Blue skies and purple cakes

Woo! Two days in a row now I have walked out the front door to greet not the familiar grey drizzle of the last few months, but brilliant blue skies, and even - craziness of craziness - the weak warmth of winter sunshine... Oh, what a difference it makes.


(NB - no, you eagle-eyed readers who are wondering where the beach is in London town, those photos aren't of London today; just the only blue sky photos I happen to have on this computer - of the west coast of Scotland, Andalucia and Queensland. )



After feasting my eyes on the fabulousness of the cupcakeblog I posted about on Friday, I decided in the end that attempting something complicated would only end in disappointment and a sugary mess. So I decided to follow Baby, Picture This' lead and go with plain vanilla cupcakes, using The Hummingbird Bakery recipe she linked to. And I'm glad I did. They were springy and soft and perfectly cupcake-y. I added a bit of lemon zest to the recipe and iced with blackcurrant icing (butter icing with blackcurrant jam and lemon juice) which made for a deliciously sharp contrast to the sweetness. Scrumptious (although not nearly as pretty as BPT's! - I'm no artistic icer)

Although I've confessed to not being a big cupcake fan, these would definitely earn a place in the imaginary café.

I also made the peanutbutter and chocolate cookies over on Color Me Green, and thought I had photos to put here, but must have got too distracted eating them - definitely one of the best biscuits I have ever made (I normally find biscuits disappointing). Salty and crumbly and chocolatey and all-round good. Mmmmmm.....