Valentine's Day, number cookies, and some funny phone calls

This year Valentine's Day wasn't just one day for my business. It was an entire week! The cupcake bouquets and boxes of roses I had been advertising on any platform that would let me were extremely successful. I had one cancellation and two last minute orders, so it was lucky that I had made a few extra just in case because as soon as it hit 9am on the morning of Wednesday 14th my phone started ringing. Unfortunately I couldn't help everyone out as some of the delivery addresses were a bit to far for me to drive but it was really encouraging to see how far my pictures had reached!

Due to the amount of work I had to do in the run up I had to be even more organised than normal and spent a few hours creating a seriously detailed plan of action so I didn't mess up!

My Mum was the one who ended up saving the day, she babysat Isla overnight for me while I was glued to my KitchenAid mixer. And when Bob was home from work he found himself being roped into making bouquets wrapped with pink tissue paper and cellophane wrap :D.

Even though it was Valentine's, I still had other orders which weren't to do with the romantic day. I made some seriously cute unicorn cupcakes for a little girls birthday, and also a 'Cream Tart' in the shape of a 4, for a 4th year business anniversary.

There's new craze for 'Cream Tarts' which has found its way to England from the US, and I literally have no idea why they have been given that name, but I can't think of a better one to call them! If you haven't heard of one yet I'll attempt to describe it to you; it's not a cookie and not really a biscuit, more like a cross between a sugar cookie and a shortbread. There are many variations on the recipe for the creamy topping and I have definitely found my favourite one, it's very similar to a 'no bake' cheesecake filling, however slightly looser so you are able to pipe it.

When I first attempted one of these recipes, I quickly realised that I needed to double all quantities of the ingredients to be able to make the size and shape that I was going for.

I had to use my own knowledge of working with biscuit dough to successfully cut it to size as the instructions were pretty rubbish, and then after all of that I ended up over whipping the cream topping.

I also tried a macaroon recipe for decorating the top of the tart, which stated that it was 'simple and easy', to then find out that it was almost the complete opposite of simple and easy. Two failed batches went in the bin and I bought some from Waitrose instead.

But hey, practise makes perfect, I have certainly learned from my mistakes and at the same time added a new recipe to my collection.

It deffo won't be the last time I attempt to make a cream tart, or macaroons!

Aside from all this baking and positivity, I've experienced a rather sinister side effect. Since advertising my business on the local Facebook pages, I have begun to receive phone calls from a withheld number. It's always the same male voice, and they started off as stupid prank phone calls asking me if I make 'steak cakes', which I just ignored. Then it progressed to some horrible language being used and has now made me a little wary. After the most abusive phone call which involved a lot of swearing, I decided to do something about it and phoned the police to make a report. They took some details from me and advised me not to answer the phone to unknown numbers from now on. The next day I had a phone call from an unknown number. I decided to pick up, but not to say anything just to stay silent. The voice on the other side said 'hello? Is anyone there' and as it wasn't the voice of the prank caller I immediately replied. It turned out to be a police constable giving me a follow up phone call....

So even though the previous day they had told me not to answer to unknown numbers, they still phoned me off an unknown number. Where's the sense in that??

Anyway, I have just decided to go with my strategy of answering and staying silent till I hear their voice. Otherwise I could potentially miss a customer calling, or something else important.

On another note, I've got some exciting news, I have been contacted by a company who offer activities to children in the school holidays, and they have asked if I would like to work with them running cupcake decorating classes!! Really excited about this as I have always wanted to get into teaching and I think it will be soo fun!

Hope you all had a great Valentine's or 'Galentine's' :D and I'll update you all on the weird calls and cupcake classes when I know more.

Louise x

P.S. Isla is now 7 months old!! Where is the time going??