Learning to Say No...

“Half of the troubles of this life can be traced to saying yes too quickly and not saying no soon enough.” ~Josh Billings

merk

verb

1. To kill someone

2. To beat someone at something

3. To insult someone

4. To do something to someone that causes them to feel merked

adj. (merked)

1. A mix of feelings including a combination of at least two of the following emotions; embarrassment, frustration, annoyance, confusion, irritation and powerlessness. Examples include; being lost and having no reception on your phone to check google maps, locking yourself out of your house and having to pay a locksmith over a £100 to get your locks changed, or transporting a wedding cake to a venue only to find that it collapsed in the box along the way & you only have 30 minutes before the guests arrive to fix it!

Merkage is always avoidable, always, but that is what makes the feelings worse. 

So now that I've clarified (to an extent) what I'm talking about, let me tell you about the last time that I was merked. I am having some work done to my garden and have been inviting gardeners to give quotes. One lady arrived on Saturday morning, moments after the window cleaner had finished their work. The front of my house was very wet even though it wasn't raining outside. Anyways, I opened the door and the lady walked into the house barely drying her feet on the two mats outside my front door. Her first step left a massive muddy shoe print on my wooden floor and she proceeded to take two more steps leaving two more muddy wet footprints. 

I was merked, fully & completely, and did what all conscious human beings do; I stopped time - well dramatically slowed it down anyway. As she turned in super slow motion to face me for further instruction as to the way to the garden, I pondered on my options. 

Option 1 - I bite my tongue and let her walk through my house leaving horrible muddy puddles and just clean up when she's gone. I had visions of her doing the running man in her dirty shoes on my kilim rug & moonwalking through my clean kitchen to the garden.

or

Option 2 - I tell her go back and wipe her feet before coming any further, making everyone feel super awkward.

I chose option 2. 

It was very awkward as I sent her (politely) back outside to wipe her feet (as any civilised human being would do). It was really awkward, but 100% necessary for me and the happiness of my kilim rug. I mean really! Who does that anyway?!

It was a victory for me and the shape of things to come. As I alluded to in my last post, 2014 could have been called "The Year of Merkage". I didn't say no enough and instead allowed people to rob me of my energy, time, love, happiness, creativity and money. By not saying no, go and wipe your feet before you come in my house, I let people trample all over me with their muddy shoes! No more I say!

Excited by my new found strength, I decided to celebrate by making one of my favourite cakes - the naked vanilla cake. I am a big fan of "less icing is more" when it comes to cakes. I also love berries, meringues & edible flowers so threw everything together in one cake because that's how I'm rolling these days!

The cake is a vanilla sponge with vanilla buttercream, sugared berries, meringue kisses and pansies (edible flowers). Click below for links for all of the recipes (for the cake, double the recipe and cook in an 8" inch tin and double the buttercream recipe);

Vanilla cake

Vanilla buttercream

Sugared berries

Meringue kisses

All that's left to say is that I have green highlights in my hair. I wanted turquoise tresses but instead it's green and yes, I am a little merked.

Peace & love

xx

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Easter Time

This Easter was interesting to say the least in a grow and mature as a human being, life lessons type of way. There are certain moments in your life when you realise you are a grown up, this weekend was one of those times.

Here are some of the insights I gained;

1. Easter egg hunts are fun (see how grown I am though!) I did my first ever egg hunt this year and enjoyed it so much that I did another one the very next day. I have been missing out all my life and I suddenly noticed all of these people walking around carrying baskets of eggs. It appears I am the only one not to have experienced the pleasures of hunting!

2. Tomorrow is never a good time to start anything, especially a healthy eating plan. When your jeans start to cut off the circulation to your legs it's time to take action today (although technically the day is finished so it will have to be tomorrow now but well what I mean is.....)

3. Spontaneous dinners with sisters are worth their weight in gold. A Sunday roast is also officially my second favourite meal.

4. Going out and having fun is good. Staying in, saving money and being productive can be better. Note that I said 'can be', let's not get carried away with any sweeping statements, has Samantha Brick taught us nothing?

5. Whilst the resurrection story gives us hope in life after death, many things die for a good reason. Especially things that are holding us back and causing us pain. It is best accept the truth, grieve and then move on to make way for new life and happy times.

So there you have it.

In amongst major life lessons, I also managed to squeeze in making these Vanilla Mini Cupcakes Easter  style. I topped them with green vanilla buttercream and a mixture of white chocolate Maltesers and mini eggs. Click here for the recipe.

I hope you had a great Easter.

Peace & Love
xx

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Let Them Eat Cake

When I first learnt how to make a madeira cake some years back, I discovered two things;

a. It is simple to make.

b. It tastes delicious straight out of the oven with custard.

As good as the above may appear at first glance, it presented me with a very serious problem. I made madeira cakes ALL the time. And when I say 'all the time', I really do mean 'all the time'. In the evenings I'd feel like something sweet and where an ordinary person may grab a biscuit/cookie, I'd bake a cake & eat it. 

Clearly this could only lead to diabetes & so I actually stopped baking altogether for a while - my attempt at going cold turkey!

Luckily for me, I think I have managed the art of balance in this area & am getting my sugar fix from licking cake mixture from bowls rather than eating whole cakes! Only when it is totally necessary, do I bake myself as cake. So when I was asked to make a plain Madeira cake for a birthday, it bought me back to the old days and made me smile. 

Check this link here for a really nice madeira cake recipe. The best part about this cake is that you can get creative and add your own hint of flavour. I used to love adding cinnamon and nutmeg instead of the lemon rind for a warm spicy twist.

I hope you are having a good week so far...

Peace & Love

xx

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