Cape Town - Round about this time of year, my son and I start making cakes.
Jack's birthday falls in December and his various social circles are going to mean there will be different occasions where birthday confections are needed.
So, to avoid a complete festive season meltdown, we start making them now, and freeze them as per instructions from Nigella Lawson, our particular household's only goddess (we're all atheists, but that's a column for another day).
Out comes our battered copy of the baking bible How To Be A Domestic Goddess, on go the aprons (mine is a frilly present from my sister, his is blue-and-white stripes) and we're baking.
This is not some fad inspired by the Bake Off programmes. We've been baking together since he could reach the kitchen counter by standing on a chair - and now he can pull out the food processor and make a batch of Nigella's cupcakes from scratch. Plus the icing, which he will pipe using his own piping bag.
Admittedly, the baking we do is not quite the peaceful activity one might imagine: the batter can unpredictably turn into a slimy creature which must be stirred to shouts of “Die, monster, die”, eggs are cracked with gusto, icing can be a range of startling colours and the knife gets licked a lot.
Jack has also never had the kind of birthday cake which looks like it was iced by the Cake Boss: instead we have made blank icing canvasses which he can decorate as he sees fit, with joyously chaotic results.
But all of our joint efforts are fuelled by the fundamental joy of baking: the fact that you have to follow the recipe exactly, and that if you do, a sweet and perfect result is almost guaranteed.
I have always found this aspect of baking soothing and restorative - and when it is done as a shared activity it means there can be no arguments, no disagreements about how much salt is needed. You just measure the salt and add it when instructed.
Instead, there is our soothing routine: Jack gets the ingredients, I butter the pan, we start to cream the eggs and sugar, we smell the vanilla, we lick the bowl.
Bring on the festive season - we'll be baking!
Renee Moodie, IOL Lifestyle Editor
@reneemoodie