nick and louis in may

backyard//

i'll be back in bloomington august 4th, and then i'm moving back to chicago august 24th for school. i'm starting to get homesick, but luckily i picked up a roll of film today and found a little piece of home on it.

raspberry chocolate

yesterday i made the best cupcakes that i have ever made before. i needed to do something with the thousands of raspberries that we picked, so i looked for a recipe for raspberry chocolate cupcakes. i didn't follow the recipe exactly, and it was for the best. the raspberry buttercream frosting is tart and sweet and fluffy and perfect. i am posting the basis of the recipe below. if you try making them, don't be afraid to mess around with the measurements and just feel like doing whatever you want. i'm sure they will turn out fantastic!



Raspberry Chocolate Cupcakes
~30 cupcakes

1 1/3 cups plain flour
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
2 teaspoons baking powder
3/4 cup cocoa powder
45g (or 1/2 cup) butter, softened
1/8 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 cups white sugar
2 eggs
3/4 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 cup milk
frozen raspberries

1. Preheat oven to 175 degrees C (350 F). Line muffin tins with cases.
2. Sift together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, cocoa and salt. Set aside.
3. In a large bowl, cream the butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add the eggs one at a time, beating well with each addition. Stir in the vanilla.
4. Add the flour mixture alternately with the milk and beat well.
5. Fill the muffin tins 3/4 full. Mash up some raspberries until they're soft, sort of like a puree consistency. In each individual cup, place some of the raspberry concoction into the tin and push down a little way into the batter. Bake for 15-20 minutes or until a skewer comes out clean.
Leave to cool in tins for at least 10 minutes, then frost when completely cool.

Raspberry Buttercream Frosting
Use this recipe as a starter, and play around with the measurements until you get a flavor you're happy with.

150g (or 3/4 cups) butter, softened
2-3 cups icing sugar
handful of raspberries
1/3 cup milk

1. Cream the butter. Add the icing sugar and raspberries and beat well. If you find you need more liquid in the frosting, add milk gradually.
2. Frost away!

my friend christian showed this to me the other day, and since then i've been writing down ideas to turn the premise of this video into a photo series. i want it to end up sort of like a choose your own adventure sort of thing. any input would be greatly appreciated.

a couple days ago, my family went to a farm and picked raspberries. it was fun for a while, then bugs started showing up everywhere. we came back exhausted, and with a shit ton of raspberries.

OMG, W@RP3D T0UR

so as much as i'd hate to admit it, i went to warped tour last week. this year it was courtesy of elixe, as he gave me one of his press passes (homeboy's so legit, right?) i got to hang out with nick's friend samia and these two all day. i helped film interviews they conducted with bands and stuff, it was a good time, but the environment was much more unbearable than i ever remember it being. it was nice that we got to get up super close for pictures during pretty much any show we wanted. since the line-up was very "meh/.." we only saw about 5 shows. 15 year old me would have been more than satisfied.

i drove past this scene the other day. i don't know if it could have been any more perfect. summer's going by faster than i realized. this may be a bit late, but if you're looking for something to listen to this summer, here are some gems i've come across recently (click for download link):

aurelie

part 2.

aurelie

this is aurelie, part 1.