Of cakes and babies

Oh hello, blog! Life involves a lot of rushing about when there are young children involved and there is work thrown into the mix – rushing from home to work, work to home, getting things done after kids have gone to sleep, and getting yourself to bed then repeat ad nauseam. Whilst my current job status is “part-time”, I never cease being a full-time mother even when I’m not physically with Mini-human. When I’m at work, I’m thinking about what time I need to leave and what to have for dinner. I also miss Mini-human and wonder what he’s getting up to. When I’m home, I think about things I need to do once I’m back at work. There is down time but there is no holiday, no reprieve.

And hence there is little time to myself, little time to bake, little time to do absolutely nothing, and little time to blog. But bake I did for Husband’s birthday, although in very much a time-constrained lazy way while Mini-human takes his precious one nap a day. Cue: banana bread/cake.
 

That trusty recipe that is easy, requires little technique and ingredients that you usually have on-hand. Husband loves banana. And caramel. And even moreso when both of them are together.

I presented him with a “banoffee cake” (hah!) which made it sound more interesting than banana-cake-wonkily-split-in-halves-sandwiched-with-dulce-de-leche-and-crumbled-digestive-biscuits. The cake was topped with whipped mascarpone and oven-dried banana chips which were unfortunately a little soft and chewy (damn you, humidity!), but Husband ate the whole thing anyway and enjoyed it. And I was happy as banana really doesn’t do it for me and I may have had to chuck any remainder in the bin.

However, many months ago I had the pleasure of baking a cake for Wifey’s baby shower. A pink ombré cake sandwiched with raspberry jam which was meant to be covered in pink ombré icing with the palest shade on top.

But then I had a brain blank and stacked the layers in the reverse order which meant the icing wouldn’t match the cake inside when cut! So the whole thing was covered in plain icing instead and decorated with a little foot in sugar pearls on top. Because baby feet, in all their tininess and chubbiness, are seriously the cutest.

Wifey liked the cake despite it not matching her brief and she tells me her guests liked it too. There were cupcakes in pink and white cases as well. I sadly didn’t stay for the baby shower as I was too knackered from Mini-human being up for close to 2 hours the night before. But it’s not all doom and gloom as he is a happy and fun child to be around. He is also very good at eating as well as sleeping, which is where I occasionally manage to steal some time to bake.