Sharabelle bakes

Baking with Cognitive behaviour therapy When I started therapy to help  my mental health problems I never thought Id be using it Bake!!! It helped identify 2 of my most negative thought patterns, I was self critical of myself and had control issues.  I'm not going to lie and say I'm cured and I that don't have the same problems. However knowing your problems and being willing to admit to them, is part of the process of managing them.  In a way this blog started because of my therapy. The stigma associated with having a mental health condition is one of the main problems.  It makes it harder for individuals to ask for help. But If no one talks about mental health problems how are people that haven't experienced it start to understand? Meaning the stigma will always remain.  (this made perfect sense in my head, not sure if it translate well to the written word!!!!)  A few years ago I agreed to bake 100 cookies ...

Christmas Star cookies Forget the 12 days of Christmas, I feel like I'm doing the 12 bakes of Christmas. ~ First Bake of Christmas ~ Started baking on Saturday to restock my snack supply.  Finally settled on making Banana and peanut butter cookies.  I swap the mashed banana for the egg in a normal cookie recipe.   ~ Second Bake of Christmas ~ On Sunday baked the above Christmas Star Cookies as gifts for a few friends.  The recipe I use makes 3 dozen so it was a pretty big bake.  Once they were cooled I drizzled icing over them as decoration.  I stacked them off set so they looked like Christmas tree's. ~ Third Bake of Christmas ~ On the same day started baking for mum's Christmas Hamper.  I made a Christmas Tea loaf, by swapping the raisins for seasonal mixed fruit that included dates and cranberry's.  ~ Fourth Bake of Christmas ~  Prep work for a Bakewell tart.  Iv rolled shortcr...