A Lesson in Coffee Cupcakes

To celebrate my new-found summer freedom from all things uni (well nearly), I decided it was about time to do a bit of baking! I love cooking and baking in particular, but never seem to have the time to really indulge myself, instead opting for quick fail-safe recipes for every day and completely neglecting home-made treats. However, as I finally had a little time to spare I decided I would make some cup cakes to take with me to work on Friday morning.

Every time I decide to bake something the process of deciding exactly what seems to take longer and longer as my 'must bake' list continues to lengthen, so this time I decided to take requests. Coffee and walnut or lemon drizzle. Sorted. I sifted through my favourite cupcake book, Cupcake Heaven and decided to go for the posh coffee praline ones with the cool topping. Not quite coffee and walnut I know, but I was feeling adventurous.

Much to my dismay it wasn't until I read through the recipe as I was getting everything ready that I realised I would be needing a fairly hefty blender. Bummer. Lacking the time or the energy to change my plans and go and get more ingredients to make something different, I decided to make do and mend and made the cake base of the low-fat coffee and walnut cupcakes with the topping of the coffee praline ones. Ta Dah!

I have to admit it wasn't my most successful baking attempt so far due to somewhat overcooking the actual cakes. As my colleague put it, they tasted really good, but had a consistency a bit like compacted sand. It appears my usual method of judging when a cake is done by touch, colour and the trusty skewer test doesn't really work when the cake in question is butter free and therefore doesn't go golden brown no matter how long you cook them! On the plus side the topping and decoration went brilliantly, making up for the somewhat heavy foam, I mean sponge, that was the base.

My first attempt at the shards of hazelnut encrusted sugar didn't go quite as planned when following the book. It mostly seems to be a timing thing and I wasn't overly sure about the proportions described in the book, so I took the idea and ran with it, keeping the hazelnuts whole and adding ingredients until it looked 'right', whatever that is. It seemed to be a hit with everyone at work and the bag of leftover shards I took in got eaten pretty quickly. Needless to say I will definitely be playing with this idea some more and refining it further in the future! The failed batch, although turning out completely differently in taste and texture was also rather nice, so I think I'll have a go at recreating that in it's own right as well when I next get the opportunity. I had intended to take a photo of the failed batch, but, well, it never quite made it before getting eaten...

The topping was a bit of a revelation as well. It's the first time I've used a mascarpone based topping and I was pleasantly surprised. I'm not usually a fan of mascarpone, but the combination of the bitter coffee with the icing sugar and then the creamy texture really worked and provided much more scope for spreading than my usual coffee icing combo. Plus I love the gentle ripple effect you can get if you spread it on right.

I had a bit of the topping left over which I put in the fridge and tasted great eaten neat the next day. And yes, I did go there, but I was going away and the fridge needed emptying. What's a girl to do? Either way I'm definitely going to do a bit of experimentation to create my own goop pots as a posh and entirely evil pudding.

So it appears these little cakes have taught me a lot -
1. Always read the recipe through before even considering making anything new
2. Butter-free sponge doesn't go golden brown, just condenses.
3. Whatever the difference between blanched and roasted hazelnuts is, it doesn't make much difference when they're coated in sugar
And finally...
4. Molten sugar is extremely hot, stays so for quite some time after you take it off the heat and is very sharp when you snap it. And when I say it burns, I mean really, really burns. And sticks to you.

L is for ... Lemon

Just a quick post this morning to tell you about the little unexpected bit of making I got up to on Wednesday night. You know sometimes the projects that are the most fun are the ones that you weren't expecting - a real case of make do and mend!

So my house mate was invited out for her friends birthday after she finished her exams on Wednesday. However, the invite also came with the stipulation of being fancy dress - anything beginning with the letter L. I love this kind of fancy dress because you never know what everyone is going to come as and people generally get to pick something they want to dress up as, rather than potentially being forced into something they don't want to wear by the theme. The problem is, L is quite a difficult letter and the obvious ideas of 'lion' ad 'leopard' had already been shotgunned. So, what did that leave us with? Librarian? Luna Lovegood? With a couple of hours left she decided on a lemon - stick a yellow top on and we're sorted!

I had planned to pick up a bit of green felt to cut into a stalk, but forgot with all the excitement of buy one get one free at costa, so that plan failed a bit. So, with about an hour to go before she was supposed to leave I had a little brain wave involving some green wool and crochet hook and whilst my housemate was upstairs getting ready this little project was born. I hope you like it!

School's Out For Summer!

At log last, as of this morning, the exams are all over and I can now finally have some much needed time off to do as a please. Well, when I say do as I please... it's a pity that has to be campus based as my exam finished at 11:30 and I've had to hang around campus all day for a rehearsal tonight at 7:15, but never mind. At long last I've been able to sit and just stare out the window, catch up on a bit of blog reading and scroll though facebook without the familier pang of 'haven't you got something better to do?' guilt. Lush. The funny thing is, after all that fantasising about everything I could do now the exams are over all I really want to do is curl up ad go to sleep and then maybe sit staring into space for a little bit. I think my brain hasn't quite caught up with the fact that it's technically the summer holidays now, so it needn't do anything intllectual unless it wants to untill September!

Not that I plan on vegetating and wasting away my freedom though. No, I've got plans, lots and lots of very vague and unorganised plans, but plans none the less. So, what's first on my end of exams bucket list?

1. Sit in the sun with a Cappucino milkshake and a bar of bourneville, admiring the need to do absolutely nothing at all. Check. I do think it's funny that it's chucked it down over the last few weeks, yet the day I finish my exams the sun comes out. What perfect timing!

2. Get back into my blogging mojo. Check. Well, at least on my way anyway. This counts right? I have so many snippets of ideas and photographs from the last few weeks that never quite made it to proper blog posts because of severe lack of time. It feels a bit like the moment's past to tell you about it now really, seeming as it was so long ago. But then again it seems a waste not to do anything with the photographs. Perhaps I'll have to do a quick catch up photo collage post in the next couple of days, just to prove that I didn't completely forget about you during this exam season!

Well, err, the next couple of things on my summer bucket list aren't actually acheiveable within the constraints of a few hours hanging around on campus, so that seems it for my progress for today, but 2 points down, that's not bad going for a couple of hours. Even if the points where somewhat easy to acheive!

So, I've now got 2 whole days ahead of me to do whatever I wish with before heading to work (not uni work I hasten to add!). What to do with myself?
Well I have several lists which seem to be getting longer by the hour in my trusty little pink notebook...

Saving grace - my little pink notebook and pink tictacs!

It really has been invaluable over the last few days. Once my brain gets working I don't really have much choice over what it spews out. It appears my brain only really does on or off. I can add additional stuff like exam revision, but I simply cannot stop blog ideas, lists of creative ideas and shopping lists from forming as well. I've had to keep my shopping list with me pretty much at all times while revisng, simply so that I can write stuff down before I forget, so I thought it was time to start writing down some of my more interesting and creative thoughts into this notebook so that they too don't suffer the same fate. The good news is it seems to be working and it's filling up fast!

Maybe it's my brain's equivalent of the 'inbox full' message you get when you need to clear out a few emails before you can except anymore. Maybe it's my brain telling me it's full and needs emptying a bit before taking in any more information? It certainly feels like I get the blue screen of death somethimes...

Anyway, I digress. So what to do over my couple of free days? Well maybe I'll have a go at acheiveing some of the things in my little pink notebook? Or maybe I'll just catch up on sleeping, all the tv I missed and read my book. Who knows. What matters is that I don't have to really do anything over the next few days except maybe go to the supermarket and do some washing. Bliss. Lovely uncomplicated, non-taxing bliss.

Anyway, I do hope I find you all well and you're all out enjoying the sun. Hopefully it will stay like ths for the rest of the summer now. I know, ever the optimist, but it would be nice wouldn't it?

Thankyou for listening to me waffle on about the veritable mountain of uni stuff I've had over the last few weeks, it's been much appreciated, and I promise normal service will resume as of... well... now really!

I promise to be back very soon, aLB

Here Comes the Sun...

Sorry it's been a little quiet around here recently, it's exam season so revision, exams and work are taking up every single waking hour (and some of my dreams!). It feels like these exams have been going on forever now, what with the random summer and then this spell of deepest darkest winter, it's been quite funny sat by the window watching the word go by.

I've had some good exams, some distinctly dodgy ones, broke the printer in the exam room twice, had a somewhat stressed train journey from Dorset yesterday to be back in time for this morning's exam and experienced walking across campus at 9am on a bank holiday Monday morning on the way to an exam - it was soo peaceful it was unbelievable! (and yes, they really did go there. Why not schedule an exam for 9:30 on a bank holiday?)

We're nearly there now though, only 2 exams left, spread over one and a half weeks and I've finally allowed myself some time off! That's right, after my exam this morning I came home and did absolutely nothing except mess about with my laptop and watch Harry Potter! At last some head space!

Anyway, I shall stop boring you with my exam related antics for now and leave you with this photo that I took the other day. It seemed somewhat apt at the time given that I had just got back from what was hopefully the worst of my exams.

This seems to sum up my life at the moment, but still brings
 a smile to my face, thanks Mum!

So that's it for now, hopefully normal service shall resume shortly once I have a little more time on my hands! Apart from anything else despite not posting, my brain has been going into overdrive with potential posts and project ideas, even if I haven't written any of it down yet. I have however still been taking a few photos so need to find something to say so that I can show them to you! The problem with having found so many lovely blogs to follow is that I am starting to get real hankerings for a proper camera to play with and pretty things to take photographs of. A lovely idea, but a rather expensive one which I'm not sure I'd necessarily use.

Thanks for listening to me ramble on about my boring exam ridden life, it's much appreciated!