Joel, when he got up on Sunday morning, decided that today was a baking day. I couldn’t think of a good reason not to, so we did.

Here Joel is explaining to Daddy (who’s off camera, having not long got up. I thought, for the general ambience of The Blog, it was best to leave it that way. He wasn’t looking his best…) what we’re doing. I think at this point, egg was being beaten.

On making the decision what flavour to make them, we decided on half chocolate, and half lemon. Which would have worked out fine, had Joel not mistakenly added cocoa to the mixture that already had lemon in. So we ended up with slightly lemony, and slightly lemony chocolate.

Having baked those, I was on a bit of a roll, and decided to make muffins. I didn’t take any photos of this process, but I had additional helpers in the form of Lily and Jasmin & Aidan from next door. The mixture was well stirred. Unfortunately the egg made it into the mixture via the table-top HOWEVER I have to hold my hands up and confess that it was in no way Aidan’s fault (he who was patiently waiting to beat the egg) and totally mine. I tried cracking the egg on the edge of the table instead of the flimsy plastic bowl, and somewhat overdid it. Still, the table was fairly clean, and the germs it did pick up are all well cooked by now. Unfortunately, because I haven’t learnt the lesson from previous muffin-making episodes, I went with an uber-healthy recipe involving wholemeal flour and walnuts, which means that the muffins themselves, frankly, taste like shit. Dates or apples would have been a good plan, not so much the dried fruit. The really disappointing thing is that I reached past a half-eaten apple several times in the process and didn’t think to carve it up & lob it in in spite of the recipe calling for an eating apple.

Anyway, the cupcakes are a big success. They were cooked and cooled, and again we had all hands on deck to apply Joel’s choice of icing colours.

In the background here you can see everyone participating in the very important stage called Licking The Bowl.

And so, in the manner of a Proper Blogger, here is the finished product: