Min........ T!

It's worth eschewing peppermint tea bags sometimes and getting a handful of nice fresh mint leaves and dousing them in boiling hot water and letting them to brew until the water is rich with them.

And pouring the viridescent liquid into a little glass, augmented with a teaspoon or two of sugar if such is your wont.

And standing on the balcony in the last of the evening sun as it sinks away dragging its colour with it, enjoying the air and the sweet spiky warming tea and some moments of solitude.

Apple and cinnamon cupcake

Making cupcakes is always fun. There's something just a little frivolous about bite size cakes and their pretty frilly cases.

These ones are very moist and appley, streaked through the middle with a band of cinnamon sugar and crunchy with the same on top. Very tasty.

The recipe is adapted from a very cute little book called simply cupcakes! by Elinor Klivans.

Without further ado:

1. Preheat oven to 350F
2. In a small bowl, mix 1/2 cup sugar and 4 teaspoons ground cinnamon
3. In another bowl mix 1 cup grated cooking apple with 2 tablespoons of the cinnamon sugar mixture
4. In a larger bowl stir 1 1/4 cups plain flour, 3/4 cup soft brown sugar, 3/4 tsp baking soda and a pinch of salt together, and make a well in the centre
5. Add 2 eggs, 1 cup sunflower oil and 1 tsp vanilla extract and mix well
6. Stir in the apple mixture with any juice that has been released
7. Put 12 cupcake papers into a muffin tray and half fill each with mixture
8. Sprinkle 1/2 tsp of cinnamon sugar over each one and top up with more mixture
9. Use a pastry brush to dab the top of the batter with the melted butter and sprinkle a tsp of cinnamon sugar on top of each
10. Bake until the tops are light brown and a knife inserted comes out clean; about 25 minutes