The trouble with a baking addiction is...

It's an addiction... and addiction is something I should know something about.

Keith Richards

I am, totally, unequivocally, absolutely a baking addict. It started when I was pretty young and has just got stronger as time goes by.

I first started out, like most people, being taught how to bake by my mum. She used to bake so much! Cakes, pies, yorkshire puddings, biscuits, breads etc etc. Anything she could bake at home, she would. I love this about her and have carried it on, not only does it save you a lot of money (sometimes!) but also it tastes better and is so much fun.
When I first started I wasn't very good - no surprise there. It took me some time to get used to the baking terms and ingredients (and I'm still always learning) but I got the handle on it eventually. So I started trying more and more difficult recipes and that progressed into me starting to create my own recipes.

The thing about this addiction, like any other, is it can be debilitating. For instance, when you're not selling your creations (as I am currently unable to, not through lack of trying but location) you're spending money but not getting anything back. Sure you're making lovely biscuits and desserts but all you get out of that is holes in your teeth and a wider waistline every day.

The other thing is saturation - with this I mean you still love the process of baking, the weighing of ingredients, mixing, folding, sieving etc, but the end result loses more and more of the excitement it once held. You want the process without the outcome or the resulting food that needs to be eaten. Also, tied in with this part of the problem is saturating your friends and family...there's only so many people you see regularly enough to give your baked goods to and they can only enjoy them for so long too.

Today was hard for me to resist baking some more biscuits (my own recipe) as I'd baked peach cupcakes only last night...it's only because the peaches were turning bad....I promise that was the reason ;)

So what did I do instead? Sadly, the answer is nothing. I sat in front of my laptop and played silly Facebook games, talked to a couple of friends back in the UK and tried to waste the hours until I can go to sleep. It's not a great way to spend a day and half of me feels worse for doing it...as if sitting here and avoiding the kitchen has made me more unhealthy and lazy - totally guilt ridden.

It's still too early (and too hot) to go to sleep, so now what do I do? To that, I have no answer but I thought sharing this and the physical act of typing it might take up some time and bring a solution possibly.

The conclusion for this post is - I'm still working on it. I even got fed up with writing my recipe book, I love to type but sometimes there's nothing that'll satisfy you other than doing exactly what you want. Right now I can't do or have anything I want - food, baking and cigarettes - so needless to say, life is annoying lately.

Anyone else have a baking addiction? Or anything similar? How do you deal with it?

Happy baking to anyone able to bake today :)