It’s the final day of the eighth annual #DBlogWeek, created by Karen from Bittersweet Diabetes. This is the sixth year I’ve taken part and it’s a great opportunity to not only write about some truly interesting topics, but also a chance to read some blogs you may not otherwise.  Here are the links to today’s posts. 

Today’s prompt: Let’s wrap up the week by sharing a little more about ourselves, beyond the chronic illness we or our loved ones live with.  Share an interest, hobby, passion, something that is YOU.  If you want to explore how it relates to or helps with diabetes you can.   Or let it be a part of you that is completely separate from diabetes, because there is more to life than just diabetes!

I have lived with type 1 diabetes for 19 years. I work for a diabetes organisation and have done so for over 15 years. I write a diabetes blog. I am an ambassador for a couple of diabetes-related charities. Occasionally, I can be found speaking about diabetes on radio and television, or writing about it for online and print publications. There is a lot of diabetes in my life.

And yet diabetes is actually such a small part of my life. It may be hard to believe, but it is the truth.

When I have a few idle hours, you won’t find me thinking about diabetes. If I catch up with friends, we rarely, if ever, speak of diabetes.

In fact, the thing that takes up a lot of my spare time, and spare mental space, is food and cooking – especially baking. I thought today I’d share some of my recent baking activities and recipes, just in time for weekend bake-ups!

One day, about two weeks ago, I had an urge to get out the piping bag and make macaroons. As you do. Not to be confused with the ubiquitous macaron, macaroons are little mounds of coconut, egg white, sugar, vanilla and (in my world) edible glitter. This was the outcome.


(For the record, two days later, I decided to up the ante, looking for fancier macaroons. I tried another recipe that called for shredded rather than desiccated coconut, and they were an unmitigated fail! Also, I broke my piping bag in the process of trying to push the too-large coconut strands through the nozzle. Moral of the story: sometimes the more elaborate the recipe, the poorer the outcome!)

The kidlet decided that we’d not made gingerbread folks for a while. So we did. And they were so much fun, dressed in bright colourful candied-sugar buttons!


These came on the heels of a shortbread bake-up a few weeks earlier. Again, it was the kidlet saying that we’d not made them for ages, and this was the result of a Sunday afternoon in the kitchen. We used a Stephanie Alexander xmas shortbread recipe, but simply shaped the dough into weird square/rectangular shapes. The Smarties on top are a nod to a local café we used to drop into when she was just a little kidlet. She’d slurp on a babycino, getting the sprinkled chocolate from the top all over her face and we’d share one of their colourful, spotty shortbread cookies. She promised that these tasted just like she remembered!


And while we’re talking fun biscuits (or cookies for my US friends), check out these doughnut-inspired masterpieces created by the kidlet using Nigella’s basic butter biscuit recipe. They tasted as amazing as they look! (This recipe is THE best never-fail biscuit recipe and a brilliant opportunity to show off any cookie-cutter shape you have!)


For Mother’s day afternoon tea last weekend – with Autumn in full swing – I made this delicious and rather impressive-looking caramel apple upside-down cake to serve up, with ice-cream generous dollops of double cream to my mum and mother-in-law.


But one of the most wonderful things I’ve made of late are these Nutella biscuits. The recipe was sent to me by none other than #DBlogWeek creator, Karen Graffeo, who knew I’d not be able to resist the Nutella-y gooeyness of these cookies. They were an absolute hit with everyone who tried them and will definitely be making a regular appearance in the kid’s lunchbox!


And finally – this recipe appeared in my inbox yesterday morning, and yesterday afternoon, with 10 minutes before a teleconference was due to start I whipped it up and threw it in the oven. It was delicious!  I love an easy recipe that turns out exactly as it promises.


It’s not hard to know why baking is such a wonderful outlet for me. I love the methodical process of following a recipe combined with the freedom to tweak and adjust as I want. I often bake with the kidlet by my side, and as we throw together ingredients, or decorate cakes and biscuits, we chat and catch up – often about not much at all, but sometimes about pretty serious things too. Creating those opportunities to just hang out and talk with her is important, but mostly, I really like baking with her!

And the end result is always worth it! A house that smells divine, and homemade, delicious treats pulled from the oven to share with family, friends and the neighbours. A pretty damn perfect hobby!