Yesterday I baked my first ever cup cakes for The Boy’s 2nd birthday picnic. These represent my first attempt to bake cakes.  I am finally a qualified ‘proper mum.’

I learned some stuff.

1. All cup cakes are not created equal (why do some rise unevenly, some burst?)
2. Cup cake cases and muffin cases aren’t the same thing. No not at all.
3. Donna Haye’s prepackaged cake kit is great but doesn’t come with a complementary electric food mixer.
4. Hand creaming butter is hard.
5. Hand beating cake batter is not as hard, but still surprisingly hard.
6. Hand whisking chocolate ganache icing is virtually fucking impossible (thanks to the Norwegian for your help on this one)
7. Don’t give up when hand whisking chocolate ganache icing. It will thicken up eventually. It is just physics. (I feel I should gain some deep personal insight on this one, but – meh!)
8. Holding the wooden spoon upright, grasping the top of the handle with one hand and the middle with the other, rotating each hand in opposite directions is the best way to replicate an electric mixer without splattering goo about the place.
9. Swizzling a balloon whisk between your palms, like you’re trying to light a fire with a stick, is not such a good way.
10. Getting ganache-related RSI isn’t one of the things they warn you about in the parenting magazines.

Happy Birthday Boy!