Rediscovering my love of baking

Phew- what a busy week! I've just come out of one of my busiest caking weeks in months and whilst I loved every minute of it, I'm overdue a little rest now. And how do I rest? By baking of course!

One of the perks of this job is working from home. Yes, I've looked into getting a little cake shop or opening an outlet somewhere but my fantastic clients keep me more than busy as it is and right now I want to focus on enjoying my children and having a good work/life balance whilst they're still young. It is tempting to take on every order that comes my way but for the first time I feel that my prices reflect my high standard of work and this means I get to choose my hours whilst making an acceptable wage. Yay for cakey empowerment!

So this weekend I actually managed to have a DAY OFF! Can you believe it? All cakes were done and delivered and just as I was about to relax and put my pinny away my eldest son asks me if we can make Rocky Road. Who am I to deny such a yummy request? And with that, I got out my favourite Rocky Road recipe (from my idol Nigella Lawson - I want to be like her when I grow up) and we set to work...

We substituted Rich Tea biscuits for digestives and this recipe is great for kids as they get to bash up the biccies whilst you do the microwave work with the chocolate.

The bars turned out great and more importantly I finally feel as thought I'm starting to rediscover my love of home baking. This might sound odd coming from a professional baker but cakes = work in my eyes and sometimes I have to remember to slow down and have fun. My love of cakes came from my family I want my kids to remember the fun stuff - not me snapping at them because I only got 3hrs sleep due to a last minute cake order...

ps don't forget you can check out our latest creations on our Flickr stream!