Inhale, exhale

I have a new toy: a graphic design tablet. I'm sure it will vastly improve my life.
This is the first foray into messing about with it on Photoshop.

Autumn in Battersea

It's Autumn again apparently. Not quite sure when it happened, but I think I may have been asleep.

Lemon and almond cupcakes oh my

After spending 3 days totally vegetablised and debilitated on the sofa from what I though was a pulled muscle and what turned out to be a kidney infection, I decided I had to do something to make me feel normal again. It was no surprise to anyone when I got my electric whisk and muffin cases out and made lemon and almond cupcakes with lemon curd middles. Normal equals baking.

cakes...
225g unsalted butter

225g golden caster sugar
4 eggs
125g ground almonds
100g self-raising flour
Zest of 2 lemons
Juice of 1 lemon
1/2 tsp almond essence

curd...
200g golden caster sugar
100g unsalted butter
Juice and zest of 4 lemons
3 eggs whisked

icing...
200g icing sugar
Enough lemon juice to make a thick paste

• Make the curd first to allow it to cool down: Put the juice and zest of the lemons, sugar and butter into a saucepan and simmer until the sugar has dissolved. Sieve and allow the mixture to cool down before adding the whisked egg yolks. Use a balloon whisk to keep the curd light and stir until it coats the back of a spoon. It doesn't need to be really thick as it will thicken when cooling. Pour into sterilised hot jam jars, fill to the top, add a disk of greaseproof paper to the top and screw on the lid. Allow to cool before putting in the fridge.
• For the cakes: Combine the butter and sugar until light and fluffy, add the eggs one at a time then stir in the lemon zest, juice and almond essence. Fold in the ground almonds and flour. Fill muffin cases three-quarters to the top and bake in the oven for about 25 minutes at 180˚C. Allow to cool on a wire-wrack.
• Now its curd and icing time! Take a sharp knife and gently take a portion of cake out of the middle. Fill the hole with curd then put the portion of cake back in the hole. Mix the icing, it should be super thick and dribble all over the top of the cake so it's smooth. Decorate with whatever you fancy - sugar flowers, crystallised lemon zest, blueberries, raspberries....whatever you want. YUM.

Photo Splicing

Amazing photography project by John Stezaker, who splices and merges photographs from other artists.

 
 
 
 
 

Paralympics

As soon as the coverage of the London 2012 Olympics started and the incredible Channel 4 'Superhumans' advert came out, I knew I had to get tickets to the Paralympics. People who can do high jump with one leg...lightyears better than any Usain Bolt.

It may sound clichéd to say, but the atmosphere really was electric. I've never heard crowd noise that loud before. But then I have never been to a One Direction concert. And to top it all off, we got to see Mickey Bushell win his gold in the T53 100m sprint. I'm not ashamed to say we got emotional and wobbly when the national anthem came on.

Brixton Village

A friend's birthday celebrations got wildly out of hand last night leading to a considerable amount of zambuca free flowing down my neck. I don't even like zambuca. Waking up this morning was tricky at best.

So to cure ourselves of self-inflicted ills, we traipsed the short distance down to Brixton Village to go to Honest Burger. I am not a big burger person but I make the exception for Honest. They are honestly (I know, so obvious) the best burgers I have ever had in my whole life. It's something to do with the caremilised onion relish and the salty rosemary on the chips. Drool is dribbling onto my jumper just thinking about those chips.

On our way home, we stopped off at this amazing little vintage shop called Rejuvenate. First impression of the shop was that it smelt incredible. The owner was very eager to tell us it was actually him - an egyptian lemon oil he wears as aftershave. Whatever it was, it smelt heavenly.