Baking cupcakes with a bun in the oven

Since I have dedicated this blog to my favourite pastimes, baking and motherhood, it seems fitting that my first post should pay equal attention to both.

This morning as I was looking for some suitable photographs to add to my blog, I came across these pictures of some cupcakes I made almost 2 and a half years ago, when I was just over 8 months blooming with my daughter. I was already living in Cape Town at the time, but I flew to England, 34 weeks and counting, to have my baby back in the motherland, where I was in the safe and reassuring hands of my own family. There, my wonderful sister and sisters in law planned a baby shower, and naturally, I took it as an opportunity to spend a disproportionate amount of time making tiny marzipan roses for cupcakes. Squint and you can see them in the pictures, on the bottom tiers.

To others, my time and effort spent making these little blooms is just, well, a waste of time, especially when you consider that they can be ready-bought for a reasonable price (Squire's Kitchen have a fantastic range). But for me, back then in particular, it was therapeutic. Sitting there, crafting miniature flowers in blue and pink for the baby that hadn't arrived yet took away the anxiety that most first time mothers-to-feel, amidst all the smiles and excitement. Of course I was quietly fretting about the impending pain of labour ("it's not called labour for nothing" my midwife soothingly told me) but the moments I took to enjoying my little hobby, breathing in the calm before the storm, helped me to think and look forward to all the beautiful moments to come, and whilst I couldn't exactly stop and smell the flowers, I got to eat them...with cake.