I am DONE with my MA! On Friday I handed in all 95 pages and 17,000 odd words of my dissertation on eBooks in public libraries. It felt so good and now I'm free to blog again. April was a very, very quiet month on the blog front but obviously my dissertation came first. On Friday I celebrated by having tea at The Quarter in Liverpool, sat outside looking at the Anglican cathedral. It was lovely.
Then yesterday I took the opportunity of FREE time to bake! There are so many recipes I've been wanting to try from the new Hummingbird Bakery Book, including earl grey tea cupcakes. I love a good cup of earl grey but wasn't sure about these. They could either taste very lovely or very wrong. Luckily they were lovely (could actually be more earl grey-y! Only the icing really tasted of earl grey, in the cake it was so very subtle you could miss it if you didn't know it was there).
The earl grey flavour comes from steeping tea bags with boiling water for the cake and then with milk for the icing. They look like vanilla cupcakes with a sneaky secret. They are perfect for a tea party.
Talking of tea parties, I have to admit that I was slightly upset to be spending the Royal wedding bank holiday doing Uni work, otherwise I would have held a typically British tea party to celebrate. I also spent all the Easter bank holidays and the May Day bank holiday doing Uni work...it was terribly depressing. But! I have finished it all now and the feeling of relief is amazing! Now the summer can officially start. I hope everyone enjoyed the bank holiday bonanza more than I did.
Well done on handing the MA in, I know when I finished mine it was a big relief to have it all finished, bounded and rid of! Was glad to see the back of it at that point.
ReplyDeleteI've eyed up the earl grey cupcakes too, I have a fella that loves his earl grey so I may have to seduce him with the cupcakes hehe
congratulations, what an amazing feeling it must be! xx
ReplyDeleteYay congrats! And those cakes look yummy, i really need to get back into baking again.
ReplyDeleteCongratulations! I can still remember my feeling of relief finishing uni. You'll enjoy your time so much more than before I bet.
ReplyDeletecongrats for finishing it :)
ReplyDeletenice cup of tea..
Massive huge colossal congratulations on finishing the MA! What a great achievement! Cupcakes were a great way to celebrate! x
ReplyDeleteCongratulations! You can always celebrate the Royal Wedding a bit later... :)
ReplyDeleteCongrats on finishing your dissertation! I was so proud of my boyfriend when he handed in his.
ReplyDeleteAlso, Earl Grey cupcakes? I've read about them somewhere before, they sounds super good even though I'm not a fan of the tea!
x Michelle | thefeatherden.net
Wow I thought I had it bad writing 10,000 words! Your was lethal! Congrats on finally finishing, such an amazing feeling isn't it! Well done!
ReplyDeleteOoooh those cupcakes look amazing!
Sophie
x
Congratulations on completing your MA. I can't wait to be able to say the same, roll on Sept 13th!
ReplyDeleteI'm desperate to make these cupcakes. As usual, yours look amazing, mouth-wateringly good in fact!
Loveaudrey xxx
well done on handing in the MA!
ReplyDeletehavnt tried the new hummingbird bakery book yet, got the first one, and am a regular at the bakery! when i tried the earl grey cupcakes went a bit dodgy, but may try again after reading this as yours looked sooo scrummy xxxxx
Yay well done, you can relax now!
ReplyDeleteI just handed my own dissertation in (only a measly 8500 in comparison to your 17000 though!) and feel so relieved as well! It was annoying having so many Bank holidays but so much work to do!
ReplyDeleteCongrats on finishing your MA dissertation! It was hard enough doing a BA one so I can't imagine how much more research & hard work must've gone into yours. Ooh Earl Grey cupcakes sound really intriguing, need to get my hands on that new Hummingbird Bakery book xx
ReplyDeleteCongratulations! I have just had a week of celebrations too to mark the hand-in of my undergrad dissertation - my blog has basically ceased to exist!
ReplyDeleteAlso planning on baking a cake from that very book for my boyfriends birthday on Wednesday! I'll let you know how it goes! x
Congrats! love your smart binding xx
ReplyDeleteMany congrats on finishing your dissertation and MA, bet you're thrilled! How come you finish now and not in Spetember though, I finished my MSc after the summer? The tea and cake looks yummy and the perfect little treat for all your hard work
ReplyDeleteBow Dream Nation xx
Congrats Helen! And I'm glad you're back.
ReplyDeleteCongrats!! :) looking forward to more blog posts then!! Yum they sound like good cupcakes!
ReplyDeleteKc
http://a-sparkley-silver-lining.blogspot.com/
Congratulations again on handing in your dissertation :) Earl Grey cupcakes are awesome, its two things I love in one bite!
ReplyDeleteCongratulations! It does feel nice, doesn't it?
ReplyDeleteThose cupcakes look amazing. :)
Also, you reminded me to check and see if my Master's thesis ever got bounded by my university's library. (I had a HUGE appendix of illustrations that had to be cleared. :)
Oh gosh, how profesh does your MA dissertation look Helen?! Huge congrats on getting that done, I'm sure you're so relieved and pleased (: An Earl Grey tea cupcake sounds so lovely and unique! xx
ReplyDeleteCONGRATS! these cupcakes look really sweet and i bet they would taste lovely!
ReplyDeleteenjoy your post-university free time!
Rachel
xoxo
http://procrastinatingrachel.blogspot.com/
Wow, congratulations on handing in your dissertation! It looks so professional! You must be feeling so good.
ReplyDeleteThe cakes look really nice. My boyfriend loves Earl Grey.. I might try that for his birthday in two weeks.
Earl grey cupcakes sound amazing. They also look beautiful. So cute!
ReplyDeleteAlso congrats! That's so amazing that you are actually finished!
Congratulations that is huge! Well deserved tea and cup cake celebrations! They sound delish. Enjoy your time out of the library!
ReplyDeleteWell done, Helen. Congratulation! What an achievement and you're so deserved it. Those cupcakes look so lovely, I wish I can have one now :)
ReplyDeleteCongratulations on finishing your MA Helen! I bet you're chuffed :D
ReplyDeleteThose cupcakes look lovely! I put loads more earl grey than the recipe suggested when I made the Primrose versions. Yummy!
Katie xox
Welcome back, and congratulations on finishing your dissertation! Well done!
ReplyDelete♥ Leia
CONGRATULATIONS! :D You must be so relieved, I love the look of those cakes too, yummy!
ReplyDeleteMaria xxx
Congratulations!
ReplyDeleteI love the new hummingbird bakery book and these earl grey cupcakes are on my list to bake. They look lovely!
Maria
x
Woo congrats to you and welcome back :D Those cupcakes look amazing!
ReplyDeleteCongratulations! Funtimes ahead, I'm sure.
ReplyDeleteI love earl grey, and cupcakes. Need to combine!
ReplyDeleteCongratulations! That is such an amazing achievement - well done you!
ReplyDeleteCongrats on finishing your MA! I know it's a ton of work. Lovely cupcakes:)
ReplyDeleteWell done on finishing the MA, you must be feeling very relieved! The cakes look delicious, the cafe my knitting group meets at made us an Earl Grey chocolate cake for our group birthday last year, it was delicious.
ReplyDeleteCongrats on finishing your MA!! I am excited by the prospect of earl grey cupcakes, i'd love to try those but using lady grey which is my fave tea :)
ReplyDeletewoah 95 pages! congrats.
ReplyDeletemmm cupcakes.
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Congratulations on handing in your dissertation! Recently came across your blog and absolutely love it! Another great earl grey cupcake recipe is in Gail Wagman's book "Cupcakes Galore". It uses a dark chocolate icing which I really like.
ReplyDeletecongratulations! Love the proper binding on that dissertation. Must feel fantastic, how wonderful to get it done before summer!
ReplyDeleteWould you be interested in writing up the Earl Grey cupcakes as a guest post for a tea blog? Would love a post on tea-baking. Drop me a line if you'd like to! http://splashofmilk.wordpress.com/
Congratulations on handing in your dissertation. I have just started an MSc which I will finish (hopefully) next year. And what a great way to celebrate but with cake.
ReplyDeleteCongratulations on finishing your dissertation, I've got all that to look forward to next year!
ReplyDeleteThose cakes look delicious. I'm not actually a fan of tea (shock horror, I know!) but I had earl grey cupcakes recently and they were really yummy!
Looooove this cupcakes! You know, in this moment i'm drinking my coup of tea and i thing i'm gonna add something sweet.....
ReplyDeleteNà
http://giocodidonne.blogspot.com/
Hey, congrats ! :)
ReplyDeleteWill you do some vlogs again ? They were nice to watch, and I admit I practiced my oral understanding at the same time haha ! xx