Bake, Baker, Baking Burn.. I mean Bern!

Since wearing the multiple hats of mom, policeman, cook, negotiator, employee, wife, class rep and taxi-driver didn’t seem like quite enough, I’ve decided to add another one to the mix, just for fun, after all you can never have too many hats.  So I am now the proud owner of a WEDDING CUPCAKE BAKER hat!

I mean, it really was a no brainer considering my baking background.  The fact that I almost poisoned an entire class of Grade 0’s with my expired cupcakes a few weeks back was just a small glitch in my otherwise (non-existent) baking career!  But I’m getting ahead of myself, let’s rewind to how I ended up adding this hat to my ever growing collection.

My brother got engaged recently – I’m not going to say it’s been a long long long (long) time coming, but will say that his fiancee has pretty much had about 8 (long) years to plan her big day.  So when the question was popped, she hit the ground running and within a few days all the important things were sorted – wedding venue, church, dress, photographer and wedding party.  However, there was still a vacancy in the wedding cake/cupcake department.

Naturally when they came to visit we talked about all things wedding and the topic of the cake came up.  The bride-to-be mentioned she was thinking about cupcakes and somehow (and I really don’t know how), I ended up offering to perhaps (depending on my sample being approved) make the cupcakes for the wedding?  WTF you may think?  That’s pretty much what I think whenever I hear the words “wedding cupcake” and the first thing most people say when they hear I’ve offered to make them for my brother’s wedding - A wedding that, if I know the bride and groom,  is going to be pretty classy, elegant and upmarket.  I'm not entirely sure how my ready-mixed (potentially expired?) cupcakes are going to fit into this elegant affair.

But, what most people don’t know is that I have a secret weapon.  I may not own an icing pump thingy (I usually use a syringe to ice my birthday cakes) and have yet to make a decent batch of icing (expired or not) BUT I do have a weapon in the form of my friend-with-a-life. She who taught me the art of enjoying a guilt-free day scoffing breakfast and cappuccinos while all the other moms sat watching school sport for 8hrs!!   So now my wonderful friend-with-a-life has offered to help me with this project too – bless her brave heart! 

This is the same friend who feels so sorry for my husband having to eat the food I cook that she sends weekly recipes to me so that The Husband can experience what a real fresh home-cooked meal tastes like.  But at this junction let me just add that this is someone who cooks coq au vin, red wine chicken, and lamb shank for “normal” supper.  Seriously?  I think I would only consider dishes like that if the Queen was coming over and even then I think I’d need some serious convincing to not just serve her fish fingers and smash!  So when said friend offered to help with this project I knew I was in good hands…. because anyone who uses home grown herbs and makes their own pies, must SURELY know a thing or two about baking. 

But then again, I’m counting on her knowing more than just a thing or two.  I emailed a baking friend of mine who actually BAKES cakes for birthday parties as a hobby and she was horrified to hear what I was planning.  Considering that she wouldn't even bake for her own sister’s wedding, I suddenly thought that perhaps I had bitten off waaay more than I could chew (or bake in this case). She thought I was “very brave” (but I think that was her way of saying “very stupid”).  Nevertheless she has sent to wonderful websites and recipes and hints, all of which make me realise that baking 160 cupcakes for the most important day in someone’s life is actually a fairly serious, pretty daunting task!  Who would have thought?

So right now my life revolves around finding (and perfecting) the simple, yet fancy cupcake… well that and the kids, school, work, class rep stuff, wifely duties, housework and my new found cycling hobby (more about that tomorrow)….

So, come the 17^th of September, I’ll either become a minor family baking sensation or the family-member-nobody-talks-about-in-polite-company!  Happy Baking!

Cupcakes from a colleagues daughter's wedding

Holiday Joy!

I'm tired!  For some unknown (and perhaps some known) reasons, I have woken up in the middle of the night and then that's pretty much it!  The dark-ringed, heroin chic look of the early nineties may have suited me 20yrs ago, but it's doing nothing for me in 2011.  In short, I look pretty much the way I feel - KAK!

It's also holidays, but I use that term lightly because while technically it's "holiday time" - it sure as hell ain't feeling like a holiday to me right now! The Government Shuffler is in Montagu being thoroughly spoilt by grandparents and is experiencing one of the highlights of her short life - a week as an "only child".  While He-Who-Can-Do-No-Wrong (HWCDNW) was meant to be enjoying the country life as well this week, decided that this wasn't the right week to cut the leopard print apron strings (FYI My apron seriously is leopard print!).  So while having only 1 child in the house means that I get some reprieve from my role as policeman, negotiator, mediator and jailer.  I now fulfill the all encompassing and demanding role of chief entertainer. 

I never thought I'd say I miss the fighting, shouting and manic blood curdling screams I hear when my 2 go at it... but at least when they are fighting, I'm able to get some work done (as a mom you learn to distinguish between a real blood-is-gushing-from-my-head kind of scream (fairly serious) and a oh-crap-my-sister-is-pissed-off-with-me-for-cutting-off-the-heads-of-her-paper-dolls-and-is-attacking-me-with-my-own-star-wars-sword sort of scream (not so serious.) Selective hearing - Use it!

Oh and amongst the lack of sleep and 10 full hours of playing the role of The Great Entertainer, I'm also still meant to work - while the kids might be on "holiday", technically, I am not.  My office has simply moved from IT Building 6 of a major retailer to our study/spare room at home! Once again, I never thought I'd say this, but I am really (REALLY) really looking forward to going back to the office on Monday!  At least there I can plug in some earphones and tune out the world.  Here, as hard as I try to ignore the "Mom, I'm finished" for as long as possible, there eventually comes a time when I have to rescue my son from the toilet and go wipe his bum - another one of the joys of motherhood the books just happened to forget to mention.


Now I know that Cape Town has many awesome places for kids to play, many of them free, where I could find a spot and possibly do some work while HWCDNW plays.  But alas, we are dealing with a situation at the moment (too complicated to go into detail) that makes going out in public with the male offspring, a tad difficult.  Suffice to say, when it came to the OCD gene, this particular little apple didn't fall very far from the tree... in fact I don't think it fell at all!  So while staying home gets about an 8 on the Stressometer right now, going out is pretty much off the charts!

So... I'm counting down the days until the holidays end and I am back at work, so I can FINALLY get some rest!