Almond Friands

Today was a day of possibilities. Sometimes we should do just the opposite of what we are meant to. When I woke up this morning I had every intention to go to pastry school, like a good little student. Instead I caught the train into the city, bought two coffee's some pastries and let myself into a friends apartment.

We sat in the dark at 7.30 in the morning sipping our coffees and talking about life. Somehow we got onto the subject of stress. I mentioned that I had been a bit stressed lately. My friend laughed at me, entwined his fingers in mine, and said "Cherry, what do you have to be stressed about? You sell cupcakes for a living, and go to school to learn how to make cakes." He always made everything sound so simple. I tried explain what was going on in my life, but found I couldn't put it into words.

I kissed him goodbye an hour later as he walked off to school, and i left for my day. I decided that today was not a day for school. It was a day for cafes, book shops, and exploring. I discovered a macaroon shop which I fell in love with, and some other really amazing places.

After walking around for a few hours I settled down in a cafe to do some serious thinking. The conversation about stress was haunting me. What was really wrong?

I wasn't worried about money (even though I really should be), and I wasn't worried about school (obviously, I was breezing through puff pastry making, and loving it.) The state of my heart however was worrying me. Life has been looking a lot like a game called uno stacko that my sister and I used to play as kids. Its basically a game where you have a tower of blocks which you have to rebuild by taking blocks from the bottom and stacking them on top, without it falling down. Ive been feeling like all my emotions are stacked up, and Im terrified that if I take one out and examine it, the rest will all fall upon me too. So instead I wrap the tower with sticky tape, to make it strong and hard, convinced this will stop it from falling over.

To be honest, for now, i quite like it this way. Doesn't everyone get sick of 'feeling' so much all the time? I think I'd prefer living my life with a roll of tape in my hands instead of always picking up blocks. I'll let you know how it goes.

In the meantime here is a lovely friand recipe for you. If everything in life fails, at least there is cake! And that theory really saved me today.

Almond Friands

What you will need:

• 1 and 1/2 cups of icing sugar
• 1 cup of icing sugar
• 1/2 cup plain flour
• 6 egg whites
• 250g melted butter

What to do:

1. Sift together the icing sugar, flour, and almond meal
2. Whisk egg whites until the mix is light and bubbly (you can do this by hand, no need for electric mixer)
3. Mix the melted butter (which should be at room temperature with the dry mix.
4. Gently fold in your egg whites
5. Also feel free to add a tsp of vanilla if you like it.
6. Pour your mix into sprayed muffin tins
7. Leave to stand for 20 minutes
8. Bake at 160 for 20 to 30 minutes
9. EAT THEM