10 Day "You" Challenge - Day 2

Time for day 2 of the 10 Day "You" Challenge!

Todays category of the challenge is nine loves so here are mine below in no particular order :

- America! Anyone who knows me will know I absolutely love America and everything about it. I was clearly American in a past life, or was born into the wrong continent.

- concerts, and I say this because I've been to two concerts in the past few days. I saw Paramore and You Me At Six on Sunday night, and I'm seeing Foo Fighters and The Black Keys tonight. I don't normally go to them so close together but I do love a good concert!

- movies, this is probably going to make it's way into all of my tags, but I love films! That's what my degree was in and I have an ever expanding collection. My favourite genre is comedy and always will be, and I love my Christmas movies! I can never choose a favourite film in particular but my favourites include Stepbrothers, Anchorman, I love you, man, The 40 Year Old Virgin, 21 Jump Street, The Sitter, Horrible Bosses, Bridesmaids, The Hangover.

- baking, I do enjoy a bit of baking now. I usually end up eating more of the mix than the actual result, but I just need to make sure it tastes okay ;) Cupcakes are my favourite thing to make, and I love trying out new recipes.

- photography, apparently I take photographs of everything. This is very true. I like to take photographs of random things, in partciular the food that I'm eating. You can follow me on Instagram, I have a link at the top of the page or my username is Melissa___j

- handbags, I love handbags. These are my favourite thing fashion wise. I just love going window shopping for them and thinking about how one day I'll have an amazing job and be able to buy all the handbags I want. I'm still determined to own the Louis Vuitton I've been wanting for about 2 years now in the near future.

-family and friends, of course. These really shouldn't be so far down here, but this is in no particular order! I wouldn't be anywhere without them and they're the most important part of my life.

- Marmie, my lovely cat. I absolutely love this cat, and if you do follow me on Instagram, that's very clear! He actually takes up the majority of the app, and my photo space on my iPhone. He's crazy and does so many silly things and I could just watch him all day.

- YouTube, I spend too much time on here. I feel like I need to go on everyday and keep on top of my daily videos. I have to admit that recently I've fallen really behind on this, but I've just been too tired at night to really go online! I love all my beauty gurus, but also JennaMarbles and EpicMealTime, even got myself a wee tshirt last time I was away!

I hope some of you also do this tag if you haven't started it already. It's always interesting to see what other people are interested in. I'm obviously interested in make up, but I decided not to include this and let you all know a bit more about me.

All photographs above were taken by me, and were taken from my instagram page.

Chocolate Orange Cupcakes Recipe

Today I made chocolate orange cupcakes with a Terry's chocolate orange segment on top. It's my sisters 16th birthday and I make cupcakes every year so after getting a new recipe book and cupcake tray today I decided to try one out!

To make 24 cupcakes -

Ingredients for the cupcake base :

• 300g self raising flour
• 250g unsalted butter
• 4 eggs
• 4 tablespoons of cocoa powder
• 75g melted chocolate
• 250g caster sugar
• Grated rind of half a large orange
• 4 tablespoons of orange juice

Ingredients for the icing:

• 220g unsalted butter
• 450g icing sugar
• Grated rind of half a large orange
• 2 tablespoons of orange juice

Step 1 - Preheat the oven to 180 degrees and then place 24 bun cases into a muffin tray.

Step 2 - Break up the chocolate into squares and place in a dish to melt over a saucepan of boiling water. Leave to sit, stirring occasionally.

Step 3 - Put the flour, sugar, cocoa powder, eggs and butter into a large mixing bowl and mix together. I usually break up the butter into small squares so it's easier to mix.

Step 4 - Next add the grated rind and squeeze out 4 tablespoons of the juice of the orange and mix together.

Step 5 - Spoon mixture into the cases and place in the oven for 15 minutes, or until the top of the cupcake springs back when lightly pressed. Once ready, remove from the tray and leave to cool.

Step 6 - Break up the butter into small pieces and place into mixing bowl . Beat until it has a smoother texture, adding a spoonful of icing sugar at a time. Once mixed completely, add in the orange rind and the orange juice. If the orange flavour isn't strong enough, feel free to add in another spoonful of juice.

Step 7 - Using a piping bag or tool, swirl the icing on the top centre, and decorate with a segment of Terry's chocolate orange. You could also sprinkle some of the extra rind on top.

Step 8 - Eat and enjoy!

Day 7 : Photo a day May

Day 7 : someone that inspires you. Today's photo was someone who inspires you. I thought long and hard about this and the person who kept popping up was Claire, the owner of Lily Pink Bakery. She done the same degree at university as me and has successfully created her own cupcake business and I find her very inspiring and she is the reason that I felt motivated to start this blog.