Ahem...

May I suggest marscapone cheese and really good raspberry jam as a filling for today's cupcakes?

Yes, I know I am hacking on about cake an awful lot these days. Don't worry, it will soon pass off. Only another ten or fifteen recipes to go.

On the yarn front, I am crocheting this for Faith and Jonathan's baby, in a delightful lemon hinted yarn in a sensible easy care blend but with a touch of cashmere to unsqueak it. Don't you find synthetics squeak when you work them? I don't much like man made fibres but what use is a handwash baby blanket? This baby is due any minute now really. Poor Faith must feel like she has been expecting forever and, once again, I am making this at the absolute last flipping minute. It is a dinky little project though, it really looks as though I am working on something (to muggles at least) but it is in reality very very easy.

In other news, I have overdone the gardening rather in the last few days. And after hacking, chopping, raking, lugging and burning eighteen months worth of neglect I was naively surprised to find myself a bit below par this morning. Consequently, I have been confined to quarters by the CO, robustly told that I am not to pick up secatuers for at least a week and that he will attempt to master the secrets of the washing machine for the next few days. I am having a holiday folks. Pass me my crochet ...and put the kettle on will you?

Have a snug, cashmerey kind of day.

Update: 2:30 pm
Not content with current project or even the project after that (the fire yarn), I have bought yarn for the third item in my queue and it is here. I am in love.
I ask you, how could I, in my lowered state, resist a yarn that is from the Raven Clan...? Over a thousand yards of laceweight silk gorgeousness coming my way. And it is going to take long enough to arrive for me to finish at least the current project and get well into the second so, no project queue guilt for me. Hurrah!

Yesterday was

cupcakes

cupcakes

and more cupcakes...

there was chocolate and cream

to make ganache

to cover some doozy chocolate creations.

The chocolate ones were my absolute favourite. Very strong but wow. The recipe is as follows and it comes from the book which I mentioned here.

100g butter at room temp
100g caster sugar
2 large eggs (beaten)
100g self raising flour
nutella or other chocolate spread.

to decorate
100g dark chocolate
100ml double cream
blanched hazelnuts (optional)

Preheat oven to 180 C (350F) Line a bun tin with paper cases.
Beat the butter with sugar until pale and fluffy, then beat in the egg a little at a time. Fold in sifted flour. (I add a little salt and a teaspoon of baking powder here). Drop a generously heaped teaspoonful of the mixture into each paper case and then make an indentation in the middle of each little dollop with the handle of a teaspoon. Drop a little nutella or other chocolate spread into the indentation and cover carefully with some of the remaining cake mixture. Bake for 15 - 18 mins (it depends on our oven really) until risen. Transfer to a wire rack to cool.

To decorate.
Put the broken chocolate in a heat proof bowl. Heat the cream until almost boiling, then pour over the chocolate and leave to stand for a few minutes. Stir until smooth and creamy (if you are anything like me there will come a point where it looks terrible and you think that it has all gone wrong, trust me keep stirring and it works just fine) Leave to cool for about twenty minutes for it to thicken a little then spread over the cakes.

You can sprinkle a few chopped hazelnuts over if you like. I didn't because of a choking hazard if a small one nicked what is really quite a grown up tasting cupcake. These really are tiny deaths by chocolate... but they are a sublime way to go.

Today, instead of a return to school for the younglings and a quick jaunt over Crynant mountain in the car for the oldies (including a thermos of cocoa like the old farts we are tuning into), it is inset day or "insect day" as Rose calls it. I will always remember the last time I forgot inset day and turned up at the school gates (late I add, lest you think that I am a complete moron) to find the teachers holed up in their staff room sipping extra strength coffee, eating biccies and pretending to do extra training. I sloped off, disconsolate children in tow, and I'm certain the teachers had a good giggle. Anyway I am spending the last day of hols sorting out uniform and kit which I should have done days ago. Laundry anyone?

Have a calm and organised day won't you? Go easy on the cupcakes though.