Every week i bake.

I meal plan and i bake. I mean i cook and plan our meals but i MUST bake. Cakes, muffins, biscuits, slices, healthy stuff, wickedly sinfull stuff, stuff just to use up fruits and things that are over ripe or close to expiry. I can certainly do without the added effort and calories but its so nice to have that gorgeous aroma of bread, pastry, cake, biscuits wafting through the house and collecting in little windowless pockets like the stair-well or the back bedroom.

I love being able to pick up a strawberry muffin on the way to my desk or grab a handfull of peanut butter cookeies when i sit down to watch a TV show. Even better when someone drops in and theres a fresh slice of banana cake ready to accompany a hot cup of tea. When we first moved into this house in July. I was a crazy baker. I didnt realise it then, but i was baking to get that comforting homely smell into the house and sweep away the aroma of new carpet and paint.

I once stumbled into Crabtree & Evelyn and found a room spray that was named “Baked Goods” or something to that effect, i gave the sample a small spritz and was assulted with the aroma of a freshly baked apricot danish. It smelled warm and sweet and very much like pastry! Of course i put it down and backed away because whats the point of having a house smelling of delicious patisserie delights when there is actually none to offer! What a tease!

So then i guess baking is the one thing i can do without… but choose not to!

Nicholas was helping me make some Banana Cake last week and was getting annoyed that i wouldn’t let him sift the flour. Before turning my back to get the Vanilla from the pantry i asked him to stir the mashed bananas.

Instead, he decided to scoop some of the flour into the bananas, and onto the bench and floor and himself. I just sighed in frustration, dusted him off and thanked him for his help. Then took the stool away. He protested wildly for about 30seconds then wandered off. I thought ‘Hmmm… that was a short tanty. Good” then continued on with the cake.

I got it into the oven and was halfway through washing up when there was a blip on my Disaster Radar… the house was quiet… TOO QUIET! I dumped the dishes and raced through the house. Bedrooms? No. Main Bathroom? No. Office? No. Oh wait… there was a light on in the office bathroom. I slide the door open and see :

“NICHOLAS!” i shriek.
“Oh Jeezusss…” he laughs, already knowing what my next words were to be.
“Whats all this mess?!”
“I play the flour,” he explains cooly.

So when Mum dismisses you from the kitchen for playing with the flour, you go and find your own:

And make sure every inch of the bathroom is covered

The wiped areas on the floor are where he was laying down flapping his arms about trying to make snow angels…

So i strip him in the powdery hazy ensuite and get Chris to put him in the shower while i vaccum and try not to inhale the freakin’ talc. I finish vaccuming and start to pack up the machine when i realise that the powder haze is starting to settle and is covering all the surfaces again. So I vaccum again!

I was dressing him after his shower and he was having a giggle saying he “had fun in the flour”.

Im getting good at keeping a straight face nowdays!
But seeing those pics again, i can still taste the powder in my mouth and the entire office smelled like lavender for 3 days!