Bake the Day Away ~ A Day's Ramblin'

Listening to: LOVE by MACO

Aside from living my life as a bit of a hermit, with reading or writing being the sole activities I seem to do most (oh, and video editing!), I do actually spend a bit of time with other people on the odd occasion, and when at home, I spend a great deal of time with the light of my life, my three year old niece.

I adore my niece, and whilst she can be a pain in the backside some days, always vying for attention (mostly from me) and asking if I can help her conquer the next level of Spyro the Dragon, I do like playing with and teaching her things. Today though, aside from playing hide & seek and Spyro, I thought it would be fun to do something completely different, a pass time that even I haven't done since I was a kiddy myself.

We baked. And I didn't burn the house down or kill myself, SUCCESS!!!!

Granted, I used a packet mix for this, so I only needed an egg and water to create these diddy treats, however I'm not really someone who cooks - I like things to be conveniently done already, like microwave meals. The only times I do dare to cook is when I crave something, and even then it's simple; rice or pasta, sausage or eggs - food that doesn't take too long, basically.

I'm lazy, what an I say?

So I was scared that I would either burn these cupcakes, or not cook them right when they were done, but I was rather lucky on my first go, it seems - my niece and I were successful in baking our first ever batch of cakes! My niece had a hard time waiting for the cakes to cool, as she wanted to put all the pretty sprinkles on them and make the icing, but she was a gem throughout... well, aside from the part where she tried licking the icing off the spoon before it went on the cakes, but that's by the by.

I mostly left my niece to stirring, because this was only her first time making a cake after all, plus, that's really all there was to this recipe; add an egg, water and mix. It was easy for the both of us, but nonetheless, she did enjoy it, only getting annoyed with me when I had to mix everything together to make sure it was done properly.

I think, aside from putting sprinkles on, my niece really loved watching the icing mix turn from cream to yellow - she was really amazed by how icing was made, it was magical for her. So cute!

Then the fun part; decorating! I think this was the part my niece enjoyed the most, because it meant she could stick whatever sprinkles she wanted on, and she could get a bit messy with it. Sadly I am a bit of a clean freak in that I like the icing to cover the whole top of the cake, but my niece had fun putting the icing on and then covering it in whatever sprinkles she so desired. It was fun watching her, and I enjoyed decorating the cakes as well.

And the verdict? Well, the cakes are good! I didn't kill the cake itself, so that's a plus, and my mum really liked them, dad too apparently, however myself and my niece? We're actually not big cake eaters, surprise, but I finished mine off and did enjoy it (getting older, I seem to prefer less sugar on a cake, haha!) whilst my niece ate mostly the icing, and left a good chunk of her cake. Again, not a cake eater - she'd prefer carrots, if given the choice between cake or veggies.

So, aside from running about and entertaining the niece, this is what we accomplished today, and honestly? I feel like I've been productive, and I do feel proud of the both of us, because it's something neither of us have really done before. My niece has helped to make biscuits before, but a cake? This was a first, but it was fun, and we're most likely going to do it again!

Next time though, I want blue icing!

Happy baking and reading! Take care~

~ Kelly