Winter Warmer

Staff parties, work load fatigue and increasingly baltic weather. Ladies and gentlemen, the Christmas flu season is truly upon us. 

A lemsip or nurofen might be a good bet to rid yourselves of the soul destroying symptoms that are plaguing you, but since it's the holidays the festive boozing is unavoidable. Luckily I managed to get my flu out of the way back in October, but nonetheless, here's my recipe for the perfect winter warmer, the spiced hot toddy.

Ingredients

(In a large wine glass)

2 x 25ml Jameson

Squeeze of a slice of orange

Another slide of orange, garnished with cloves in the rind

1/2 tsp of cinnamon (or to taste)

1 tsp of honey (Manuka is the best if you can afford it)

Fill the rest of your glass with boiling water (make sure you pour the water over a large spoon to cool the water before it hits the glass. You don't want the boiling water to cause the glass to crack and causing you to burn yourself!)

The (Not So Great) British Bake Off

What do you get when you mix wine, Jameson, cider, end of the semester exhaustion with baking? The result in my case, some pretty pathetic buns.

To avoid insulting my friends, I must make you aware right now that I'm only speaking about my own baking abilities.

When you have grand Pinterest ideas for these buns, and extremely poor baking capabilities, I wish I had told myself to not get my hopes up. If I needed to sum up my talent, it would be how I needed to enquire about the difference between butter and margarine. For real ... 

Three pals possessing minimal skills with myself carrying the torch for the most utterly useless of the trio. It's worth noting that all three of us participating in this baking challenge are far from professional. So much so, that we tossed the idea of doing anything from scratch, and don't you dare judge us. Give me your finest Morrison's home brand cupcake kit, x3. Honestly, what could go wrong? Well, as it turns out, a lot. The finished product clearly speaks for itself.

It baffles me how completely hopeless I'am at this craft, when I'm actually a decent cook. Surely, it's the same tricks of the trade? I'm trying not to dwell on this, but for fuck sake, can someone please explain?

These buns are part of an in-class bake off, and I've currently a batch of redeeming (pre-made mix) brownie blissfully cooking away. Nonetheless, when your creation resembles the same shape as the continent of Australia and are certainly inedible, what chance do these meagre mini-cakes have?

From top to bottom, Lily's, Mine and Annabel's