friday links + a giveaway winner

yaayayayayayay, it's friday!!! here's what's on our to-do list for the weekend:

1. play dress up and take an absurd self-timer photo for our save the dates. (i wanted to write "save the date" on our butts and moon the camera, but eggboy vetoed that one.)

2. actually dress up and go to farmer wade's wedding! i'll be the one taking notes...

3. eat cheese curds at the fargo street fair!!

i can't hardly wait. what's on your weekend list?

here are some friday links for you...

these pancakes have chamomile whipped cream. 

did you know that you can eat amaranth leaves?! and can we talk about how cool a tart pan looks as a salad dish?

carey's back! carey's back! cue all of the exclamation points.

there are some very inspirational words up in here.

it's raw fudge with a secret ingredient that made me squeal with so many units of joy: tahini.

a beautiful rhubarb cake accompanied by a beautiful video. 

my mom may have purchased me mini cake stands in minneapolis... and i think they need to be christened with these mini pavlovas.

i lived through this entire buzzfeed list so that you could make cookie bowls that aren't epic failures. (they're peanut butter flavored and lined with chocolate and they're up on betty's site this week!)

on my to-make list: this crispy sriracha honey lime tofu, homemade cold brew, and fried green tomato pimiento grilled cheese.

and the winner of last week's lightroom giveaway is... jaime! yayayayayy! step right up, ms. briny! (and can i direct attention to the fact that she is an aspiring mermaid? i'm obsessed.)

have a wonderful weekend!!!!!

-yeh!

pony cake

(or, a rosemary vanilla cake with blackberry preserves, mascarpone frosting, and marzipan dala horsies)

even at the very mention of needing a meat course from my concerned jewish mother (a sausage bar, even!), i freaked out with enough magnitude to decide that egg and i would elope. i decided that many times over the past few days. at wedding dress shops, at paper shops, in the car, eating fried green tomatoes, etc. 

("you don't need a xanax prescription, you're not going to be one of those brides that doesn't enjoy her wedding because she is too stressed out, i just won't accept it," says katie. bless her.)

oyoyoy. i'm thinking in all italics right now. all caps and italics. this whole idea of not thinking about my wedding until i got engaged lest i jinx the thing was not the best idea. i'm being dramatic. ok you know what we need right now? a wedding themed happy list:

-these past few days were spent in minneapolis with mum and stoop, eating really great sausages and charcuterie and shopping for wedding dresses.

-i found a really great dress. it's tie dye, has pouffy sleeves, and sequins all up in every inch of that thing (or at least this is what i'm telling eggboy).

-egg and i got supplies to make our own invitations and they're going to be super cute and hopefully not in the third grade art class way.

the thing i am least stressed out about is the cake because stoop is making it and i just can't even begin to imagine how absurd it's going to be. but speaking of cake, let's talk about this pony cake:

in an assignment that had me tweezering on individual sprinkles so that they'd sit around the rim and not on the backs of my little marzipan cutouts, i made a pony cake for saveur's 20th birthday! it's a fluffy vanilla cake infused with rosemary and filled with blackberry preserves and tangy mascarpone frosting, and it's right alongside some beauties by sarah, izy, and a whole lot of other people whom i'd love to eat cake with.

i'm going to go stick my entire head into a cake like an ostrich now.

Rosemary Vanilla Cake with Blackberry Preserves and Mascarpone Frosting

makes 8-10 servings

ingredients

FOR THE CAKE:

1 cup whole milk

2 sprigs rosemary

1 3/4 cups cake flour

1/2 tsp. Kosher salt

1 1/2 tsp. baking powder

1/2 tsp. baking soda

4 tbsp. unsalted butter, softened

1 cup sugar

2 large eggs

1 tbsp. vanilla extract

1/3 cup plain yogurt

1/4 cup vegetable oil

FOR THE FROSTING:

12 oz. unsalted butter, softened

8 oz. mascarpone cheese, softened

1 1/2 tsp. vanilla extract

2 1/2 cups powdered sugar

A pinch of Kosher salt

FOR ASSEMBLY:

1/2 cup blackberry preserves

Fresh blackberries and rosemary sprigs for garnish

4 oz. marzipan, kneaded with gel or liquid food coloring and cut into desired shapes (optional)

Sprinkles (optional)

clues

1. For the cake: First, infuse your milk with the rosemary. Place the milk and rosemary in a small saucepan and bring it to a simmer over medium heat, stirring often. Remove it from heat and let it sit, uncovered, for 15 minutes.

2. Preheat oven to 350º. Grease and flour three 6” round cake pans or two 8’’ round cake pans and set aside. Sift together cake flour, salt, baking powder, and baking soda into a bowl. In a separate bowl, beat together the butter and sugar until fluffy. Beat in the eggs, one at a time, and then add the vanilla, yogurt, and oil. Add dry ingredients and beat until smooth, 1-2 minutes. Measure out 2/3 cup of the infused milk, pouring it through a strainer if there are any stray bits of rosemary. Depending on how much milk evaporated during the infusing process, you may have some leftover or you may need to add more (non-infused milk) to compensate. Mix this into the batter. 

3. Divide batter evenly between pans. Bake cakes, rotating halfway through, until a toothpick inserted in the center of each cake comes out clean, 18-24 minutes. Let cakes cool for 5 minutes, then invert each onto a rack to cool completely.

4. For the frosting: Beat butter, mascarpone, and vanilla in a bowl with an electric mixer until well combined. Add sugar and salt and beat until frosting is light and fluffy.

5. For assembly: Put 1 cake layer on a cake plate; spread a thick layer of frosting on top and a thin layer of blackberry preserves on top of that. Set another layer on top. If using three 6’’ layers, add another layer of frosting and preserves and top with remaining layer. Frost top and sides with remaining frosting. Decorate as desired with blackberries, rosemary sprigs, marzipan shapes, and sprinkles.

-yeh!

a chocolate ipa cake, friday links, and a lightroom giveaway

i made a cake! i made a cake! it's a rich little chocolate thing, spiked with fargo brewing company beer, and it's in the newest issue of the beeeeeautiful fargo-based wolftree magazine. yay, north dakota!

in the venn diagram of my cravings right now, we have this pineapple pico de gallo on the left, this coconut quinoa pudding on the right, and then in the middle there is this coconut milk grilled pineapple.

and furthermore on the subject of coconut, i made these dark chocolate coconut granola bars yesterday and they were beyond.

for supper yesterday i made ottolenghi's black pepper tofu for the egg parents and egg cousin and it was, how do you call it, sofa kind good.

stoop is making a funfetti wedding cake for us, so does that mean i have permission to wear a sprinkle dress?

i bought a bar of lux almond soap when i was in new york and it pretty much smells exactly like marzipan and i know this is not normal, but sometimes i just stand at my desk and smell it for minutes on end. i'm afraid to use it because then i will use it up.

i've spent lots of time looking at pictures of dumplings and trying to take good ones myself, but i'm going to stop now because these win everything.

cake tutorials are my new favorite genre of reading material. i really want someone to have a birthday soon so i can make an ombre cake and a ruffle cake, but i'm slowly becoming convinced that all farmers plan to have their offspring in the winter.

i miss college?

annnnnnnd a fake shack burger.

i'm giving away lightroom 5 today! it's my most favorite photo editing software. for the longest time i tried to hack my way through photoshop, but then i made the switch when i learned that lightroom isn't a lesser version of photoshop, it's actually just plain different. and way easier to use if i'm editing a billion photos of cake at once. i use it pretty much every day along with some snazzy vsco filters and i love it like a sister. almost. this giveaway is open to all north american residents. to enter: leave a comment with your favorite photo editing tip! the winner of the giveaway will be chosen at random next friday. update: this giveaway is now closed.

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chocolate ipa cake

ingredients

2 c all-purpose flour

2 2/3 c sugar

3/4 c cocoa powder

1 1/2 tsp kosher salt

1 1/2 tsp baking soda

1 1/2 tsp baking powder

1 1/3 c milk (dairy, almond, or coconut)

2 large eggs

2/3 c canola or vegetable oil

1 tsp vanilla

1 (12-oz) can Fargo Brewing Co. Wood Chipper, or other IPA

for the glaze:

3 c powdered sugar

5-7 tb milk

clues

Preheat oven to 325. Grease a large bundt or angel food pan and set aside.

In a large bowl, sift together all dry ingredients.

In a medium bowl, whisk together milk, eggs, oil, and vanilla.

Whisk the milk mixture into the dry ingredients.

Bring the beer to a boil and immediately remove it from heat. Whisk it into the batter until just combined. Pour into the pan and bake for about 45-55 minutes. Cake is done when a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean.

Let cool slightly in the pan and then remove and let cool completely. To make the glaze, mix the milk into the powdered sugar one tablespoon at a time until it reaches the desired consistency. Pour the glaze onto the cake and garnish with orange slices.

Enjoy with friends!

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-yeh!

cheesy pickle pretzel sliders

just as some parents of little ones are required to check for monsters in the closet, my mom was required to check for pickles on my burgers. despite always ordering a very plain cheeseburger, an itsy bitsy pickle occasionally managed to wiggle its way on there and terrify me. like, spider on my face in the middle of the night terrifying. and no, i don't really know why.

i'm happy to say though that i've since embraced the pickle/thrown parties in its honor/etc. (and have now focused my energies on decreasing my recovery time when small green worms crawl out of my salad, which happened last month and i don't wanna talk about it.) this embracing of the pickle is a very good thing because just like steak n shake is the quintessential late night food of my chicago suburb and just like a greasy slice is the quintessential late night food of new york, the fried cheesy pickle appears to be the quintessential late night food of grand forks. it's basically a pickle wrapped in cheese wrapped in an egg roll skin and then fried and served with magic sauce. crack sauce. awesome sauce. 

it is all the right textures and saltiness for a night of gin and tonics out on the town with the lovely ladies of grand forks... 

but let's say you were inspired by a certain fries on burger situation to straight up put your cheesy pickle on a burger. you'd do it in the name of fried crunchiness, right? correct. so that's what i did, and that's what you should do the next time you step on a treadmill and turn on mean girls and forget to get off of the treadmill until lindsay lohan pukes all over that guy.

cheesy pickle pretzel sliders

makes 8

ingredients

1 lb mix of ground chuck and sirloin

kosher salt and pepper

8 pretzel slider buns

8 slices tomato

8 leaves lettuce

ketchup, mustard, mayo, etc.

2 fried cheesy pickles (recipe below),

sliced into discs, plus extra for serving on the side

clues

divide the meat into 8 equal parts and form into patties. salt and pepper both sides. coat the bottom of a pan with oil and heat over medium heat. cook the burgers on each side to desired doneness.

toast your burger buns, if desired, and top with tomato, lettuce, a meat patty, any other condiments, and a slice or two of fried cheesy pickles. 

enjoy!

fried cheesy pickles

makes about 13, but amount can easily be adjusted, as all you need is a 1:1:1 ratio of pickles to cheese to egg roll wrappers

ingredients

1 jar farmer's garden by vlasic kosher dill spears

13 slices havarti cheese

13 large (6-7 inch) egg roll wrappers, store-bought or homemade

canola or vegetable oil, for frying

ketchup, mayo (chipotle??), mustard, other sauces for serving 

clues

drain your pickles and use a paper towel to pat off any excess moisture. wrap each pickle in a slice of cheese and then wrap each in an egg roll wrapper. seal it well, using a bit of water on the edges if necessary. (refer to the above gif.)

heat 2 inches of oil in a large sauce pan to 360º. fry the pickles on all sides until golden brown and crispy. transfer to a paper towel and let cool. slice (put them on a slider?) and serve!

-yeh!

this post was sponsored by vlasic's tasty new line of pickles, farmer's garden! all opinions are mine mine mine. these pickles come in super cute farmy jars and there are no artificial flavors in them (yay). they're inspired by pickling pioneer joseph vlasic, who started making pickles 70 years ago! aside from kosher dill spears, they make zesty garlic chips, bread and butter chips, kosher dill halves, and dill chips. to see what other fun things are going on it pickle word, you can follow #farmtojar.

also be sure to enter their sweepstakes: farmer’s garden is celebrating the authentic taste of #farmtojar with the savor simplicity sweepstakes running from 5/7/14 – 7/31/14. enter at www.farmersgardenvlasic.com for a chance to win a weekend cooking adventure or summer entertaining package, each worth $1,500. one winner will be chosen each month. a $1 off coupon will also be given to all entrants immediately following entry!