Re-attempting coffee cupcakes

I've had the urge to bake a lot recently, so last weekend I thought I'd give the ill-fated coffee cupcakes I've made before here another whirl. I have to say they did look fairly good this time...

I had assumed that where I went wrong last time was that I hadn't whipped the batter enough, as they're dairy free and just use eggs and air to give them height, and thought maybe I'd been a bit overzealous with the mixing like a mad thing folding in of the flour. So this time, armed with my trusty food processor (a gift from Mum ad Dad for christmas!) I set to thinking that extra whipping would resolve my problems. Sadly not. This time the sponge was just as flat, incredibly dense and foam-like as before.

I'm not sure what it is I'm doing wrong. I swear by the recipe book* they come from, but I just can't get this recipe to come out right. So, by a process of elimination I reckon it's got to be due to the cooking time (you can't work by colour as I usually do as they don't brown), temperature (maybe my fan oven is a bit hot?) or I just need to keep whipping!

I think next time I might just cheat and add some baking powder or use self-raising flour to try and get some rise in them. Either that or I'll use a standard coffee cupcake recipe and substitute in dairy-free marg instead. However I am determined to perfect the art of the dairy-free cupcake!!

This weekend I'm planning on attempting my first ever macarons, so wish me luck!

Alex

*please note this is an amazon associate link

Lent at last

Deary me it's been busy the last few days. Manageable busy and I feel like I've achieved a lot this week, but still there's a lot to do. I was hoping to get a bit time off this weekend to recuperate, but there's been no sign yet! However, this does mean that not only have I not done any blog reading in nearly a week, but I've also neglected to tell you about my resolutions for lent.

Image Source: Facebook

You can read a bit more about lent here in a post I wrote last year when I decided to go vegetarian and give up chocolate and takeaways. I think I managed it with reasonable success, although I did have a fair few Sundays off!

This year I've decided to do pretty much the same thing - I've given up chocolate (as my chocoholism has been getting progressively worse through my degree, oops!) and gone vegetarian. I haven't bothered with giving up takeaways though as I have so few anyway. I thought about giving up takeaway coffees as well as I get through a fair few of them and it's draining my already small budget, but I've already limited myself with my New Years resolution to only have one takeaway coffee a week and that seems to be suiting me so far. As they say, a little bit of what you fancy does you good!

Have you given anything up for lent? If so I'd love to hear what and why.

Alex

Archetype Me

Just a quick post today to say have a look at this cool website, archetype me. I noticed it pop up on instagram a couple of days ago with hearthandmade, modflowers and a couple of others posting their results (sorry I can't remember who else and my instagram feed won't go back that far).

As a psychology student I know you've got to take these things with a pinch of salt, if not a whole shovel. Measuring personality is a lot more complicated and time consuming than simply asking a few questions, and even then it's difficult to work out whether you've actually measured what you intended to. The problem with personality is that it's an incredibly difficult thing to pin down - how on earth do you define a person's personality? Although as a 'quick and dirty' personality test and a bit of fun I have to say I like this website. I'm not so sure about the idea of getting your own personalised website, but I liked doing the quiz.

So here's my results -

I wasn't overly surprised with the characteristics it picked up, but I wasn't expecting quite those proportions. I was expecting slightly more intellectual, a bit more creative and a quite a lot less caregiver, but then again maybe it's the nature of caregiving personality traits that means you don't notice them. I'm still surprised at the proportions though.

Alex

Please note: This is not a sponsored post and all opinions are mine, I just thought you'd find this website interesting.

Twenty-two before twenty-two

I finish my degree this year, which is both terrifying and exciting at the same time, and if I'm honest I'm not entirely sure what I'm going to do post-uni. I've got a couple of ideas, but nothing concrete - it's hard trying to decide what to do with the rest of your life when all you really know is what you don't want to do! I sense that in this case a process of elimination many not be the most sensible move...

Anyway, over the last few weeks I've found myself day dreaming about all things I want to do once I get my life back from academia, so I thought I'd make myself a list - 22 things to do before I reach my 22nd birthday (that's in October). That way when I finish uni I'll have something to aim for and keep me busy until I work out what's next.

At the moment there are 11 things in my list, so I'm nearly halfway there, and I intend to keep building on it until roundabout the 1st of April (6 months to my birthday and a month and a half until dissertation-day). Some of the things on my list are quick and easy to accomplish, some less so, and some a real challenge. I'm also still looking for more suggestions so please leave me a comment, tweet me, post on my page's facebook wall, whatever you wish should you have an idea...

You can find the master version of my list in the tabs bar at the top of my blog (or click here) and I'll also be posting explanations for some of the list items and general updates as I go. So, without further ado, here's my list so far - 

1. Start a crochet ripple blanket

2. Finish my springtime throw

3. Make a myself a dress

4. Graduate!

5. Get back on stage!

6. Get myself a grown-up girl job

7. Make something patchwork

8. Redecorate my room

10. Start my own 52 weeks of happy

11. Learn my times tables properly

Alex

Edit: I've just realised I was a numpty and missed out number 9 - maybe I need to add learning to count to my list!

January 2013

It's the first of the month and I actually have an instagram round up ready for you! I think it's possibly the first time I've managed that.

Top: New Year's Eve with the old lady, my first crochet coaster, snuggled up in my jammies making good progress on my cross stitch, very early morning snow (no I did not wake up at the crack of dawn and proceed to jump up and down like an over-excited child)
Second Row: More snow, Hector doing his seal impression, a cosy afternoon spent hiding from the snow, cheesy llamas to aid the uni work
Third Row: My housemate made the most amazing sausage plait, yet another naughty study break, I made cherry and almond cupcakes and finished stack of crochet coasters
Bottom: More cupcakes, met a tiny ticket man, yet more crochet coaster love, had my first creme egg.

You can find out more about the crochet coasters here.

Now I know it's a little early to be eating creme eggs, and it does annoy me when shops start stacking the shelves with them on boxing day, but I really do rather like them. And it's nearly Lent you see and I'm giving up chocolate, so I need to get my fix in now!

Back when I was in 6th-form my school made us all do a General Studies AS level and it was a bit of an in joke that no one took it seriously. Apparently most years someone within the year comes up with a word or phrase that people attempt to get into the exam. In our year that word was creme egg. A lot of people said they managed it, mostly using the creme egg as a metaphor for life etc etc, but being the geek I am I steered clear. I'd love to see some statistics on how many people actually managed to fit it in though. And I wonder if anyone got docked marks for poor spelling, given the number of people that claim to have written about cream eggs.

Alex