D's friends have been pretty supportive of my baked goods, and one of them pre-ordered three things I was going to bake for my pop-up sale. And so I spent the whole of today baking; and felt like dying collapsing at the end of the day. Achy feet, backache, rough hands - so this is what full-time baking feels like! Sigh - this is also my most lowly-paid job since I started working!

I also spent close to an hour this morning trying to figure out how to get my new Cuisinart food processor to chop nuts nicely, only to realise at the end of it that I am still better off hand-chopping my pecans and walnuts. The food processor (even at the chop setting) is far too powerful and chops my nuts into minuscule pieces quickly (so you don't feel any nut crunch when biting into the cake), or if I don't chop them so much they remain large and unevenly chopped. Zesting is another task I now do regularly (since I like things fresh) - and i think it's about time to get a better/ more ergonomically designed zester so as to be nicer to my hands/ fingers :P

It was satisfying though to pack all my lovingly baked goods away nicely into boxes etc, but baking full-time is really tiring. Perhaps I would get used to it - I can't possibly be giving up after 2 weeks :P Anyways, today was an unusually xiong1 day - though it would be worse on Friday preparing for the 21 Sept bake sale. What did I get myself into?! OK I shall quit complaining and try to recuperate a little the next two days and plan less physically demanding tasks! :)

The new improved and beautified version of my date pecan walnut loaf (made with spelt flour!) with cream cheese frosting and toasted nuts

Chamomile lavender cupcakes, blueberry lemon almond cake + date pecan loaf