I’ve been transplanting my young plants (can’t call them seedlings any more) into the garden over the last couple of days. Everything remained intact during the storm over the weekend and yesterday I was able to put together a box of plants for a neighbor – to be dropped off on their doorstep. It’s a good feeling to give things away that you’ve grown yourself from seeds or have propagated in another way. It’s like making food and feeding your friends at a get together – you’re sharing something homemade that makes you happy and therefore (hopefully) sharing the happy!
The neighbor seemed happy with the box, if not for the plants then at least for the thought.
There have been very cold north winds over the last few days bringing almost non-stop drizzle with them. This would be a great time for transplanting if the breeze weren’t as strong as it is (it’s nowhere near wind status though, just not gentle!) and if it were warmer. So, I’ve been mainly indoors these last few days.
Besides plotting where to put some wall art, and attempting to rearrange the living room, I decided to do some baking. The Hubs likes anything chocolate but it’s getting quite boring to me. I also don’t have the greatest track record with self-control when it comes to yumminess, so I decided to make cupcakes. It’s the perfect solution for me to make something that I can’t go overboard with. Being lactose intolerant, buttercream frosting is an immediate no-no. And you can’t really make cupcakes and not frost them, can you?! Problem solved.
I’d never made Lemon Drizzle cupcakes before, but I’d made the cake many times. I decided to just plop the cake mixture into cupcake liners and see what happened. Now, I could try to sound all super intelligent with the baking yummies here as I have supplied baking to a café in a previous time. But, there are loads of amazing and accomplished home bakers out there that have earned the right to do that, and I prefer to just be myself. I have no airs and graces with baking – I can do it, I can experiment and I sure can learn loads more about it. So, quite honestly, I plopped the batter in the liners and used my prior cupcake experience to gauge a minimum baking time and simply waited to see what would happen. I had my trusty cake recipe with a note that it usually took longer than expected to bake. I couldn’t tell you exactly how long I left the cupcakes in, I’d set the minimum time for 18 minutes but I think I probably left them in the oven for about 35 mins total. During this time I made the lemon syrup to drizzle over the warm cupcakes. I left the lemon frosting until the cupcakes had cooled.
I tasted the cupcake with just the drizzle on it, and it was good. Lovely and moist yet with a light texture, with enough tang. I have no idea how they tasted with the frosting, but the Hubs managed to say ‘mnafs goof’ with his mouth full. I accepted that to mean ‘that’s good’.
In other news though, I’ve been out on the moor with the pups (even on the rainy days yes) and here are a few pics from the last few days. The interesting sightings have been 2 swans on the loch, a pair of grouse (male and female) flying off together after they were notified to our impending arrival by the thudding of paws and feet, 2 bunny rabbits and signs of jets in the sky – although I didn’t hear them! Hope you enjoy the pics!
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