New beginnings, no worries

In an unintentional follow-on from last week's wedding post, I find myself ruminating on new babies and new beginnings. My next-door neighbours have a brand new little girl and her arrival coincided nicely with my iced-biscuit trials. I've been toying with the idea of launching a whole iced-biscuit range, with themed biscuits to suit any occasion, and tiny baby Jane offered me the perfect excuse to get out my cookie cutters and stencils. Not content with prams, booties and ducklings, I also cut a batch of summer-themed biscuits. After all, little Jane has an older sister, and I couldn't possibly leave her out of the iced-biscuit extravaganza, could I? Naturally, none of this had anything to do with my inner child clamouring for some pretty summery designs to colour in!


I'm afraid I never grew out of my love for the colouring book and a fresh set of colouring pencils or markers. (I never much liked crayons; they always turned into horrible waxy stubs, making it very difficult to colour within the lines.) Oh the joy of a brand new colouring book, with pages of different drawings all ready to be coloured in. Was there anything better than that as a child? And while I'm on the subject, was there anything worse than opening said colouring book only to find your younger brother or sister had 'decorated' half the pages with random scribbles? Or worse again, someone had committed that heinous sin of colouring outside the lines - for shame!

Now I've simply replaced the book with biscuits and the pencils / markers with royal icing - guilt-free colouring in for adults. But childhood pleasures aside, I'm not surprised to find that I enjoy the intricate nature of icing biscuits. To some it may well be tedious and fiddly, but I've always found these kinds of tasks to be the most calming. While the hands are busy and the mind is concentrating on the details, there is no time to worry.