough was that my oven seems to be on a go-slow and instead of the normal 35 minutes per cake was taking up to an hour to cook one cake batter. The result of this was that I had long periods where I had to just sit and wait for the cakes to bake and it was driving me nuts. I really felt that I wasted a lot of time on Friday and will have to find a way to manage my time better so that I have something productive to keep me busy while I’m waiting.

I finished the wedding cake and last of the cupcakes at 12:30am and the carrot cake I did early on Saturday morning. I was pooped but also very happy with the results. I still have a lot to learn but I think overall everything turned out well, the most important part is that everyone was very happy with their orders.

I got a call late on Saturday afternoon from the lady who ordered the cupcakes to say that everyone at the charity tea loved them - and that she will be ordering more and will gladly recommend me to others. To me that is the best reward, I love to bring a smile to people with my baking.












Surprise gift

On Friday afternoon my darling hubby came home with a beautifully-wrapped gift just for me. I was so surprised (it was not even my birthday) this was just a I-love-you and-believe-in-your-business gift. I was over the moon when I opened it and found a brand new Salter Dome Scale. It's brilliant -it measures grams, ounces, milliliters and fluid ounces. I love it and have been using it all weekend.





Years ago I got my first digital food scale as a gift from my Mother-in-law. I loved the ease and accuracy with which it would measure out ingredients and together we have baked untold amounts of cake, cookies, cupcakes and other treats. A few weeks back my old friend just refused to work, at first I was not too worried, I assumed it just needed a new battery. Well, after three new batteries and a frantic search for error codes on the internet, I finally had to admit that it was hopeless and that this was the end of our partnership.

Since then I have been using an old spring scale, which has been giving me a real headache. You can weigh the same amount of flour three times and you will get three different readings. I knew I would have to buy a new scale eventually but I just don't like spending money on myself - besides I was still holding on to the hope that I could somehow fix my old scale.

Then my knight in shining amour came home with my beautiful new scale and I can once again bake with ease. I am very spoiled indeed – will have to bake him something yummy to say thank you.