How to: Bake Cherry Bakewell Cupcakes

So I totally stole this recipe off of Holly from the Great British Bake Off (Tuesdays at 8, BBC 2).

Her blog is here: http://www.recipesfromanormalmum.com/

Except she is crazy and told me to fit 2x as much mixture into 1/2 as many cupcakes. Holly…

Anyway.

Ingredients

For cupcakes:

150g margarine

150g caster sugar

100g self rising flour

3 eggs

1tsp baking powder

60g ground almonds

1tsp milk

90g raspberry jam

For icing:

250g icing sugar

3tsp lemon juice

22 glacé cherries

• It’s a good idea to turn the oven to 180 degrees c NOW. Because otherwise you’ll be waiting for ages, and you’ll eat all your mixture before the oven is hot.

• Use  muffin tins, or silicone cases to hold 22 cupcakes. I prefer to double up the muffin cases, because it’s easier to handle the cupcakes later on.

• Mix the caster sugar and margarine together until sexy.

• Now add EVERYTHING ELSE, except the raspberry jam. And mix it all together. (I prefer to fold it into the mixture, to get lots of air into it)

• Spoon all the mixture into the separate cases, making sure they are about half full. Don’t overfill (like I did with my first batch) because they don’t bake properly.

• Put them in the oven for about 20 minutes, until the tops have turned almost golden (IT’S NOT REAL GOLD, OK, JEEZ). They won’t be very firm (unlike what you’re used to), but when they’ve cooled down, the cupcakes will become a bit more solid.

They should look like this.

CUPCAKES

•  Leave them to cool for about 15 minutes

• Now make the icing for the top. Take all the icing sugar, and add the lemon juice. Also water until the mixture is spreadable, but not runny.

• The cupcakes should be cool before doing this. Take a teaspoon, or similar object, to remove the centre.

• Now add a little raspberry jam to the centre of each cupcake. You can put some of the sponge back on top, before icing, or not. Your choice. (I didn’t, because I ate all the sponge I took out…)

BAM. Photo.

You use ANY jam you like. If you don't like raspberry.

• Now take a spoonful of icing, and add a dollop to the centre, right above the jam. Hopefully it will spread across the cupcake on its own, without leaking over the edges

• Finally, add a glacé cherry to finish.

• Put them in the fridge for about an hour or 2, for the icing to fully set.

When finished, they should look something like this, I think…

Bitchin'

This recipe is good, because it usually leaves a good amount of mixture/icing leftover for eating while you wait for the cupcakes to be ready.

Ummmm, thanks for reading this?

– Joe

The Iconic Tobias

Hailing from the bible belt of the land of legalized Marijuana, Tobias Agricola has risen to icon status for a wide variety of people numbering at least five. He has achieved some level of recognition/ internet fame in part due to being acquaintances with young adult fiction authors Maureen Johnson and John Green. If his image isn’t as widely known, his name is: Green’s New York Times bestselling young adult novel Will Grayson, Will Grayson was dedicated to him. This was the first book featuring gay characters to appear on the Times list for children’s’ chapter books. Tobias was the first person to drunk tweet about John Barrowman while bicycling in the rain, probably. The image chosen here to represent him has become iconic, with as many as three images existing emulating it. His flamboyant internet presence has led him to become the favorite gay Dutchman of at least ten or twelve people give or take fifteen.

It Gets Better, GRH style?

So, there’s been a lot of talk in the GRH recently about the It Gets Better project. A few people have also mentioned how much the GRH means to them, and how they wish everyone could have a GRH, because the GRH makes it so much better for us. This got me thinking that maybe we should do an It Gets Better video together, as the GRH. Why? Several reasons…

(1) Because it’s a worthy project to get involved with.

(2) Because most of the videos currently coming out of the It Gets Better project seem to be from adults, and while that’s all well and good, to some extent it sends a message that you need to wait until you grow up and move out for it to get better… and in the meantime, keep suffering through hell with nothing but the hope of a far-off, someday getting-better to sustain you. But we, by and large, are the same age as these kids. Our existence proves that you don’t need to wait years for it to get better, that you can find other people like you, people you feel at home with, right now. A lot of the adults making It Gets Better videos won’t even have considered this: we’re the first generation to use the internet this way, and it opens up these amazing possibilities, and that’s something people ought to know.

(3)Because making it is a good antidote to that horrible “It Gets Worse” video that currently has most of us upset.

(4)Because it would be good for the GRH as a whole to come together, think about the things that make us awesome, and then go tell other people about those things and how they, too, can have them.

…what do you guys reckon?

GRH Bookswap Project: Some FAQ

(Q)  So what’s this all about?
(A)  Each member of the GRH is going to choose a book and send it to someone else in the GRH. This person will read and annotate it. When they’re done with the book, they’ll send it to yet another GRH member and so on until the book makes its way back to the original owner.
In addition, the original owner will write a message to the rest of the GRH inside the front cover of the book. When you finish someone else’s book, please write a short message to the owner inside the back cover, including what you thought of the book.

(Q) Why?
(A) For the lulz.

(Q) Does everyone get to read every book in the bookswap?
(A) Yes. They get to annotate every book too.

(Q) What should I say in my annotations?
(A) Pretty much anything you want, this is the GRH after all. However, it would be appreciated if you signed everything you write in the book so we can see who said what.

(Q) Can I annotate my own book before sending it off for the bookswap?
(A) Absolutely! In fact it would be wonderful if you did.

(Q) What should I write with?
(A) Unless the owner of the book specifies otherwise, you should probably write in pencil.

(Q) What book should I send?
(A) Your book must be no more than 500 pages long, written in the English language and not pornography. Apart from these restrictions you’re free to send whatever you like: prose, poetry, play, graphic novel, non-fiction, photography… However it’ll be more fun if you send a slightly obscure book so that people aren’t receiving lots of books they’ve already read, and it’ll be nicer on everyone’s wallet if you send a paperback rather than a hardback.

(Q) How do I know who to post each book to?
(A) I’ve made and emailed round a handy spreadsheet in which you can look up your name and the name of the book’s owner and find who you’re meant to be sending the book to when you’re done with it. There’s also a table of where your book is expected to be each week. If you want to make everyone’s life a little easier, you can look in your row of the latter table and copy the list of names, in the order they appear, into the front of your book. This way everyone receiving your book can see at a glance where it’s going next.

(Q) Isn’t that a little complicated? Why not just put everyone in a big circle so I always receive books from the same person and always send them to the same person?
(A) Because sending books across the Atlantic is expensive. I’ve tried to share out transatlantic posting duties in as fair a manner as possible. Unfortunately we have fewer Americans than Brits, so the Americans will have to do it more often. They also have to do your Mum more often; she can be so demanding sometimes.

(Q) How do I know who to give my address to, so they can post books to me?
(A) My handy spreadsheet has another table which tells you that. I’d appreciate it if you all looked up who needs your address and gave your address to those people as soon as you can.

(Q) Why do you make so many spreadsheets?
(A) Because I’m a nerd.

(Q) How long can I keep each book for?
(A) Ideally you should send books on to the next recipient within a week of receiving them. However, if you’re super-busy or have a book that’s a hard read, nobody’s going to get mad if you hang onto it a little longer than that. Plus, you can always lie about when it arrived.

(Q) How long is this going to take?
(A) That’s what she said. And I said, honey, it may take a while, but that just makes it all the more enjoyable.
…Seriously though, I expect the bookswap project to last about three months.

(Q) When do we start?
(A) You must have chosen a book to send, written a message inside the front cover and posted it off to the correct recipient by Friday 20th. But if you’ve already got a book picked out and are raring to go, you’re welcome to send it before then. You can send it right now if you want to.

(Q) I have a question you haven’t answered here.
(A) That was a statement, not a question. But I’ll “answer” it anyway – if you have a question not covered above, let me know and I’ll do my best to answer it.

The Great GRHAP – SEXY edition

Not much needs to be said here, except for…

BRING ON THE SEXY!

Claudes (by Tobias)

Madi (by Jenny)

Jenny (by Dasha)

Anna (by Joe)

Dasha (by Ellie)

Tobias (by Chelsea)

Chelsea (by Madi)

Ellie (by Claudes)

Joe (by Anna)

Big thanks to Anna for organising the project (applause goes here) and everyone else who participated!

The Great GRH Art Project

Many in the GRH have already amply demonstrated abilities in the fields of stalking and art. Now those two areas are being brought together, in the Great GRH Art Project. The rules are as follows:

• Each participant will be randomly assigned another GRH member as the subject for their artistic endeavours.
• Only those who have volunteered to be artists themselves will be assigned as subjects for others.
• With the exception of the coordinator (Anna), nobody will know who has been assigned to whom. You will only know who your assigned subject is.
• You may get photos your subject either by asking for them or by stalking, the latter method being more in keeping with GRH traditions.
• If you do wish to ask for photos, please do so by contacting your subject from the @GRHftw twitter account in order to retain anonymity.
• All finished art will be posted on this website, and may be used by the subject as an avatar.

If you wish to take part, please tell Anna by Sunday.