Birthdays

Last Wednesday was Andrew's birthday, and Thursday was Reinout's, so on Wednesday evening we went out for 焼肉食べ放題 for dinner, followed by a 飲み会 in the dormitory. Reinout's mother is in Japan so he couldn't join us for dinner, but just like Cinderella he managed to get back before midnight to celebrate his 22nd birthday.



Before going to dinner, I spent a couple of hours baking cupcakes for the party. For the first time, I made 抹茶 (matcha, powder green tea) and lavender flavoured cupcakes.

For the matcha cupcakes, it's basically chocolate cupcakes topped with matcha buttercream icing. I really liked the icing - the bitterness of the matcha powder neutralises the sweetness of the icing sugar. Andrew thought the flavour was a little too strong but I think my parents (who have less of a sweet tooth) would really like it.

The lavender cupcakes were surprisingly satisfying. I thought it would be a little risky, but they turned out pretty good and everyone loved it. I didn't even consider making lavender cupcakes, until I saw a pack of lavender at a shop in Kyoto. It was originally for herbal tea, but the packaging also said that it can be used for cakes etc. To get the lavender flavour, I soaked the lavender in milk, and used the infused milk in both the cake mixture and the buttercream icing. The purple sugar is actually the only thing that hasn't got lavender in it. I'm thinking of getting some purple food colouring, so the next time I make these they can look a little more like lavender.



For Andrew we bought him various Pokemon and One Piece goods; and for Reinout we bought him 6 six-packs and a special set of beer and a beer glass, all assembled together to form a beer pyramid. I think they were both very very pleased.

Speaking of alcohol, after the yaki-niku dinner we went to the store next door and were looking for alcohol for the party. In addition to the three bottles of Smirnoff, we were also tempted by some massive four-litre bottles of whiskey that were in the same aisle. Unfortunately they were quite expensive, and I'm sure we would all die of alcohol poisoning if we drank all that in one night (not saying that we planned or intended to). Anyway we didn't buy the whiskey. Phew.