Lemon and Marzipan Cupcakes

I saw this recipe in the Guardian's Cook section and pretty much instantly fell in love with it, thanks to the combination of two of my favourite things - marzipan and cake. I've made these three times now, and hopefully I've worked out the best way (for me) to do them.

Most photogenic lemons in the world?

Yum

There is a lot of marzipan in these, but I'm definitely not complaining.  The original recipe only makes 10-11ish, so last time I doubled the quantities. This meant using up an entire block of marzipan, half grated and half broken into pieces.  By the third time I tried this recipe, I figured out the best way to grate the marzipan - keep it in the fridge until you need to use it and then grate it directly into the bowl.  The first time I did this the marzipan had softened slightly (it's squishy at best anyway) and was pretty tricky to grate, and then the second time I grated it onto a surface where it all collected and compacted back into a lump. By the way, the marzipan chunks are without doubt the best bit about these cupcakes, but the actual chopping/breaking bits part is seriously sticky, so either turn your phone off or make someone else answer it if it rings.

Pre-baking stage

One thing about these cupcakes is that the marzipan seems to have a habit of sinking to the bottom, which means that as tempting as it is to have one of these as soon as they come out of the oven, it's better not to because half of it tends to stick to the bottom of the cupcake case.  Once they cool they stick together better.

Post-baking stage

I wasn't entirely sure how much lemon juice and how much sugar would be needed in the drizzle suggested in the recipe, so I went with a glazy-drizzle I've used before consisting of quite simply icing sugar and lemon juice.  The ratio I've been using is one tablespoon of lemon juice to 25g of icing sugar and it's worked out fine.  The drizzle may not look very decorative but it's simple and complements the marzipan perfectly.

Chatsworth House

I have to confess I'm a bit of a sucker for a nice posh house and my love for period dramas and films does nothing to help that.  In November I finally went to visit Chatsworth House, which is one of England's best-loved stately homes (and star of 2005's Pride and Prejudice and this Christmas's Death Comes To Pemberley).

I actually did the unthinkable and travelled there on public transport.  At the time I was coming from Nottingham, so my journey involved a half-hour train journey to Chesterfield, a bus journey from Chesterfield to Baslow and then a slightly muddy walk along the public footpath leading through the park. For me, navigating all this on my own was quite an achievement, particularly when hampered by my terrible sense of direction.

The Painted Hall

For Christmas the house was decorated in a Narnia theme, including wardrobes and Mr Tumnus's house.  The Painted Hall was the palace of the White Witch, which you might just be able to see despite my slightly dodgy phone photos.

Poor Aslan...

The attention to detail was pretty great - I liked the mechanical mice nibbling at Aslan's ropes but I'm not sure what visitors who hadn't read The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe might have made of it!

More decorations!

I loved these multi-coloured bunting decorations streaming down from the domed ceiling. Simple but effective.

A lovely Chatsworth view

It's impossible to visit Chatsworth without mentioning the beautiful gardens.  As you can probably tell from my photos, the weather was not the best and made for a slightly overcast day, but the autumn colours were gorgeous.  This is the view over the Canal Pond.

Autumn trees

Unfortunately I couldn't spend as much time looking around the gardens as I would have liked to (thanks to buses being fairly infrequent) so I chickened out of getting lost in the maze and skirted around it instead.  Still, this gives me plenty to do next time I visit, which I definitely want to do in the summer.  

Mulled Wine Cupcakes

I've become embarrassingly obsessed with baking cupcakes over the past year.  Yes, they're a bit twee and yes, they seem to have died along with the 'Keep Calm and...' trend, but they're one of the few things I feel confident baking.  I found this recipe in my mum's Marie Claire and thought I'd give them a go.

Ta-dah! A beautifully dark and terrible photo of mulled wine.

I'll be honest here - I am not very good with wine.  Firstly, I know virtually nothing about it, meaning that I've lost count of the number of times I've stood in the middle of the wine aisle on the phone to my dad asking what dry actually means.  Secondly, I have the unfortunate habit of going out to a party or the pub and thinking, "Yes! Wine is exactly what I want!" only to find myself two glasses in and well on the way to getting completely hammered.  Anyway, my point is that I've never done mulled wine before.  Luckily for me, it's pretty straightforward. Shlop everything (wine, orange peel, cinnamon stick/s, star anise)  into a pan and heat. Unfortunately, the wine smell is fairly strong, and by the time I'd finished making the cupcakes I had a headache and wanted to chuck the whole lot away.

Yuuummm...

However, I resisted the temptation (mostly because I'd gone to so much effort in the first place) and ended up with some fairly decent cupcakes.  My decorating skills, however, are somewhat lacking and so almost every batch of cupcakes I make look like the cakes kids bring back from school cake stalls.  The actual cake was dense and rich but not overwhelming, and the subtle mulled wine flavour went really well with the cocoa powder in them.  Hopefully I haven't thrown the magazine containing the recipe away, because I may well give them another try next Christmas.

Christmas in London

OK, so it wasn't technically Christmas itself, but the run-up.  I have a big thing about London - I love it.  Yes, it's crowded and (to me) huge and slightly overwhelming.  But it's also buzzing and atmospheric and picturesque, and so I managed to persuade my mum to go to London for the day with me.

Putting our Christmas decorations to shame

It feels like whenever my mum and I go to London, we always end up visiting the V&A Museum.  The fact that it's free and has abundant seating helps, of course, but this time we went to see the Masterpieces of Chinese Painting exhibition.  I'm definitely not an art buff, and I didn't really know what to expect, but the art exhibited there was gorgeous.  I particularly liked the landscape paintings, and I found one I would have been happy to take home and hang on my wall.

Byoootiful

For lunch we went to the Comptoir Libanais on Exhibition Road just across from the V&A.  We'd already been to the one on Wigmore St, so we knew there would be something there that we'd like.  It was absolutely packed inside but we only had to wait a few minutes before there was a table free.  Above is a picture of our drinks - apple, mint and ginger and my favourite rose syrup, lemon and lime.

This is my main course, although it's pretty enough to be a dessert.  It's lamb kofta with yoghurt, fried onions, pitta bread pieces and pomegranate seeds, and it was gorgeous.

Seemed like a good idea at the time...

Looking back, visiting Regent Street only five days from Christmas seems like a slightly stupid thing to do.  In our defence, we (along with half of the UK, it seemed) were on a quest to visit Liberty's after seeing an episode or two of the documentary series about it. Anyway, I like to think it brought out some Christmas spirit in us.

We made it to Tate Britain, but by then we were absolutely shattered, so we spent as long as we could in the cafe where I had the world's cutest cappuccino.

New Year, new blog

Right. Here goes.
I'm determined to show off all my (lame, poor quality) Christmas photos somehow. Instagram is all very well, but I can't fully review and explain everything without writing essays through tags. So I'm going to restart this blog and see where it gets me.

Wish me luck!

The Various Stages of Insomnia and Lack of Sleep, or Moving Out of Halls

• I'll just snooze a bit - why is this bed so uncomfortable. My pillow is flat. I'm too hot, but if I stick my leg out of the duvet I'll be too cold and plus monsters will get me. My head hurts. My eyes hurt trying to sleep. Why am I not asleep. This is stupid. It's four o'clock and even if I get to sleep now I'll only have three hours' sleep. Sleep. Sleep. I'm drifting off, yes, I'm drifting off - and nope, I'm wide awake again. Damn it.
• It's twenty to six, might as well get up. God my eyes ache. But hey, I feel amazing! Who the hell needs sleep, anyway? Oh yeah! I am Supergirl. Just watch me leaping about after two hours' sleep. I am invincible. Eehhh, Macarena. God I'm going to be so freaking productive today. I'm ready and it's only six o'clock! Fabbo. I'm going to clear out my entire room. 

• It's half past six and I hate life. My arms are aching from lugging heavy boxes out of my room. I thought nobody would be up so I didn't brush my hair or put any make-up on. But no. There are people just chilling around halls looking as if sleep means nothing, and I have rats' tails for hair. Still, my room is nice and empty. I am a zombie, but I will carry on. I will not let this lack of sleep beat me.
• I think I'm getting travel sickness from the lift.  

• Oh my God people are going to steal all the stuff I've just carefully put in the car. Oh my God, they're going to break into the brand new car. Oh my God, I'm going to have to take all the boxes back out and take them back up two flights of stairs. Oh my God why did I think that would be a good idea? Maybe I should just stay in the car for five hours until it's time to leave halls. My mum will reassure me.

• Mum what am I going to do I did something really stupid and now I'm going to have to undo the past two hours' good work because it was actually bad work in disguise Mum help me and tell me what to do I know I'm legally an adult but I'm not mature enough for this Mum help me Mum Mum Mum
• Mum's reassurance does not reassure me and I think I'm going to start crying right here in the middle of halls' reception in front of the three boys who watched me take eleven heavy boxes and suitcases out to the car without offering to help. I can't do life properly and I want to cry and ugh ugh why couldn't I sleep last night I should still be in bed.
• Dad has reassured me and told me to pull myself together. What was all the fuss about, anyway? I'm totally cool. And tired. Except I packed my bedding away and there's not much left in my room except for a bag of plastic bags and an old Creme Egg packet. But whatever. I'm cool. 
• I need caffeine or I will die.
• I have caffeine, thanks to throwing myself through the doors of the nearest Costa. It's not working. Why isn't the coffee working? Maybe it's because I started drinking coffee aged seven and now I have an extremely high caffeine tolerance. Maybe I should have bought two coffees.
• Oh wait, I'm a student and I can't afford it. 

Things and Thoughts I Get Distracted By Whilst Attempting To Revise

• Wow, that drill in the building site outside my halls is really loud.
• How many marshmallows do I have left?
• I need to re-shape my eyebrows.
• Parks and Recreation has finished for the season and now I have nothing to watch.
• Hey, I bet the person who got this library book out before me was doing the same topic as me. Have they highlighted anything useful?
• God, this person's handwriting is lousy.
• Haha, that's a really fat pigeon on the scaffolding opposite my window. 
• I wonder if prolonged periods spent indoors alone will make me turn insane.
• Would anyone notice if I did?
• I need more sweets.
• People said The Wire was good. Maybe I should start watching it. Or Breaking Bad.
• I have over 2 weeks til my exam. I'll be fine.
• How is it nearly half-five already?
• My nail varnish is super-chipped. It'll look much better if I scratch half of it off and leave stubby scraps of polish on. 
• In retrospect, it probably wasn't a good idea to start watching a TV series that already has 5 seasons for me to catch up on, right in exam season. 
• I know, I'll write a blog post about being distracted. That's productive.