Baking is good for the soul

Well it has been a turbulent few days. OH is still interstate and it has caused some dramas at home and things are abit all over the place. I'm quite capable of coping when he is away because he does it for work all the time, but when he is away and we are arguing and it's all done over text, I can't cope with that, so yesterday I left work at 11am feeling like my head was going to explode. And there was only one thing I wanted to do, bury myself in the kitchen up to my elbows in eggs, butter, flour and sugar! So I made a quick stop at the supermarket and went home to get stuck into it.

First on my to do list were some vegemite and cheese scrolls. I used a packet of pastry mix (lazy yes I know!) but for the first time I made it up using the dough hooks in my electric mixer, and what a difference it made. The dough had a much better consistency and was easier to work with. Once the dough was complete, I rolled it into something that resembled a rectangle and slathered it in vegemite and a generous helping of grated cheese. Then I rolled it all up, cut into slices and baked in the oven for about 20 mins until they looked like this:



I normall hate vegemite with a passion (promite girl through and through) but the smell that filled the house while these were baking was pretty damn good! Plus these scrolls last forever in the freezer.

Next on the list was some pineapple jelly cupcakes. In my head I wanted to make the jelly and then when it was cool, combine with a few tbspns of the cake mix and swirl it through, similar to the raspberry wedding cupcakes. But I was soon to learn that this just wasn't gonna work. I think I had my jelly to cake consistency all wrong and it just wouldn't swirl. But they still came out of the oven as perfect lil buttercake cupcakes, so instead I combined a few tbspns of the jelly / cake mix with about 1/2 cup of vanilla frosting and put it back in the fridge to set. This turned out to be a much better option because you now have the light fluffy buttercake base and the creamy vanilla and pineapple frosting...yay!! Plus they look kinda pretty : )



Then it was time for a dinner break so I threw come cucumber, tomato and green capsicum in a bowl with a Sanitarium Not Burger that I had cooked in the oven. Mmmmmmm



But my urge for baking was still not satisfied and I had been craving carrot cake lately, god knows why, I haven't had carrot cake for years and years. Plus I also had the urge to make an actual full size cake instead of cupcakes for a change. I was pretty proud of the result for my first effort. I poured a vanilla glaze over the cake once it was cooled and I have just finished having a slice for my morning tea and it is heavenly. Soft, moist, full of flavour, and the glaze is enough to give it a hint of sweetness without taking away from the flavour of the cake itself.



And after all that, my head was clear. I still had no answers, nothing was resolved, but for the mean time I didn't feel like the world was closing in around me. So I went to bed, thankful that between my Dad and my workmates someone would eat all the food that would be coming out of my kitchen in the next few days!

Em x