Bake Yourself Happy.

Some of you may have noticed (or maybe none of you, I guess I'm not that popular), that I've kapeesh-ed for a while. I'd been a busy bee over the summer and also a very very lazy bee. I can barely use my lappy because they are so full of food and other photos resided over time thanks to Mr Canon and so, haven't really been photographing my recent bakes. No photos, no awesome blog posts, of course.

But I will soon. Pinky pwomise.

More macaron antics in the summer

And now, final year of uni is taking it's toll on me, as I inevitably expected. But no, I promised myself I shall still continue to bake. I mean why do I have to stop? Well you see the thing for me is, I use baking as means of channeling my stress elsewhere? As a means of distraction. You see, when I'm stressed, or anxious or just have something on my mind, I bake.

And I like to make more complex things because it takes longer, it needs the utmost concentration and dedication and with that - for that day - for that moment - I forget about everything else, as I stand amazed by my finished baked good. Or appalled even. And it's actually one of the only things I can successfully concentrate on.

Decorated a cake with these royal icing sheep recently, took agesss.

Whilst being at uni however, I just don't feel like I can do that. I don't have time to spend on faffing over how each length of pastry aren't exactly the same measurements or the butter icing isn't completely level or smooth, yanowarramean? I have to let go of my perfectionism and compromise on style. And you know, sometimes the er, not nicest looking of things, actually turn out to be one of the bestest things you've ever eaten!

So anyway, while I have been baking these past few weeks, I'm consciously aware of the fact that I have deadlines looming, books to be read, dissertations to be started and I'm not very relaxed as I work my hands into a bowl of flour. In fact, now it's more of a form of procrastination. Don't get me wrong, I have a HUGE sweet tooth and I always get urges to bake, even if it is 3am in the morning. I love it, it's fun, it's crafty, you don't even have to be good at it. Also it's food. I like food.

Snailbons!

And then I realised, who gives a crap about whether it's simple or takes forever to do, as long as I've baked something that tastes good, I'm happy. And that's why I bake. To lift the low mood, the humdrum of a glum day and not just because I can't be bothered to read Austen.

I mean these no bake type makes are a GOD send - and I've been doing more of these recently.

Peanut butter cup with Marshmallow, mmm. I'll show you how I made this and take a better pic soon, promise!

And I think while stress and anxiety levels are kinda peaking right now, I shall stick to these no-bake wonders that the Lord has blessed us all with.

Yeah so the next coupla posts will be 'quickies' made whilst I've been overwhelmed with too much Wordsworth and words in general. Or I might just stop posting, again. (Also for photos, instagram wins. SorryNotSorry.)

Go ahead and bake yourself happy, which is what Marian Keyes does. I like her. I do.

Mini Lemon Meringue Pie.

The Dainty Cook x