
I have always turned to cooking or baking in times of stress, but this news has just blown everything out of the water. The idea of being alone with my thoughts is more than I can cope with so cooking has been off the agenda!
We have in the last few weeks been in a more positive place, Glen is regaining physical strength and building stamina so he is more mobile and consequently more upbeat. This has flowed over into his mental recovery and we have seen amazing progress recently which fills me with hope. He has had a couple of overnight visits home and we hope to have him home at the end of next week. He starts treatment of chemo and radiation next week, which will likely slow his recovery, as all his energy is likely to be sapped by it. We are taking one day at a time, it is the only way to stay sane, as every time I think ahead I absolutely lose it as I contemplate not only how this disease is likely to play out (cruelly, by most accounts), but the idea of life without my lovely husband and my children's life without their awesome father.
So right now the focus is solely on what we CAN control, not what we can't. Which brought me back to baking.......the staff on the rehabilitation ward that Glen has been on for the last 3 weeks have been amazing, encouraging and supportive to both of us, so I felt the need to spoil them and bake some cupcakes for them. I used some gorgeous wee paper cases my lovely friend Fran from Violet's Pantry had sent me. When I got them I had the feeling that I would never make use of them as the idea of baking again seemed so far away, but here I am, using them, and the gorgeousness of how they look is just a small thing that has the ability to bring joy to a day. And that is about as good as it gets!!!!!

I used Jo Seagar's Best Birthday Bash Choccy Cake - the recipe is here- it is a lovely moist cake that made in cupcakes works very well too. I made a basic ganache icing to pipe on top and topped them with smarties (colour co-ordinated of course!).