Tonight I am all on my lonesome… so I asked the twittersphere what I should do.

Apparently the answer was to do a craftbaketacular blog post.

This was inspired by my lovely Rivka, writer of books, maker of lovely things, and general overall spectacular person.

For my birthday, I got these:

I must confess, I don’t like tea. Or coffee. Or in fact many hot drinks. But I do love teacups. And cake. Perfect.

I do however love the delicate aroma of Earl Grey, so it seemed only appropriate I take some of this:

…and of course utilise this:

….and make some cakes!

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Earl Grey Cupcakes Recipe – taken from Cupcakes from the Primrose Bakery by Martha Swift and Lisa Thomas

Ingredients

125ml semi-skimmed milk at room temperature

4 Earl Grey teabags

110g unsalted butter, at room temperature

225g granulated sugar

1/2tsp almond extract (optional)

2 large eggs, free-range

125g self raising flour

120g plain flour

Method

Heat the milk in a saucepan over medium heat until it just begins to boil. Remove from the heat and add the teabags. (I poured it into a glass jug)

Cover with clingfilm and leave to infuse for about 30 minutes, then discard the teabags.

Preheat the oven to 180C/350F and line a muffin tin with cases.

In a large mixing bowl, cream the butter and sugar until the mixture is pale and smooth. Add the almond extract (if using), and the eggs, one at a time, mixing after each addition.

Combine the flours in a separate bowl. Add one-third of the flours to the creamed mixture and beat well. Pour in one-third of the infued milk and beat again. Repeat until all of the milk and flour have been added.

Carefully spoon into the cases…..

and bake for 25 minutes until slightly raised and golden brown.

Remove from the oven, allow to cool slightly, then place on a wire rack to cool completely.

Once cool, decorate with buttercream…..

and sugar flowers! Done!

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Note: I made the larger sugar flowers using a simple calyx cutter…..

……shaped them using a bone tool….

….. stuck them together using a bit of water….

Done!

Note 2: I also tried to make some of the little rosebuds from my Anna Tyler lesson. Pretty cute! They just need some piped leaves.