- - ayiMori - -

  

We settled upon making cupcakes from a box kit that was sent to me during the semester. However, seeing as it is the end of the semester - we did not have all the ingredients listed so we improvised a little big. With that being said here is our recipe for...

Maple Sugar Rum Cupcakes (Makes 6 cupcakes)

Vanilla Rum Cupcakes

10 oz cake mix

7 oz water

1 oz vegetable oil

1 tsp rum

Pre- heat the oven to 350 degrees.

Put water, oil, and rum in a mixer.

Add the cake mix. 

Beat together for 3 minutes at medium speed.

Portion into cupcake pan, lined with cupcake papers.

Bake 15- 18 minutes.

Allow to cool completely before frosting, frost with maple rum frosting.

Maple Rum Cream Cheese Frosting (Makes 2 cups)

8 oz cream cheese, softened

1 stick butter, softened

2 cups confectioners' sugar, sifted

1/4 cup maple sugar

2 tbsp rum

1/2 tsp salt

1/8 cup maple sugar

With a mixer, beat the cream cheese and butter together until light and fluffy.

Add confectioners' sugar, maple syrup, bourbon, salt, and maple sugar.

Beat until smooth.

Refrigerate until ready to use. (May be made one day in advance)

And voila! There's your cupcakes! Let me know if you try to make some yourself and how they turn out!

Sorry for the late post! Finals week is just finishing up here at school so life has been a bit crazy. Between studying and attending review sessions, I'm also busily packing to head home for the summer. But to make it up to you guys, I'll try to post a little more this week! Maybe even start a new series of blog posts!

However, without further adieu - heres week four of my Getting To Know Me Blogging Challenge. Get ready to learn some of my guilty pleasures!

1. Netflix Binges

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This is by far one of my worst guilty pleasures. I can spend a few hours at a time watching Netflix, whether it's for relaxation, hanging out with friends, or procrastination. Sometimes I wonder what people did before the age of Netflix. I readily have access to whole series of shows, and I can rewatch favorite shows or discover new ones. Lately, my housemate introduced me to Criminal Minds, so my entertainment while packing consists of intricate crimes.

2. UrbanOutfitters.com

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I have a bit of a shopping addiction, and with the stores catching up with the internet it doesn't help much. I love Urban Outfitters and their website is super deadly to me. Every couple of days or so I get an email telling me of a new style, line of clothing, or something, and I always end up on their site searching. When I do eventually decide to buy something, I appreciate their shipping and return policy; free shipping for orders $50+ and free returns.

3. Loud Music

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I have to admit I'm a huge music fan and an even bigger concert whore. There's something about driving down the highway and blasting my music really loudly that makes me feel good. I love being able to sing along to the music and have my voice being drowned out in the wind. I also am really productive when I listen to music. Whenever I go study, I always have my ipod or my computer, and I 'll listen to my music full blast with headphones on to concentrate better.

4. Fluffy

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I love love love fuzzy things, whether it be a pillow or an animal. I even love touching my boyfriend's hair because it's sometimes so soft and fluffy. While I realize that liking fluffy things may not seem to be a guilty pleasure, I sometimes think that my strong love of all things fluffy makes it one. I love touching fluffy things like most people, but whenever I see something soft I really really want to pet it. I think my worse offense is blankets. I always need to sleep with a fluffy blanket, even in the summer despite the heat. And in the winter I'm the worst offender, I will steal all the blankets and leave my poor boyfriend out in the cold. He even jokes about getting two blankets so I can just cuddle up in my own big fluff. 

What's your guys' guilty pleasure? I feel like everybody has a few, and I may even have some that I haven't realized are guilty pleasures. 

This post is part of my Getting to Know Me Blogging Challenge, the goal of which to introduce myself to you. A list of each week's topic can be found in the Introduction post. If you would like to participate in the challenge or write up some blog posts from the challenge, let me know! I would love to read them!

Previous posts:

Week 3: Earliest Memory

Week 2: 20 Facts About Me

Week 1: Introduction

 

The food was delicious! The restaurant was Vietnamese, and the menu consisted of a variety of Banh Mis. We found a small park nearby and enjoyed the warm weather that recently found the Twin Cities area. Both us enjoyed spring rolls and grilled pork banh mi sandwiches. I also convinced Dylan to buy a small bubble tea for us!

After dinner, we drove to the second part of our evening... the Madeon Concert. In case you're like me and have never heard of Madeon before, Madeon is the stage name for 20 year old French music producer Hugo Leclercq. His music mostly consists of the electronic variety, but he originally gained popularity by creating a variety of mash ups. 

I'm one of those people who wears a million things around my wrist. Usually I have a collection of bracelets, hair bands, and my Fitbit. You may or may not have heard of it yet, but I have recently added a Live Lokai bracelet to my assortment! These bracelets are modern and simple and still really cute! I've even bought some for friends as presents!

Live Lokai bracelets are a constant reminder that life consists of a series of highs and lows. The bracelet contains one black bead and one white bead. The black bead is filled with mud from the Dead Sea, the lowest point on Earth, symbolizing the lowest point(s) in your life. The white bead holds water from Mount Everest, the highest point on Earth, symbolizing the high point(s) in your life. Both of these beads, worn together, symbolize your life as a combination of both highs and lows. Yet being in a circle, the bracelet reminds you that life will keep going.

I love the idea behind these bracelets- They are an especially good reminder to have as I head into finals week! 

I'm sure there's a lot of things that I remember before this memory, but for some reason this is one of the first things that came to mind. During the holidays, one of our family traditions is to send out a Christmas newsletter to friends and family, including some pictures of my brother and me. When I was eight years old, my parents got a new digital camera (back then film was still more prevalent) and they decided to take all the family pictures that year.

I remember the idea was a good one, and originally it seemed like lots of fun. But then my amateur photographer parents took it to the next level, attempting to take studio gorgeous photos in our own home. So shot after shot they placed us about and took photos. It felt like hours to me, but I'm not really sure how long it was in total. Eventually it reached a point where my brother and I were both extremely grumpy and unamused...

All we wanted to do was decorate the Christmas tree or decorate some cookies. There were so many other things that we wanted to do at that moment. Plus turtlenecks are not that comfortable. My brother and I fought a lot as kids, but when we both wanted to do the same thing, we worked well together. We plotted and usually came up with unique ways to make our schemes work in our favor. So with both us wanting to go do other things and stop taking pictures, we decided that if we stopped giving are parents viable pictures they would let us play. And eventually it worked! Because the last few pictures that my mom got that day were of the following variety.

What's your earliest memory? Did you and your siblings ever get into crazy shenanigans too?

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This post is part of my Getting to Know Me Blogging Challenge, the goal of which to introduce myself to you. A list of each week's topic can be found in the Introduction post. If you would like to participate in the challenge or write up some blog posts from the challenge, let me know! I would love to read them!

Previous posts:

Week 2: 20 Facts About Me

Week 1: Introduction