TOTORO Cupcakes! // Snickerdoodle recipe

As you may or may not know, I love to bake. Mostly cookies, but these cupcakes were the bombdiggity so I had to share! I've debated whether or not adding a food component to this blog and decided what the heck, it's bound to happen sooner or later.

For my Asian art history class, we had a project in which we had to pick something artistic and Japanese and do a presentation on it. I chose to do the film My Neighbor Totoro, focusing on O Totoro because he's just so loveable (and my professor's favorite *brownie points*). Since he is the inspiration for many culinary artists, I baked cupcakes to go along with my slide show. The presentation went great!

YOU WILL NEED

• 1 box of vanilla cake, and all it requires
• cinnamon ~ approx. 1tbsp
• nutmeg ~ approx 1 tsp
• cloves and/or allspice ~ approx 1 tsp
• optional: pumpkin or apple pie spice
• 1 tsp of almond extract
• for frosting: cream cheese, butter, confectioner's sugar, vanilla extract 
• chocolate frosting ~ approx 2 tbsp
• plastic baggies
• food coloring

INSTRUCTIONS

Follow the directions on the box for the cake. Add the almond extract and the seasonings while mixing to taste. I understand that snickerdoodle is a fancy way to say with cinnamon, but that's boring by itself! So i always accompany cinnamon with nutmeg and cloves (allspice if I don't have cloves). Cloves really brings the taste of fall. To be honest I'm not entirely sure just how much of each spice I put in, but the ratio is about right (3 parts cinnamon, 1 part each of every other spice) I tasted the batter (alot) as I went along. The almond extract is a great undertone to round out these flavors *yum.*

I used this recipe from allrecipes.com for the cream cheese frosting. It's super great as is but a bit too tangy for this cupcake, so I added an extra half cup of the confectioner's sugar. I also halved this recipe which was just enough for 20 cupcakes/1 box of cake.

FOR TOTORO: 

1. Assuming you mixed the frosting in a bowl, put half of the frosting in a baggie and set it aside.
2. For the frosting left in the bowl, add one drop of red, blue, and yellow each to achieve the grey depicted (i wish I made it darker, so maybe two drops each next time)
3. place that batch in a baggie. Get the chocolate frosting in a baggie too.
4. In the white and grey baggie, snip a larger corner to squeeze out of. For the chocolate baggie, snip a tiny corner (for the detail :3)
5. Start with the bellies. You want a semicircle that goes a little more than half way up the cupcake.
6. fill the rest of the space with grey.
7. Add the whites of the eyes!
8. with chocolate, add nose, pupils, whiskers, and the iconic arrows on the belly that make it Totoro.
9. ENJOY!

This was a super fun cupcake to make (and eat). If you don't want to go with Totoro for the cupcakes, I'd suggest the cream cheese frosting with a simple chocolate design like a swirl; the bit of chocolate with all the other flavors was perfect! I was glad I got to experience and research a bit of the magic that is Totoro :) I'll be sure to watch some more Miyazaki films over winter break!

OOTN: For his Birthday!

A couple of months ago I treated Zack to a Jim Hall Concert in NYC at Birdland for his birthday. It was loads of fun! I haven't listened to jazz in a while since I've been on this kpop jpop cpop (Korean, Japanese, and Chinese) kick. Jim Hall is a wonderful guitarist and a funny old man.

When I go to the city I try to avoid heels because it usually means lots of walking whether we take the train or drive in. The parking garage was pretty close to the venue so I decided to risk it and wear heels. I survived! Since this was a jazz club, I wanted to look mature but not old. I think I managed ok! The top is feminine and timeless, but the accessories and hair I think made it more me even if I'm a crocheting old lady who enjoys tea and an early bed time on the inside.

D E T A I L S :

• Pink top: Talbots
• Skinnies: Kohl's
• Heels: probably Payless; they're really old!
• Sparrow earrings: Target
• Chain earrings: Charlotte Russe

M A K E U P

• Urban Decay's Dangerous palette - Mildew, Virgin, Oil Slick
• Urban Decay's Primer Potion
• Urban Decay's 24/7 Eye Pencil - Oil Slick
• Ulta's Lash Blow Out Mascara
• Revlon's ColorStay liquid foundation
• Hard Candy's Hide & Glow cheek tint - pillow talk (316)

I really have to do this hairstyle again! It was relatively easy, and my first updo. When I do this style again I'll be sure to make a video/blog post :3 This style lasted a couple of days and I even got a few compliments *brush dem shouldas*

TTFN! <3

-Avé

P.S. You can use code TENBLOG through December 23rd at Kohls.com to get 10% off! It can be used to stack savings with one other department level code as well. Hot stuff!

Alt Groove 11.14.12

IT'S BEEN SO LONG I MISS DOING MY SHOW ;~; Super storm Sandy came by the week of Halloween, then it was the freak nor'easter last wednesday, so here I am two weeks later with a shortened show because I have to do homework ughh what is that.

T O P I C S :

• A Cleveland judge sentenced a woman to hold a sign that reads "Only an idiot would drive on the sidewalk to avoid a school bus" for ~you guessed it~ driving on the sidewalk to avoid a school bus. 
• Cursive is on it's way out from school curriculums--say it ain't so! Three states already gave it the boot. Is this a no no? Or is cursive becoming too archaic?
• There's a petition that's gaining traction to get Macy's to dump Donald Trump. I think this would be a good move. No one likes him and he's a meanie (among other things, like sexist, racist, and in denial). What do you think?
• The WSIN webpage is now a blogging tumblr with posts about show times, artists we support, events we're doing...stuff like that. So excited! have a tumblr? go follow! Also, if you click the listen button on the sidebar, not only can you creep on the DJ during the show, but you can comment in the chat box on the side! as long as you're logged into your facebook you can chat away.

M U S I C:

Next week the campus is closed for thanksgiving break so I will not be having my show. HOWEVER I'll be using that time to upload some past shows onto spreaker.com! You'll be able to download podcasts via itunes or just listen on spreaker, so that's exciting.

Till next time cool cats,

-Avé

Humble Beginnings

Today I participated in my second ever craft fair, and I really enjoyed it! Even though it was a church basement and I made a total of $10, I can definitely see me doing bigger and better events in the future. It sounds outrageous to sit for five and a half hours and only make a couple of bucks, but I'm really in it for the experience at this point (and I didn't have much to sell as it is). It's so much more gratifying to sell my work, things I've made, versus a retail hourly job *ho hum*

For this fair and the last one I did I had the support and company of some awesome ladies from the Student Arts League on campus. Our work combined made for an wicked cool display. I had my little corner of stuff in the basket and some hand building stuff, one friend brought her pottery, one friend had his ceramic planters, and one friend had beautiful watercolors scattered about. What's funny is that it's much easier to talk up my friend's work to customers than it is to talk about my own. We all feel this way so we're glad we're all there together to help each other out. Go team!

We plan on doing more and getting progressively better with each craft fair adventure. I already have a list of what can I do better? going on in my head. Baby steps, ya'll. I can't wait for the next one!

TTFN!
-Avé

Durham Fair!

Long ago before school smacked me in the face, I went to the Durham fair with my friend Danisha! Neither of us have ever been but it's one of the biggest fairs in Connecticut so we had to check it out. Best decision! Tons of animals, vendors, and yummy things to try. OH YEAH and LOTS of pumpkins.

1st place for painted pumpkins!

1st place pumpkin!

1st place for watermelon! My brothers would have loved this.

 Danisha and I bonded with this particular llama in the petting zoo. He was pretty rad! We also made friends with a camel named Polly. At one point I had taken her picture to post on instagram (of course) and as I was adding the caption looking at my phone, Polly comes within inches of my face and my phone like "hey, whatcha doin' there?" It shocked me but it was pretty funny!

The pumpkins weren't the only compositions going on. They had needle work, paintings, knitting, and all sorts of arts and crafts to be judged. However, my favorite would have to be the tractor pull. These tractors were pimped out painted like monster trucks :O) The task was to pull a truck as far as they can. This one here is doing a pop-a-wheelie.

Of all the food we devoured, the one I absolutely must mention is the deep fried cheesecake. I cannot express how heavenly this was! probably terrible for me but with each bite, the calorie count mattered less and less. I wasn't sure what to expect, but it was a bit like fried ice cream. The cheesecake was still cold and pretty solid, while the crust on the outside was light, warm, and delectable. The chocolate drizzle sent my taste buds over the top.

Lastly, I should probably mention how much I love llamas. I don't really have a reason other than I think they're awesome. At the fair, there was several buildings and one was dedicated to just llamas. Each farm had their own little section to show off their llamas. SO MANY LLAMAS

So glad I got the chance to go this year! There was so much there that I could do (and eat) it all, so I definitely can't wait till next year.

TTFN <3
-Avé