Learning to make bread - month seven: teacakes

A good toasted teacake, with a cup of tea, is one of life's simple pleasures.  Like many good things in life though, making teacakes requires patience.

If, like me, you find it difficult to pause, always seem to be trying to do several things at once and are constantly thinking about what you should be doing, baking can be a break from this.  It's an opportunity to focus on one task, on what you are doing in that moment. 



Kneaded, risen and
ready to shape

One of the things I have enjoyed in my "learning to make bread" challenge is finding how relaxing the process of kneading dough can be.  It is one of those repetitive tasks that allows you to focus on the moment; kneading can't be rushed, it will take as long as it takes.  I can stop rushing about and just focus on the task in hand; the feel of the dough and how its texture changes in my hands as I work it.

An hour and a half for the dough to rise, another forty-five minutes for second proving; was it worth the wait?  For a homemade toasted teacake, absolutely.

I used a recipe from Linda Collister's Bread book, which I have mentioned before.  The finished teacakes were rather good (even if I do say so myself!).  Definitely one to make again. 

There's a wealth of information on the internet about mindfulness and the benefits that focusing on the present moment can bring for mental wellbeing.  This NHS guide is a good place to start. 



Shaped and left for second proving, now ready for the oven...

The finished teacakes

Toasted, with a side of blackberries from the garden.
Perfect tea-time treat.

Personalised wedding print

For a recent wedding I decided to try to make something to personalise the photo frame we were giving the couple as a wedding present.  The idea was a silhouette of a couple running with the couple's name and the date of the wedding.  The design is based on the idea of the personalised wedding prints you can buy at notonthehighstreet.com; however, I wanted a homemade touch and thought I would give it a go myself.

Slight problem: drawing people is not my forte!  Despite that, I surprised myself with the final stencilled silhouette.  Initially I had the couple facing away from the viewer (the first two sketches) - running off into the distance as it were!  However, I decided that it looked better to have them running towards the viewer (running towards their future perhaps?).

From initial doodles to final design

Doing the initial sketches, I did start to despair and consider whether to come up with something else.  However, this was never going to be a detailed picture.  What was important was to try to get an elegant, simple stencil design and I was pleased with the final stencil.



The final stencil

The wedding was beautiful, the couple very happy and it was a fabulous day.  As for our wedding present, the lettering of the final picture could be a bit straighter perhaps (ever the perfectionist!) but I am really pleased with this, and I hope the couple like it too.




The finished picture