Leaving a legacy

I'll admit it. I did think about entering GBBO this year. But the fact is, I only know cupcakes. Pastry, bread and even biscuits come to think of it, are all a bit of a mystery to me. If I do try it's usually what I like to call 'kamikaze cooking'. There is a beginning, but it's doubtful the end will be pretty. If it is then it's usually luck rather than judgement.

So Mia challenged me. Enter next year when you've had more practice. Oh and can you teach me how to bake as well?

I love the idea of legacy. Of leaving traditions, recipes... really anything we enjoy together, which Mia in turn can share and treasure with her children. I didn't get much in the way of recipe or skills legacy from my Mum. She'll probably say it was because I wasn't that interested...(update: Mum actually did say this to me on reading this blog!). But I am now - and I don't want my daughters to think I never gave them anything (apart from money to go to Yogberries).

So Paul and Mary. I guess this blog is in part, inspired by you. But mainly it's inspired by Mia. My ballet dancing girl. And to assuage some of the guilt I feel by working full time again and never really getting the quality time that we all agree is a 'good thing'.

So this is how we're going to do it. Each weekend we'll pick a recipe, starting with Nigella's classic 'Domestic Goddess'. If this blog gets any followers, we may even ask you to pick one. Results will be published for all to see, and then swiftly taken to place of work or school to 'feed' others. I'm 40 and have had 3 children - I can't eat cake all day any more.

So that's it. You'll have to forgive us if this blog meanders off into other topics that touch on our weekend lives. Mainly they are a mix of: learning tap routines, giving lifts to the village, botched attempts at gym sessions, The Trafford Centre, homework, drinking wine and falling asleep at 9pm. Until then...I need to go and buy various baking tins and ground almonds. There's a lot of recipes with ground almonds - I'm not sure if it's because one of her family are gluten intolerant or Nigella's love of anything vaguely Italian, but either way this could be an expensive experiment for us.

Sunnyside F*** up

For 10 years I wanted to open my own cupcake bakery just like Magnolia. I first visited in November 2001 and was completely smitten. So, in what some might say was a fit of pique, I eventually left my well paid job in marketing to start a cupcake business. What a cliche right? Possibly one of the most popular hobbies, turned into 'ooh you could get paid for this', turned into Mum who bakes cupcakes for a pittance.  www.sunnysidecup.com

To be fair it was pretty successful actually - for nearly three years Sunnyside Cup was Bramhall's, and I suppose the outer edges of Stockport's, premier cupcakery. I did countless weddings, Christenings and baby showers. It was rewarding. In the way that getting a gold star is - a brief glow of satisfaction followed quickly by a exhausted slump and a kitchen full of icing sugar. I loved it, I really did. Even in the early hours of a Saturday morning making roses, butterflies, delicate Chanel shoes, and possibly my weirdest order, Chewbacca. But it was always for somebody else's party. Time at the weekend I wasn't spending with my family - I was in the kitchen or in the car. Nothing prepares you for how physically hard the pipe dream is...and to think I thought working at home would give me a better balance. 

Then along came Felix. My boy. Even though I should have been on 'maternity leave' I didn't have an income. I did a Christening order for 50 cakes when he was 2 weeks old. Wise husband said you won't miss it. I don't. 

And so, my head was turned to more regular better paid work. and I'm back to where I was before, a full time marketeer. With a 15 month old baby, a spirited 7 year old girl, and Mia my 12 year old first born. And the reason I'm writing this blog.