Hello and welcome

Hi, I’m Hayley and I’ve been baking for a few years now, mainly for my own enjoyment, but I’ve recently been getting people asking me if I’ll do a cake for their birthday or event.  As I’ve become more advanced with baking and decorating, I’ve found myself looking at other people’s blogs for hints and tips on certain techniques, and found them incredibly helpful.  So I thought I’d start my own blog and see if it can help or inspire someone else.  Also thought it’d be nice to have a collection of everything I do, just so I can see if/when I improve.

Because baking was a bit high pressure in the sense that it has to be done in a certain timeframe before things go off and once you've started, you can't just leave it, I started looking for a hobby that I could do in the evenings, and that I could start, and then leave for a few days if I was feeling poorly (explained below).  My dad's side of the family were apparently tailors and dressmakers, so I thought I'd see if I had an inherited talent for it, booked myself on a starter course and really took to it. So I got myself a sewing machine, set up my spare room as a sewing room, and I've been trying new things when I can.

A bit about me, I have a genetic condition called Ehlers Danlos Syndrome, which basically means that my body doesn’t produce collagen correctly, and as a result, my joints are very flexible and dislocate (along with other issues that I won’t bore you with).  That’s really how I found baking.  I used to spend a lot of my time tinkering with cars, but then when I got diagnosed and fell really ill, I wasn’t able to tinker anymore and I was really bored and quite fed up.  I started fiddling around in the kitchen and discovered that I hate cooking, but then I discovered that baking really relaxes me.  I’d never thought I was any good at baking, my first attempt at a Victoria sponge when I was a kid would’ve been better suited to being a car tyre.  And for years after that I never bothered, thankfully I picked it up again in my late 20’s and here I am now.

Will try to post when I can, and hope that you will find some of this useful, and maybe even entertaining.