Busy Bees Manual Curation Post - Chapter 8 - Whoops! Almost Caught Me Out Again!

Oh my gosh, last week I had to do a double feature, although it was really awesome to take a deeper dive into what all of you are a doing. I am so proud to say that I am part of this community as went though everyone's content.
😉🐝😉🐝Busy Bees Manual Curation Post #06 and #7 Double Feature! 😉🐝😉🐝

Just absolutely stellar quality, with heart and soul, I can see that many of our bloggers do it for the sheer love of it and to more than willingly share a piece of their world with us. Hit by breathtaking visuals and emotional personal stories, I have to wonder who is scratching who's back by releasing this post every week (even if I'm not always exactly on time (sorry🤦‍♀️).

This whole series, especially the dive into 20 features last week: double my normal 10, has actually, aside from what I thought would give me extra work that I didn't have time for, done completely the opposite.

It's made me pause.

Slow down.

Living through your eyes, experiences, photography, art and your thoughtful and creative writing fed my soul and really reminded me of why I do this.

It made me take a step back and put my life into focus, and suddenly the things that really matter became clear. This community matters. Thank you to all of you for being a part of it.

I was really able to take the time to travel through your eyes, experience your lives through your words and sample your topnotch cuisine through my vivid imagination.

I've started my own baking business, which was borne out of m blog here, and is hence the reason that I've been running behind. It's been all consuming absolutely and exhausting: thanks for the pictures only a husband would take @zakludick (and check @matthew-williams also napping and reading through osmosis 🤣🤦‍♀️)after my enormous baking supply shop that I did on Wednesday.

I am also slowly taking over the entire kitchen and my poor family had just had to accept it! We've moved things around a lot to make space for my expensive stock (I am also buying in bulk now)that I don't want damaged, but to also help ensure`` that my expensive baking equipment doesn't warp or get squashed by certain people squishing them into the cupboard without thought or respect..

Nevermind the rice paper/ edible prints or packaging:

My business, of course aptly named Claire's Crazy Cakes, Bakes and Kitchen hacks after my blog here,

has really taken off and grown in SUCH a short span of time, thanks to the kindness and generosity of my mentors and who have donating their precious time, advice, inspiration and expertise. I have really grown...and fallen flat on my face the in the first run, like they told me I would.

PS and BTW
If any of you are Saffer's in Cape Town, or if you are active on social media, you can support me here Claire's Crazy Cakes on Facebook. I'll be posting more product and progress photos, boxing my first round of completed products tonight!! You can either support me by buying physical products, or for everyone else not specifically limited to Cape Town, you can just share/ like my page and content.

As well as my incredible support structure of past colleagues as employers who I have amazing relationships with ( and have either moved on or taken different cuisine directions and handed the baking torch over to me, so to speak), I had an absolute miracle happen this week as an anonymous donor, who saw how I was struggling with my oven and donated me and my business, a brand new one! got to take it for a spin with my first round of carrot cakes last night!

You'll notice they look quite a bit darker than usual, but this is definitely not due to overbaking, but rather, but this is due to high dark brown, almost syrupy and sticky unrefined sugar content and because I chose to use quality. And I know the taste will pay off!

I was trying to not be over zealous, but with that incredible baking power and enormous baking space, I could have potentially baked more, But baking more than three items at once was already pretty freaking awesome! And it was just in time, this oven's arrival, as even my tiny mini kitchen died last night.

I'll bake my heart shaped cupcakes later as well as at least one more batch of cookies to replace the Easter bunnies that I cant really use for Mother's Day, and then start decorating what is baked already and getting that cream cheese icing going!

Images Courtesy of Dish Bakery - Now Closed and

Batter Up Bakery

I'm looking at images like this to work with my fondant icing for the 1st time! Luckily, I have a whole bunch of biscuits bakes already (sealed in an airtight container), so the plan is to make my colours from the white fondant and gel colours, roll them out and then gently place them onto my biscuits (which I have like 100 left over from Easter). Then I will use my awesome new stamps to cut out beautiful shapes from my coloured fondant and mix and match for individualized decorating, including sprinkles! I can't wait!

I'll also be adding a special touch by tying each box, no matter the size, with ribbon and tissue paper, and making a small card for each one so people can really just pick them up and not worry about anything!

I also received my 1st cake order this week, which my inner nerd s totally thrilled about! I am a huge Terry Pratchett fan and love Douglas Adams as well!

All this considered, I think these are all pretty good signs that I'm on the right track.

I'm feeling pretty damn blessed!

I'll let you know how it goes!

---

Every week I will be picking 10 of my favourite posts, from active
@busybees, and showcasing them here! Please post regular
& quality content if you want to be showcased here. The newer the post, the more time you will have to earn hive on it and interact with readers!

Much love and a huge shoutout to my husband person who produces the
@busybees report every week. We see how much work you put into it and highly appreciate this tool that we can use to track our progress!

3The Busy Bees Community was created by @alonicus
and as mentioned above, much credit is owed to @zakludick
for much of of the behind the scenes community building and reporting. This blog is based on the data from each Busy Bees Progress Report which is released every week! Check out this week's post here: HIVE PROGRESS - The Busy Bees 2025🐝🐝🐝 Progress Report Week 17

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Without further ado, here are this week top 10 Busy Bees Manual Curated Posts, as curated by me , @clairemobey
** IN NO PARTICULAR ORDER:**

#1 @Well Done to This Week's Featured
HIVE ACCOUNT
@busybees

And a big thanks to
HIVE ACCOUNT
@slothlydoesit
for your support
Please feel free to use these tags and give out #Sloth tokens as you please!

HIVE ACCOUNT
@slothbuzz

#Sloth
!Sloth

Here is the latest list of All Our Buzzing and Active Bees! Please let me know if you would prefer to be removed from this list 😉🐝

#1 @melinda010100
A bit of beauty in Zihuatanejo, Mexico.

#2 @jacobtothe
Re-Imagining Elves

#3 @littlebee4
FungiFriday ~ How cute is this little orange mushroom that I found in Västermarks Nature Reserve, Botsmark ~ Sweden 🇸🇪 🍄‍🟫

#4 @new.things
Childers, Queensland, Australia.

#5 @joetunex
Tiger Sighting in Auckland 🇳🇿

#6 @shaidon
My Surreal Sunday|English Lessons|Best Lav Mic

#7 @julianhorack
Become like a lotus flower - Bhagavad Gita ch5:10

#8 @hopestylist
[CYCLES OF LIFE](https://www.ecency.com/hive-153850/@hopestylist/cycles-of-life

#9 @treasuree
Cinetv contest #134 - Favourite Disney Movie Peter Pan

#10 @slothlydoesit
Sloth days

Well Done to This Week's Featured @busybees
And a big thanks to @slothlydoesit
for your support
Please feel free to use these tags and give out #Sloth tokens as you please!

@slothbuzz
#Sloth
!Sloth

Here is the latest list of All Our Buzzing and Active Bees! Please let me know if you would prefer to be removed from this list 😉🐝

Orca Category

HIVE ACCOUNT
@cryptoandcoffee
@papilloncharity
@ph1102
@melinda010100

Dolphin Category

@jacobtothe
@fermentedphil
@lizelle
@new.things
@littlebee4
@julianhorack
@cryptothesis
@joetunex
@tengolotodo
@joanstewart
@shaidon
@merit.ahama
@alonicus
@nkemakonam89
@hopestylist
@irisworld
@borniet
@tydynrain
@fionasfavourites
@slothlydoesit
@p1k4ppa10

Minnow Category

@gargi
@zo3d
@zakludick
@cryptoreforma
@chaosmagic23
@consciouscat
@jacoalberts
@xplosive
@gurseerat
@george-dee
@reachdreams
@technicalside
@treasuree
@putu300
@ngwinndave@soyernesto
@beauty197
@melibee
@lex-zaiya

Redfish Category

@clairemobey
@mrenglish
@okarun
@edycu007
@hellsveiah
@lecia89
@tranquil3
@sommylove
@xenowolfza
@merenludick
@aimeludick
@alwaysonyi
@swordandboard
@matthew-williams