#not tooo grainy

[songsofadelaide]

"—ppy Birthday tooo yooou!" The light was dimmed and the only illumination came from the numerous candles set alight on a shiny fruit and cream shortcake, your smile as bright as the sun as your friends sang in the background. "—ke a wish before you blow the candle—"

Click.

"—toru, hurry up before the timer hits!—" "—f my life, my angel, my—" A young Satoru ran to your side and gave your cheek a big-ass smooch as countless golden ginkgo leaves rained in your background. A picture-perfect autumn ahead of a new year full of decisions. "Ahaha! Nooo! That tickl—"

Click.

"—guru, come on over! You too, Shoko! It—" Empty coffee cups were strewn across your shared table with your friends, the sound of both laughter and complaints filling the air as your friends gathered around you and Satoru, his laughter the loudest of them all. "—haha! Ack! No! W-Wait up, Kento! Satoru said—"

Click.

"Oh, so that's what you've been up to, Seiya," you said, breaking the silence that enveloped your son's bedroom as he jumped from his gaming chair and hurriedly minimized the open video player on his PC.

"M-Mom! H-How long have you been standing there?!"

"Long enough for me to know where my missing SD cards went," you chuckled at the evidently embarrassed face of your teenage son, the spitting image of his father in his youth except for his eyes— which he clearly inherited from you. "Now how did you get your hands on these?"

"W-Well, I..." Came the boy's sheepish reply, a nervous hand on his nape as he evaded your curious gaze. His embarrassed expression starkly contrasted with your husband's usual mischievousness and boisterousness, even though they shared the same long, feathery and silvery eyelashes and hair.

"You're not in trouble, dear, if that's what you're worried about," you reassured him as you took a half-seat on the handle of his chair, careful not to rest your entire weight on it. "Now let me see..."

Seiya released his mouse to you, which you used to click on the minimized video player once more. Digicams were all the rage back when you were in high school and well into college and as the only one in your friend group who owned one, you were primarily responsible for documenting every mundane and special occasion whenever you all got together.

"Oh, this was from my 18th birthday," you laughed as you clicked on the following snippets. "And this was when your father and I visited Meiji Shrine before our college entrance exams. Aaand I think this was just a regular day! We just had coffee..."

"Aunt Shoko never really stopped smoking, did she?" Came your son's query as he eyed you browsing through the aged video clips with a small smile on your face. It was clear to him that you were reminiscing now about the days of your youth, encapsulated in slightly grainy and overexposed photos and videos, yet the memories were clear as day.

"Nope. Though she does that thing now. That, uh, vaping thing? Now don't get any ideas, young man."

"I-I won't, Mom! I promise!" Seiya stammered at your slight warning. "I'm sorry I touched your things. I just thought it would be interesting... to see how you and dad were when you were my age."

Oh, but he pulls off those adorable puppy dog eyes just like his father, all right.

"It's hard to believe that he had so much time for you back then! I-I mean he's so busy now! Does he even remember to text you or at least get you a gift every now and then? I-If not, maybe we can go somewhere together? Or do something together?"

"Oh, Seiya. I'll have you know that I am very happy to be married to your father," you gently laughed at your son's little outburst, coiling your arms around his neck as he lazily rested his warm cheek on your chest. "He loves me a great deal and does so much for me. And for you, in case you've forgotten."

"I... I know," came his defeated response. "All the work he does is for us..."

"I don't think Toru is so busy that he forgets us... Do you perhaps miss your father, Seiya?"

"N-No, I don't!" The boy huffed in your arms, his brows furrowed as he attempted to hide his evidently embarrassed face yet again.

"Your father and I love you very much, Seiya," you said with a smile and a soft hum as you tenderly ran your fingers through your son's hair. You weren't surprised when he wrapped his arms around you and returned your embrace. I suppose he takes after his father in clinginess, too.

"I already know that... But thanks, mom."

[apexanomaly]

bowwwyylaa room

first br i've rated in a min tbh ! gets super pumping towards the end, high energy situation. Nikki Nair = goat level check the bandcamp <imo>.

thumbnail is gorgeous tooo #grainy

[brotherism]

— salma deera, letters from medea

[annonymannonym]

Hi! I really like your banner with Robbe. He's just perfect on this picture, and then the details, the black and white, such a cutie, you know how to have my heart ahaha🖤🖤Have a good day :)

Hiiii oml you’re very sweet 💕 thankuu hihi I’m so happy that you like it coz I love it a lot tooo ☺️ I mean he’s always such a cutie and that side profile , his smiling face those dimples ✨ how could you not love him 😌 and I wanted it to look like a grainy film or smth hehe

Thankuu again for this sweet message,it made my day! I hope you’ll have a wonderful day and stay safe there! Much love💞

[adorablemarie]

Vanilla Strawberry Cheesecake Cupcakes

Let’s make some fancy cupcakes!

Wow those look good.  (They taste pretty good too) Let’s get started.

These come in three parts!  First we’re making the cupcakes, then a cheesecake filling, and then the frosting.   Let’s start with the cupcakes!

We need:  - 1 1/2 c flour  - 1 tsp baking powder  - 1/4 tsp salt  - 1/2 cup butter (that’s 1 stick)  - 1 cup sugar  - 2 room temperature eggs  - 1 tsp vanilla  - 1/2 cup whole milk

I’m making the eggs room temperature by putting them in lukewarm water. It works pretty good.  You might notice I have more than I need here, that’s because I’m making two dozen.  The recipe above makes one dozen.

Start preheating your oven to 350F.

Okay put the flour, baking powder and salt into a bowl and mix em all together with a whisk.  We want it all mixed up so when we add it it doesn’t make clumps of salt or anything.

Then take the butter and sugar and put em in your mixer and cream them.  That just means beat them with the beater until they are all mixed together and the same basically.The butter will fluff up a bit too because that’s how butter do.

You can scrape the sides of the bowl a bit if the butter is creepin up the sides.  Now crack those eggs into the bowl, one at a time, making sure they’re all mixed before you add the next one.

Add the vanilla after that.  Okay from now on we’re gonna alternate dry and wet ingredients so that the mix doesn’t get too dry or wet and make a mess. Turn down the mixer a bit. Take that bowl of flour and stuff and put about half of it in the mix.

Then add the milk since it should be kinda dry at this point.  After that it should be kinda wet.  For the last part of this, take the bowl out and mix in the rest of the dry ingredients by hand using a spatula until it’s just mixed in and there aren’t any dry bits. Doing this last bit by hand will keep a lot of air in the mix.

Put them in cups like just more than half full and into the oven for like. 15 minutes or so. 

Clean out that mixer bowl because we’re gonna make the cheesecake filling while those bake.

Okay cheesecake filling! You need:  - One package cream cheese (don’t use neufchatel) at room temperature  - Half a small can of condensed milk  - 1 tbsp vanilla extract  - 2 tbsp lemon juice

Put the cream cheese into the bowl and turn it on.  It’ll get all fluffy (I’m using two, which is tooo much by far)

Add the condensed milk after it looks pretty creamy, then the lemon juice and the vanilla.

Let it mix for a while until you’re satisfied that it’s all mixed. You’re done.  Easiest cheesecake filling ever. Put it in a bowl and into the fridge while the rest of this happens.  Clean out that mixer bowl again, we’re gonna need it for the frosting.

Your cupcakes should be done by now!  Get them out of the oven and out of those cupcake tins.  Onto the table or even better a cooling rack if you can. We need them to cool off before we can make room for our cheesecake filling.

All right, now the tricky part.  Swiss merengue buttercream!  We’re going to need:  - 8 oz worth of strawberries, hulled and washed  - 4 egg whites  - 1 1/4 cup sugar  - 1 1/2 cups butter (that’s 3 sticks) - cut into 1 tbsp chunks and at room temp

Put a saucepan half-full of water on your stove and set it to boil.

Chop up those strawberries good.  I used a food processor because we have one. Set them aside.

Add the sugar and the egg whites to the mixer bowl (or another bowl if your mixer bowl isn’t heat-proof) - and then put it on top of the boiling water.

Whisk it.  Whisk it good.  We’re trying to dissolve all the sugar in the egg white. Keep whisking for a little bit, like five minutes or so, until when you put your fingers in the slurry and pinch, it’s totally smooth and not grainy at all.  This is key.  If your boil is too hot, you can turn the heat down to simmer.

Once that happens, put that sucker on the mixer with the whisk attachment and make the machines do the rest of the work.  It’s gonna take about 10 minutes, and we need the whole thing to cool down while it whips up.  It’ll make stiff peaks soon with all that egg and sugar. 

In the meantime, the cupcakes should be cooled enough by now.  Use a apple corer and a tiny spoon to make some space for our cheesecake filling.  This is kinda tedious, but you can eat the cupcake that you scoop out.

All right our merengue is looking pretty merengue-y now.  Excellent.

Okay just leave the mixer in and drop that butter in, a couple tablespoon chunks at a time, waiting between each one for it to get all mixed in.

At one point it looked like it was gonna not mix in but I just kept at it and it looked pretty good in the end.  Last step!  Switch to the beater, turn it down a bit, and then add the pureed strawberries. 

Heck yes.  Taste some of that stuff because it is TASTY.  Filling time! The cheesecake filling is probably a little more set now so you can put it in a piping bag, or just use a spoon, and fill up the holes you made in your cupcakes.

Oh my gosh we’re ALMOST DONE.  Take that beautiful strawberry buttercream and use a star tip to pipe it onto the tops of your cupcakes!

Aww yes!  They look great!  They are delicious too.  The frosting is super light and silky because we made the swiss merengue. Just look at that deliciousness. (and eat some too!)