stuff i'm thinking about

[this post has no real subject.]

1. movies about the end of the world that i want to see really, really badly

melancholia
i've probably already posted about this. have i? whatever. exciiited.

another earth
just watched the trailer. end of the world movies are a new obsession.

2. covers by kevin barnes that i really, really like

harvest moon (originally neil young)
sidenote: i'm not endorsing the homemade video, just the song

starman (originally david bowie)

3. philosophical readings

(wellsortof). i have this book called 101 experiments in the philosophy of everyday life. it's well written and (as described on the back cover blurb) "irreverent and wise". and there's nothing i love more than irreverance. followed by wisdom that assures me that my irreverence is, in fact, wise in itself. but really, it's an easy to read philosophical pondering/workbook. experiments include #31-watch dust in the sun. #15-walk in the dark. #67-watch someone sleeping. it's a good book.

i go through brief and absurd obsessions. right now it's kind of anything listed above plus weird, dark scandinavian directors (specifically: ingmar bergman and lars von trier). i just can't help myself.

should i watch wild strawberries (bergman) first or antichrist (trier)? OR persona (bergman again)?

so many questions, so many kevin barnes covers.

Butterbeer Cupcakes (1.0?)

Ever since I tried the J.K. Rowling approved butterbeer at the Wizarding World of Harry Potter (which, by the way, is only a section of a theme park. It is not--I repeat, it is *not*--its own park) I have been aching to make a butterbeer cupcake. Well, I have good news and bad news. In fact, two good news and one bad news, though I supposed you could look at them a bit differently.

Good: For those of you fans that have yet to go to the Wizarding World, rest assured that the butterbeer is incredible. Honestly, if you don't think this looks incredible, well then I challenge you to go to Orlando and taste it and tell me to my (virtual) face that you did not like it. Of course, that would make you Vernon Dursley, but if you're willing to own up to the fact...

Good: I did, in fact, come up with a recipe for butterbeer cupcakes. This was actually my second attempt, as my first attempt was wildly experimental and was mainly to see how certain ingredients changed the cupcakes' flavor and texture. Also, I want to explain that this is not the only butterbeer cupcake recipe out there, but I think this one is different from the others. Maybe I'm just being vain and naive, but I think I focused more on making it butterbeer-y rather than just butterscotch-y. Also, all the other recipes I found seemed to be almost exactly the same. Of course, some of my ingredients are still similar, but, ah well.. You can decide what you think.

Bad: Like I said, the butterbeer at Universal is amazing. It has a very rich flavor, and its liquid coolness really helps make it what it is. So, unfortunately, I don't think a butterbeer cupcake could measure up to the real thing. Also, it's quite hard to get the cream soda flavor to be strong in a cupcake. Most of it gets lost somewhere in the actual baking.

BUT I don't think this is a bad start. While it is a lot more subtle than the butterbeer itself, I think there's a definite similarity. A fellow HP-fan friend of mine who had recently had the real butterbeer tried it and liked it a lot. She said that if the tastes had been stronger, it might've been too sweet. Either way I hope to continue experimenting with this a bit more, though it'll have to wait until I can get back to my kitchen and mixer.

Now, a bit about the actual cupcakes. I know, I know; this is a terribly long introduction, but I feel it is necessary. As you know, I modeled the cupcakes after the actual butterbeer from the Wizarding World, and so I made the cupcake itself like the cream soda-y liquid that is the main part of the butterbeer, and I made the topping a butterscotch whipped cream that is similar in taste to the butterbeer's white topping. I also made another whipped cream that tasted like cream soda and I filled a few of the cupcakes with it. I think the idea was good, but it ended up being too much whipped cream, so I think I need to make an actual frosting or some other sort of cream soda filling for that. Therefore, I'm not including that filling in this recipe for now. Okay, I think that's more than enough. Here we go! This recipe makes and tops 12 cupcakes.

Butterbeer Cupcakes:

•          1 ¼ cups + 2 tbsp flour
•          1 1/8 tsp baking powder
•          a small pinch of salt 
•          1 stick (1/2 cup) + 1 tbsp unsalted butter, softened
•          1 cup sugar
•          2 large eggs, at room temperature
•          1 cup cream soda
•          1/8 tsp vanilla extract

1.      Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
2.      Line 2 tins with cupcake papers
3.      In a small bowl, combine the flour, baking powder, and salt. Set aside.
4.      In a large bowl, cream the butter on medium speed until smooth. Add the sugar gradually and beat until fluffy, about 3 minutes.
5.      Add the eggs, 1 at a time, beating well after each addition.
6.      Add the dry ingredients in 3 parts, alternating with the milk and cream soda. With each addition, beat until the ingredients are incorporated but do not overbeat.
7.  7  Add the vanilla and mix.
8.      Using a rubber spatula, scrape down the batter in the bowl to make sure the ingredients are well blended. Carefully spoon the batter into the cupcake liners, filling them about 3/4 full. Bake for 20 to 25 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center of the cupcake comes out clean.
9.      Cool the cupcakes in tin for 15 minutes. Remove from tins and let cool completely.

     Butterbeer Whipped Cream:

• 2 cups heavy whipping cream
• 2/3 cups sugar
• 3/4 tsp butterscotch extract (you'll have to buy this online)
• 1/4 tsp butter flavoring

1. Whip cream until it looks like whipped cream. (To do this, increase the speed of the beater until it is close to forming soft peaks, then decrease speed slightly until it has reached that point)
2. Mix in sugar, butterscotch extract, and butter flavoring until just combined.

Well, that's it, folks! If you try this out at home, feel free to critique it in the comments. Oh, and for all of you Harry Potter fans reading this, there will be a post about Pottermore real soon!

somewhere

so, somewhere.

(and here i am stating a should-be understood fact: sofia coppola is my favorite director of all time. so if i glorify her a little. well, it's because i think she's glorious.)

...maybe that makes me a plotless aesthetics whore.

but i still loved somewhere, in all its static glory.

first of all, it stars this guy (ok. i can call him by his name. stephen dorff.) who is incredibly watchable. and also elle fanning, who i think is incredibly cool. basic plot: stephen dorff is an actor who lives in circles. he goes to parties, he drinks, he pays strippers to dance for him, he passes out. but he has this amazing redeeming quality: his daughter (fanning. duh.)

so yes, it starts with a nearly ten minute long shot of a car driving around a track. but it's obviously a METAPHOR!!!!!!! johnny marco (stephen dorff's character) is just "somewhere". and yes, for a 97 minute movie, it has less action than that pixar short of the old man playing chess against himself. and yes, it is slow. but slow means gentle and subtle and meaningful and (this word again? ag) poignant. and poignant means true.

so yeah, coppola is more concerned with mood than plot. but the thing i love about her is this slice of life postmodernity because in the real live world plot doesn't always matter.

(i wish i could describe the brilliant, quiet humor in the stripper scenes to someone who hasn't seen the movie.)

on another note: elle fanning's clothes in it. they're so cute. her stripey shirts, her cutoffs, her fancier goingplaceswithmyfamousdad dresses, her cool yellow backpack/purse! sent me giddily to the thirteen year old girl section of my closet.

this is not a spoiler (though it does occur near the end). because plot plays second fiddle, i don't think somewhere can be spoilt. but my favorite scene of all was the underwater tea party scene, which can be seen briefly in the trailer. to me, if you find nothing else about this film appealing, that scene makes it all worthwhile.

also, the soundtrack is charming. the trailer song is my favorite: i'll try anything once by the strokes.


oh, and in the vein of 40s prison movies: this movie is a classic.

That dramatic movie set in the 40s in a *prison*.

I thought The Shawshank Redemption was a Holocaust movie. Why is that? I think I was completely confusing it with Schindler's List. I'm glad I skimmed the summary on the netflix dvd sleeve before watching it, because otherwise I would've spent the entire movie waiting for them to get packed into a train and shipped to a concentration camp.
It seems the only thing I actually did know about Shawshank was that Morgan Freeman's in it. And what the cover looked like, which only worked to confuse me more, actually.
The Shawshank Redemption is about a man that becomes a prisoner. That's all you need to know. Not because there isn't more to it than that, but because, as I've mentioned before, I hate spoilers (but it's nice to know that you shouldn't be expecting something entirely different, --hehem, sadness and starving in Auschwitz--). But.. I guess you can know a little more...
It's a darn good movie. It's dramatic and sad and funny and thoughtful and glorious. Sometimes it gets really close to being cheesy, and sometimes it is cheesy, but I never seemed to really mind much. Oh, and it has a truly satisfying denouement, though in what sense, I won't say.
It saddens me that the only other noteworthy thing the director Frank Darabont directed is The Green Mile. Really? Two prison movies? (and back to back?) That kind of makes me wonder what Darabont's life has been like... Ah, well. The lives of the prisoners at Shawshank will more than suffice.

saturday morning cartoons

so lately my tv diet consists of old xmen cartoons. with this, there are two options: the bangin', brightly colored nineties hit (pictured above) or the teen angst filled early 2000s xmen: evolution.

the plot to nearly every episode of xmen: evolution can be summarized as, "[character] finds answers to his past." ok, maybe not really. but there's a lot of long lost family members, secret pasts, and angstangstangst. also lots of cyclops leaning against walls longingly while jean flirts with literally any male character. the girls wear tight midriff-baring tops and baggy cargo pants. the lines are cheesy. i love it.

but not nearly as much as i love the nineties version (full title: xmen: the animated series). this version is in vivid color; literally nothing is gray, not even the background on a foggy night. all the characters wear exaggerated clothing. storm (who has been forever saddled with this "ethnic mother" persona) wears tribal gear and oversized earrings. wolverine ("rugged") wears lumberjack shirts and bomber jackets. and the dialogue! wolverine is forever uttering grumpy gus statements such as, "me? sing christmas carols? when pigs fly. grumblegrumble."

i'm addicted to almost any xmen media, except the (terrible, terrible) movies. the newest movie (xmen: first class) is the only good one.

The Many Faces of Dustin

There's this thing called the Kuleshov effect which some of you film buffs that understand part of why this blog is called "The Trope" might know about. The idea of it, as exemplified by the picture on the right, is that the audience can accurately interpret the emotions of a character based on the editing used. Even if the actor has a completely expressionless face, one will believe he is displaying a certain emotion if it is juxtaposed with something using editing. So, on the right you can see this guy. You know he looks exactly the same in those three pictures, but when that face is juxtaposed with the little girl in the coffin, it will seem like his expression is sad. When he may or may not be looking at the soup, his expression seems hungry. His expression will even change to lustful when juxtaposed with the sultry woman on the couch.

The reason I'm giving this 101 course on the Kuleshov effect is to provide some background info before I state my opinion. When I first learned about the Kuleshov effect it was through my Intro to Film teacher, who took it so far as to say, "There is no such thing as actors." Maybe he doesn't really believe that but felt it would be more effective to shock us by saying something so resolute. If that's the case, well, then it worked. On me, anyway. Since then I've paid a lot more attention to acting in movies and realized that while we really do add a lot of the emotions ourselves because we can sympathize or understand what the emotions should be, there are and have been a few real, skilled actors, too. I've always thought a good actor is somebody that makes you forget he or she is an actor, but now I know he needs to shine on his own, too, rather than just with the editing, script, and whatever else.

Okay, now that I've written that little intro so that you don't think I throw the phrase around easily, I can continue.
Dustin Hoffman is a damn. good. actor. Here are just three reasons why:

The movie:                             The movie:                                The movie:
Tootsie                                   Rain Man                                   Kramer vs. Kramer
The role:                                The role:                                    The role:
An actor so desperate              An autistic savant that is            A workaholic father who
for work that he dresses          forced to travel with his             must adapt to being a single
as a woman to get a                 temperamental and highly         parent and have his first
role in a soap opera.                self-centered brother.                 meaningful relationship.
The challenge:                       The challenge:                           The challenge:
Playing a woman                    Controlling all speech,               Mirroring his own feelings.
convincingly as well               attitude, and mannerisms           At the time, he was going
as a man who begins              to create a very personal             through a divorce of his own
to understand the issues          picture of this autistic                 and was feeling many of
behind gender equality.          character.                                 the things his character was.
              
That man has some serious range. There's a lot of things that can be said about these movies and about Hoffman's acting in them, but nothing speaks better than the movies themselves, so go watch them if you haven't seen them already! Or rewatch them with his other roles in mind. Then come back here and let me know which one is your favorite in the comments.

my favorite sad movies

1. never let me go

this movie is the origin of my great admiration for both carey mulligan and andrew garfield. (see andrew garfield in this and then the social network and then...wow. that guy has range.) this is going to sound so vague and weird, but i love movies with scream scenes. like guttural, animal cries/screams. not because i'm a sick sadist. no, because i like how true it is.

how to keep from sinking into an endless depression: remind yourself you don't live in the world the characters live in. also, when you love someone JUST TELL THEM GODDAMMIT.

2. the reader

no words. just tears. but i mean, kate winslet + ralph fiennes? and that brilliant young german man. YEAH THIS ONE.

how to keep from sinking into an endless depression: remind yourself that you are not in post-ww2 germany. or jail. and tell the truth.

3. requiem for a dream

after watching this movie for the first time, my friend and i just...laid there. in the dark, in silence. it's just. so. sad. THE WORLD IS NOT A GOOD PLACE. everything is horrible.

[but it's so, so good.]

how to keep from sinking into an endless depression: remind yourself that you DO NOT USE HEROIN.

4. blue valentine

the scary thing about blue valentine is when it reminds you of a relationship in your life.

how to keep from sinking into an endless depression: remind yourself that it's just a few days. it's just a few days in michelle williams'/ryan gosling's on-screen relationship.

just...a...few...days. notforever, notforever, notforever.

5. dancer in the dark

bjork, bjork, bjork. wanna watch bjork play a hopeful central european woman who thinks america will be happy like a musical? IT'S NOT, BJORK. IT SUCKS.

how to keep from sinking into an endless depression: you can't.

sad guilty girl movies:
-the painted veil (naomi watts! edward norton!)
-tristan and isolde (james franco!)
-moulin rouge (i mean COME ON.)
-remember me (don't laugh. this movie made me cry.)

other considerations:
-what's eating gilbert grape (but if i talk about it i'll die.)
-donnie darko (but it's not so sad. it's more terrifyingly intelligent.)
-der blaue engel
-rabbit hole (but it's way too happy, i just like it.)
-the departed (but i love it so much.)

Is there time in space?

Ok, I guess the question I mean to ask isn't really *that* general. I don't really mean to get into a "if a tree falls in the forest and no one is around to hear it, does it make a sound?" kind of thing. (oh and YES. Yes it fucking does make a sound.)
My question surfaced when I was watching the last episode of Firefly a few days ago. In it, Mal Reynolds states at one point, "It's late; let's get some rest." HOW DID HE KNOW IT WAS LATE? This didn't really bother me while I was watching the show, but the question did come up. And it still doesn't bother me, really, but now I'm curious about the concept. Seriously, what constitutes as "late"?
Outside of their ship (when in transit) it *always* looks like this:

What time does that look like to you?
But they can have clocks that they set to a certain time! you say. Fine, yes, maybe.. I've never seen a clock anywhere on Serenity, but given this hypothetical future, that could be a way to make sure you sleep when it's "late", have breakfast in the "morning", and so forth... Even so, though, how do you pick the time? Say you're a crew similar to that of Serenity in this exact same future. You pretty much live inside a transport ship and you spend your time traversing space to different worlds in which you can attain and perform work gigs. There's no fucking way the time (and even the passing of time) will be the same on each world. Terraforming is a pretty cool feat of this future, but I don't think they were able to or cared to form a centralized system of time in which all planets and moons participate.
Okay, I'm starting to ramble a bit too much. My point is, how do you choose which time(zone) to abide by while floating through space when in reality space is your home? And can you imagine the awful amount of jetlag that you would get all the time? Or would you stop having an internal clock all together?
Tell me your thoughts and theories in the comments!

regular show

so i love cartoons. and i used to think adventuretime was my absolute favorite cartoon. until i watched regular show.

regular show stars Rigby and Mordecai (a racoon and a blue jay, respectively) as lazy groundskeepers working (or rather, *not* working) at a weirdo park with a gumball machine, a yeti, and a...lollipop? (what is pops?!)

well whatever he is, this show is great. and its creator, j.g. quintel, is a genius. in fifteen minutes, regular show can make me laugh more than almost any full-length movie (except maaaybe this--maybe).

Lili's Blurry iPhone Moments--Part 1

These are all pictures taken on my iphone, so don't expect the pictures to have decent lighting, nice contrast, or pretty much be clear in any way.

Yes, Dinosaur-shaped cookie cutters! I bought these recently and have yet to use them,  but I will definitely post pictures when I do!  I can't wait. They'll make a nice contrast to my Star Wars cookie cutters.

This was a kind of happy accident that occurred while I was organizing my bedroom. I found the juxtaposition humorous.

Wow the quality of this picture is extra crappy, huh? But the content isn't! Appa watches as I start to read my (signed first edition) copy of Patrick Rothfuss' "Wise Man's Fear"

New shoes from Steve Madden! They are beautiful--and they were on sale! 

Well I don't want to completely fill this up with less than mediocre pictures, so I'll post the rest up later. Gonna go play me some Assassin's Creed now.

GONE: Future+Past in an Awesome Non-A-Christmas-Carol-y Way

(Seriously, I hate "A Christmas Carol". Something about those christmas ghosts has always freaked me out and made me want to puke. Especially the Disney film adaptation with Mickey Mouse. God, that movie...
Anyway. This is about something else. And don't worry, it contains NO SPOILERS. That's right, kids. Anyone can read. Also, I hate spoilers, so if I post something with spoilers some day, I will announce it in big bold letters; don't you worry. Now for my post.)

EXCEPT I HAVE NO POST. Why? Because when I tried to add a caption to this actually quite unnecessary picture over here ------------------------------------------------->
Blogger decided that everything that was anywhere below the picture (not just what I was currently writing directly beneath the picture) was the caption, so that when I realized I didn't like the idea of a caption and went to remove it, it deleted MY ENTIRE POST except for that little intro thing in which I talk about how I hate A Christmas Carol (couldn't *that* have been deleted instead?) And Blogger automatically saves every second ANYTHING happens (which seems to kind of defeat the purpose, since usually you want an earlier draft because you fucked something up and want to go back to how it was before) so.. my post raving about Firefly was gone forever and is now being replaced by one in which I rant about the inefficiency of Blogger autosave. Maybe it's for the best.. There is plenty of Firefly praise online as it is (though it still deserves even more. like enough for Fox to realize their mistake and hire the best scientists in the world to finally invent a time machine and go back and *never cancel Firefly in the first place*) but.. I guess that would hardly be a way of offering something different on here. Whatever. I am ticked off. Go watch Firefly if you haven't already so that you can get an idea of what I was writing in this post before it was deleted by the demonic internet forces. Who knows. Maybe I'll watch a couple more episodes and rewrite the damn thing.

And yes. I'm keeping that freaking picture there just cus of all the trouble and pain it caused. Even though now I realize it has a white background and it looks CRAPPY.

my love/hate relationship with fashion blogs

1. the glamourai
pros: amazing clothes, professional photography, [feasible] diy takes on designer styles, interior design posts, just the right amount of fantasy/whimsy, real actual glamour

cons: kelly framel like doesn't even OWN a pair of jeans and she's like SO much more comfortable in chiffon and diamonds and maybe has never worn a tshirt ever.

and i find that less than relatable.

2. what i wore
pros: cute clothes, simple and sleek photography, diys and often homesewn/vintage clothes, really great illustrations, plus jessica quirk is incredibly down-to-earth. she shops at target and thrift stores (and not just the thrift stores that have vintage yves saint laurent).

cons: her clothes, classy as they are, are not really my style.

3. cupcakes and cashmere
pros: amazing clothes, perfect photography, easy diys, interior design posts, cupcake and drink recipe posts, and what the first two blogs each have but not in combination: stylish clothes AND relatability. emily schuman has this love for everything she blogs about that makes me love it too.

cons: ok, this is my favorite fashion blog. it has no cons.

4. the style rookie
pros: tavi gevinson is a totally different breed. for one thing, she started her blog when she was like 11 (?). and she has a sense of style/creativity/culture completely different than any other blog. i love her love of nineties tv shows (my so called life. freaks and geeks.) and magazines (sassy). she combines clothes from a ton of designers i adore (miu miu. proenza schouler. rodarte.) with clothes from a ton of places i frequent (salvation army. goodwill. target.) she also makes weird awesome things in her spare time. also she's hilarious.

cons: no cons. she's just cool.


despite whatever cons listed, i read all of these blogs daily.

the still point of the turning world [, man]

I hate this summer.

My antidote to the dread of endless summers spent at home? Sofia Coppola
movies.


omgggsofiacoppolamovies


I could try to write an accurate review of The Virgin Suicides. But I'll just end up raving about my adoration. I don't know what to say. It's hAUnting. pOIgnANt. Etc etc, encouraging movie critic words. But really. I love this movie. Buy it. Watch it. Understand the title of this post. It is perfectly executed. And I've watched it three times since Saturday. (I am obsessed with a movie about obsession!)

Next week, when I remember again how very much I truly love Sofia Coppola, I'll delve into her latest film (the moody and subtle but possibly too static? meditation on fame--Somewhere) with some semblance of actual structure. And massive love/lust for Elle Fanning's wardrobe in it.

In other virginal experiences, I am currently participating in my first ever Shark Week. What is it about Shark Week? Are sharks interesting in the way that serial killers are interesting? I don't know, but I wish Shark Week were more...celebratory. With more musical numbers in the style of that youtube video about narwhals. But then again, I've only been watching for an hour and a half.

And in things Kirsten Dunst, I am desperately awaiting the release of this movie.

Slightly Chocolatey Cupcakes with Baileys Whipped Cream

I hate this summer. I'll spare you the details behind my proclamation of hate. They're grisly and, honestly, quite dull.
What I don't hate, though, is my recently gifted KitchenAid mixer. It is a goddess in the kitchen and.. well.. you know the rest *wink*. I've found that baking is probably the one thing that manages to clear my mind from everything else no matter what. And it's a great activity with which to kill boredom late at night; it puts me straight to sleep after! My point is..: I've been doing some baking this summer. 
Alright. Intro over with. Here are the cupcakes I made last night:

Isn't it splendid? Nevermind the "Cars" wrapper. I seriously need to get some plain cupcake liners.
As you can tell, I'm quite proud of the result. But I probably really shouldn't be since they're hardly original recipes, as you'll see in a second. 


Slightly Chocolatey Cupcake Recipe:
   I based this off the vanilla cupcake recipe used by the famous Magnolia Bakery. It's the recipe that threw me on a bit of a cupcake craze, and I'm dying to go to Magnolia and try the real thing hopefully some day soon. I made only a couple of changes to the recipe other than adding the chocolateyness. I don't much like having to buy self-rising flour apart from regular flour, so I looked up the conversion using baking powder. Also, I like to use salted butter rather than unsalted butter. I feel it's a bit more tasty and less likely to be unbearably sweet. If you want the original vanilla cupcake recipe from Magnolia, the Food Network website has it here. And finally, the recipe I used for the aforepictured beauty:


Makes 24 cupcakes

• 2 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
• 2 1/4 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/8 teaspoon salt
• 1 cup (2 sticks) salted butter, softened
• 2 cups sugar
• 4 large eggs, at room temperature
• 1 cup milk
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 tablespoon Ghirardelli Unsweetened Cocoa (or other unsweetened cocoa powder)

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
2. Line 2 tins with cupcake papers
3. In a small bowl, combine the flour, baking powder, and salt. Set aside.
4. In a large bowl, cream the butter on medium speed until smooth. Add the sugar gradually and beat until fluffy, about 3 minutes.
5. Add the eggs, 1 at a time, beating well after each addition.
6. Add the dry ingredients in 3 parts, alternating with the milk and vanilla. With each addition, beat until the ingredients are incorporated but do not overbeat.
7. Using  a rubber spatula, scrape down the batter in the bowl to make sure the ingredients are well blended. Carefully spoon the batter into the cupcake liners, filling them about 3/4 full. Bake for 20 to 25 minutes, or until a cake tester inserted into the center of the cupcake comes out clean.
8. Cool the cupcakes in tin for 15 minutes. Remove from tins and let cool completely before icing.
    

Baileys Whipped Cream Recipe:
   This recipe is straight from the Cupcake Project. If this kind of post interests you, you should definitely go check out her wonderful blog. I'm still going to reproduce the recipe here for convenience, though. This Baileys whipped cream is absolutely perfect, and I'm sure it can be used on many things other than cupcakes. The recipe makes enough for a dozen cupcakes, so make sure you double it if you want to use this whipped cream on all the Slightly Chocolatey cupcakes!


Makes enough for 12 cupcakes

• 2 cups heavy whipping cream
• 2/3 cups sugar
• 2 tablespoons Baileys Irish Cream

1. Whip cream until it looks like whipped cream. (To do this, increase the speed of the beater until it is close to forming soft peaks, then decrease speed slightly until it has reached that point)
2. Mix in sugar and Baileys until just combined.

Make sure you really top on the cream! These are also great filled with a bit of nutella (but, really, what isn't?). Enjoy!