Let’s not beat around the bush. It’s been a long, long, long time since my last post. So much has happened since last June when I temporarily retired my full-time mother status and crawled, much like an infant learning to walk, back into the corporate world.

I admit, shamefully, that I’ve ignored this site. Not because I couldn’t think of anything to post. And not because I didn’t come prepared with a back-up collection of recipes ready for my readers. I truly intended to continue posting, albeit less often, while working.

So what happened? To take a cue out of my blog title, I simply ran out of time.

Last week, I considered closing down this site. I thought to myself, “what use is it for me when I can barely cook a hot meal during the week?”

Then something amazing happened. In the spirit of nostalgia, I logged onto my site and began reading through my old blog posts. By chance, I glanced at my blog stats.

And to my surprise, it was still active. Steadily active.

What a terrific reminder it was, to see that months after I disappeared into the world of nine to five, that the work I had put into this website was still very much alive.

To all those who continued to visit this site in the absence of new posts, thank you for reminding me how much I love what has become of chasingthyme.

That said, let’s skip the chit chat and get back to what has made this site such an enjoyable experience for me.

Creation.

In mid October, I helped out a friend of mine whose son’s love for trains took centre stage at his 4th birthday celebration. I had made this cake one other time, for my own son’s birthday party last year. And I was interested to see if I could recreate it.

Despite its intricate details, these types of cakes are actually not too difficult to put together. The key is getting the cake tin that can do it all for you.

This train tin from Nordicware was perfect for me. After heavily buttering and flouring it (make sure to get all corners and crevices), in went the cake batter, and 45 minutes later, out came the design.

The rest is pretty self explanatory. Whip up some butter frosting, add some food colouring…

Grab a piping bag with a few frosting tips, and begin decorating.

The key is to use up one colour in one go so you don’t have to swap and clean piping bags too often. I began with yellow, picked a few spots where I thought the colours would work, then moved on to red…

And so forth and so on until I had covered every spot that I wanted.

If you look closely, you can see that I changed frosting tips in some areas. The body of the train worked better with the star tip (and allowed me to finish it a bit faster given the larger tip), while the smaller tip around the wheels and other areas made it easier to be a bit more precise.

And viola, choo choo cake complete. Megumi’s son had a great birthday with his family. His eyes lit up upon first glance of his colourful birthday cake, so I was told.

It’s stories like these that make me smile. What better way to stay balanced in life than to make sure you are making the most of your passions in work, home, and play. These are the things we teach our children. Go to school and excel in a study. Jump into an after-school programme and embrace a pastime pleasure.  And love your home and family.

With that, I solemnly swear to never forget about this site again. I’ll see you all soon, my friends.