summertime, commence

the mustards are packed {most of them at least},
the city is far behind,

 johnswik is in the backyard, reading his comics,

george gershwin has a sexy summertime do, 
in which he flaunts his dainty legs,

 and stoopie finally gave me a good smile!

 she also welcomed me home with lemon curd stoopie cakes. yum!

hello audrey,

hello sun,

hello bonfires and tomatoes and late night swims,

hello the summer to end all summers!!!

-yeh!!!

rob birthday

here are some pics of rob, me, and the cake i made for his birthday.

mostly because mum demanded that i show her pictures of the cake.

and also to commemorate an amazing celebration that ended with

roti roll and skee ball and narrowly avoiding running into maestro gilbert at a house party {i don't wanna talk about it}.
-yeh!!

CAKE DAY!

valentine's day is not for sexy lingerie, it is for cake!

because surely, it might be contradictory to have both?

this pink almond cake is a family tradition,

and traditionally stoopie eats half of the almond paste before

it goes into the cake batter, but this year i made it and

decorated it before it got to stoopie, so this one was extra tasty :-)

the key is to acquire as much pink and red shit that you can find.

not to h8 on myself, but screw this, i love red 40.

cake ingredients: 

  1 tablespoon butter (for pan) 

8 oz almond paste 

6 eggs - separated 

1 teaspoon vanilla 

1/2 teaspoon almond extract 

a pinch of salt 

1/2 cup sugar

1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 cup flour {you can substitute this for 1/2 cup of almond flour,

for those gfgfs and gfbfs {gluten-free girlfriends and gluten-free boyfriends}}
topping ingredients:

  1 1/2 cups whipping cream
1/2 cup powdered sugar {i use a little less, as i don't want it too sweet}
a very generous splash of amaretto

chocolate hearts, candy hearts, gummy hearts, almond paste, red jimmies...

clues:

preheat oven to 350.  butter a round pan. beat almond paste and egg yolks really well. mix in vanilla and almond extract. beat egg whites and salt in another bowl until stiff peaks form, add sugar one tablespoon at a time. fold 1/3 of egg whites into almond paste mixture. gently fold in remaining whites.  combine baking powder and flour in another bowl...gently fold into mixture 2 tablespoons at a time, being careful not to deflate whites. pour into pan, bake until top is lightly browned and a knife inserted into center comes out clean {about 30 minutes}.
for topping, whip up the cream. blend in powdered sugar. blend in amaretto {drink some amaretto}. then unleash your inner ace of cake and have at it!

for the cake's hat, i simply kneaded food coloring into almond paste 

and then cut out a nice round disk.

then i realized that one chocolate heart is nary enough...

so i added an entire chocolate base and three more hearts.

this isn't usually part of the tradition... but i was compelled.

from bottom to top: 

chocolate + whipped cream + cake + almond paste + chocolate

and, ok, i should have just restrained myself and left it like this because it almost looks rather sophisticated, like a 22-year-old made it, no?

but there were red jimmies and gummy hearts just begging to be used,

so it turned into a molly-circa-1997 creation.

and miraculously, it survived the L train yesterday

so that i could share it with stoopie and friends!!

happy valentine's day, everyone!

-yeh!!!!

ramen cupcakes...

happened by mistake,

after the ramen gnocchi recipe in lucky peach [issue 1]

ruined my blender.

*shakes fist in the direction of the east village*

the ramen gnocchi recipe involves cooking the noodles in milk,

and then blendering them all up with egg yolks to form a pasty

substance that can be piped into gnocchi shapes.

{then the gnocchi shapes are boiled and sauteed in butter 

and tossed with herbies}

one batch came out, and of course it was good, 

it was ramen in butter:

but so when my pretty green blender threw in the towel

{mid-blend of batch number two}

in to the cupcake tins they went, along with the remaining herbs.

the result was quiche-like,

something like a quiche that yr gramma would serve at a ladies' luncheon. 

but with a hint of what your stoned roommate is eating.

um.

i don't really know if i would recommend trying this at home.

it's really... not worth it. except for if you want amusing reactions from the people in the twitters when you tweet: ramen cupcakes.

-yeh?