Confession time. I’m not only an artist, a teacher and a magic maker… I’m also a baker. I love to bake. I love baking more than eating what I bake and therefore I do charity bakes. People might think it’s generous of me to bake for charity but actually I bake for the deep magical satisfaction I get from it. I like the order and the calmness it gives me. I also enjoy the creative play with flavour and the nearly instantaneous results.

I spoke to a fellow baker this morning and was inspired how she tells me that she prays over the biscuits while she bakes. After being retrenched from her accountant job she stated baking to make ends meet. She is, like all of us, not always a willing participant in this journey she has been taken on. She does however produce the most divine biscuits that is helping her put food on her table and fix her washing machine and sends her girls to school. She keeps applying for jobs but is not rewarded in that way. She does ask for God’s guidance and grace and then she gets orders to cover everything she needs. What a humbling example she is.

I’ve always said you can taste the love. Science now backs up my belief.  “Researchers looking into human experience found that our experience of a physical sensation, such as taste, is affected by how we perceive the person administering it. Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2089181/A-meal-love-really-DOES-taste-better.html#ixzz4MP3tU2D9

My fellow baker also reminds me of the creators of icons. The purpose of these early Christian images is to attempt to evoke a prayerful ambience and connection between the icon and the observer. Iconographers have guidelines they must follow while creating them. Some of these are:

• Work with care on every detail of your icon, as if you were working in front of the Lord Himself.

• During work, pray in order to strengthen yourself physically and spiritually; avoid all useless words, and keep silence. Read more: http://www.ikonograph.com/iconographer-rules/

Just like the iconographers, all creators, whether you are a painter or a baker you need to find an inner silence to create. Paying attention to each detail. Being mindful.

May we all taste the love and love what we create.