After a hectic day with the children and feeling slightly stressed and tired I was extremely happy to open my front door to see the lovely Lulubelle's Cakes stood there smiling at me. Would I product test her new 'Edible Garden's'  hummm its a hard job but someone's got to do it!!  

The cakes looked absolutely divine such a shame to eat them ... 'Why send flowers when you could send a whole edible garden?' Why indeed! The cakes themselves were a vanilla sponge with green spiky 'grass' icing and sugar paste butterflies and flowers.  

Prices - £10 for half a dozen plus £2.50 local delivery

            £20 for a dozen free local delivery

The Verdict!! 8/10!! 

Mummy Moo - perfect gift to send and Lulubelle's presentation is lovely.  They are priced right for a gift or special treat. I can see these being popular with new mums or giving to people in hospital - much nicer than the traditional flowers - and new mums need the energy ;) The vanilla sponge was light, you could taste the vanilla but it was subtle and didn't over power the icing.  The icing was delicious and I felt a bit guilty eating it as it looked so nice and like a lot of time and effort had been put into it!  I would give these 8/10 

Megan & Moo - Megan ate hers in record time and Moo asked for more!! They had a full cake each!! So I reckon that's a big thumbs up!

Daddy Moo - the sponge was amazing, light, fluffy just like a sponge should be! (and Daddy Moo should know he's cakes always turn out flat like pancakes!!) There was a bit to much icing for me but I'm not keen on icing anyway. Would not be sad if I can home to these again ;) 8/10!

One day a couple of years ago, I took my four-month-old daughter to visit a nursery. I was going back to work a few months later and had to sort out her childcare. As I left the nursery, I discovered that I simply couldn't leave my baby anywhere full-time. It wasn’t the nursery that was the problem, it was me.

Like most families, we’d struggle to make ends meet on one salary but I couldn't leave my baby in a nursery five days a week either. My job didn’t suit part time hours and involved travelling. It just wasn’t going to suit my new family.

I'd had my permanent job for a while, but before that I'd been a freelance trainer for six years. I knew that being self employed might be the only option open to me, but as a new mum I had no idea how it might work. What type of work could I do? Was it even possible to run a business around a small child?

I started to research some business ideas. I tried a party plan, but selling another company’s products just didn’t grab me. Then I found out, to my surprise, that I was expecting our second baby – due just fifteen months after the first.

With two babies I would need a business that was very flexible indeed. One that I could fit into a spare half-hour here and there, preferably without leaving the house! By then I was in the sick-and-tired first few months of pregnancy, I’d just gone back to work on a temporary-part-time basis and frankly, I was fed up. I started blogging – partly to connect with other mums in business and partly out of sheer frustration. I was going nowhere fast, but maybe all my research would help someone else in my situation?

My son arrived in August 2009 and I carried on blogging - although not very much for a couple of months! I realised there was a huge pool of experience and knowledge out there among mumpreneurs and I wanted to share it. So I started to feature guest bloggers and that meant I ‘met’ even more business mums.

After a year of blogging, my two babies are nearly two toddlers. My need to escape employment and full-time childcare has changed from a problem into a new career and a new way of life. There are lots of challenges and that means I have questions to ask of people who are ahead of me on the path. I hope I can pass this on to mums who are facing the same challenges as me.

Through blogging I met Antonia Chitty of www.familyfriendlyworking.co.uk. Together we’ve written a book ‘Start a Family Friendly Business: 23 Brilliant Business Ideas For Mums’ which will be published on 15^th September. I had no idea when I started my blog that all that research would end up in a book, but I’m delighted that it has.

So the blog that’s about starting a business as a mum is now a business in its own right!

Helen Lindop is the owner of www.businessplusbaby.com, a blog dedicated to helping mums of babies and toddlers start their own businesses. For updates on her book, sign up to her Start Up Tips Newsletter.