Hotel de Ville markets, Paris

These markets are just behind the Hotel de Ville on the north bank of the river. Gorgeous, gorgeous, gorgeous. I could have watched and explored for hours.  

Chicken pieces and skewers, seafood and vegetarian paella 

Hams and wursts, pizza and savoury pastries

Charcuterie, terrines, brawn, head cheese, rillettes

Mince, rolled roasts, cured ham, bacon, speck

Root vegetables

Beetroot

Lettuce

Goose, guinea-fowl capon (young rooster)

Ready-rolled venison (doe), mushroom sauce, stuffing of mushroom and armagnac

Rabbit galantine

Roast chicken

Whole roast suckling pig, chickens and turkey

Dried fruits, beans and nuts

Stonefruit, lychees, blueberries, strawberries, raspberries, cranberries, blackberries

Flavoured honey

Whelks

Paris Christmas florist

Cream tea

Afternoon tea. David Herbert's scone recipe, St. Dalfour jams (raspberry, black cherry and fig), only because I couldn't find Bonne Maman... thick cream and strong Madura tea. Also some sliced strawberries, macerated in icing sugar and Cointreau. Lovely.

Garden drama

Some photos I took in the back yard.

Yellow garden flowers

Raspberry marshmallow cupcakes

These look (and taste) so sweet. They're dead easy to make: the cuteness is all in the detail. Make some plain buttercake cupcakes, using fancy floral cupcake papers. I added a few drops of rosewater into the cake batter. Make sure the cake only comes about two-thirds of the way up the case.

Warm some raspberry jam and dollop a teaspoonful onto each cake. When the jam has cooled a bit, make some plain buttercream icing, adding pink food colouring and a few drops each of lemon juice and rosewater. Fit a piping bag with a medium-large star nozzle and swirl icing over the jam in a pyramid shape. Sprinkle mini-marshmallows to finish.