happy birthday, rob!

if you do not know me personally {or even if you do}

you probably think that rob is my 

boyfriend,

husband,

fiancée,

or 

relative.

he is none of those. 

though we've already agreed that his nuggets will call me 

aunt molly and mine will call him crazy uncle rob.

rob is one of the first people i met at juilliard,

he has always been there to encourage me,
to tell me i'm being silly,
to help me with what-the-ef-i'm-gonna-do-with-my-life,
and to shut me up when i say something like "omg juicy couture."
when i went through the great break up of '08 and refused to eat,
he delivered me salami sandwiches and o.j. and said all the right things*. and then put in a good word for me with the hottest straight dancer at juilliard.
*he always says all the right things anyways.

and speaking of sandwiches, we took a cross-country sandwich tour road trip later that year in his little vw bug. it was so cute.

one day we will live like they do in big love where we dwell with our respective spouses in houses that join in the backyard.
i can't imagine life without the rob.
so here's to you, rob tickler!
happy 25th birthday!!!!
-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!!!!

beet cookies

beets actually make me want to vom,

but i don't want to die young from eating 

too much red food coloring... 

so i used a bit of puréed beets to make

pink heart-shaped cookies for valentine's day!

the flavor is slightly present, and as someone who hates beets,

i found these cookies really quite enjoyable.

so go ahead and say

i love you

and not

i love you and i wanna kill you with red 40.

ingredients
for the cookies:

1 stick of butter, softened 

1 1/4 cups sugar

1 egg

1 teaspoon vanilla

1/4 cup puréed steamed beets*

1 1/4 cups white flour

1 cup whole wheat flour

1/4 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon baking soda
powdered sugar for dusting
for the icing:
1 stick of butter, softened
1 1/2 cups powdered sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 1/2 teaspoons puréed steamed beets*
*i used the pre-steamed beets from trader joe's 

clues

combine butter + sugar, beat until fluffy

beat in egg + vanilla + beets

in a separate bowl, combine dry ingredients

combine dry ingredients + wet ingredients

refrigerate for an hour

preheat oven to 350
make the frosting by beating all of the ingredients together

roll out dough on surface dusted with powdered sugar
cut into shapes

bake for 10-15 minutes on baking sheet lined with parchment
cool and then frost
-yeh!

happy new year!!

"happy lunar new year, erryone!"

says one half of me.

the other half celebrated back in september,

and currently my two halves are battling over which new year was tastier.

oh is it close!

because we're basically talking apple donuts vs. dark chocolate sesame balls,

and pumpkin ice cream vs. orange black sesame ice cream.

alls i know is, i am on dumpling hangover after an amazing chinese new year party last night.
{quoth the invitation, "100+ dumplings"}
there were big dumplings and bigger dumplings and gooey ones and
sweet ones... there were ones i had never had before, and ones that got deformed, so by default we deep fried them.
oh it was great!
my favorite non-edible part was the company,
and how everyone had a dslr glued to their face.
it was camera dumpling shoptalk everywhere and i am unashamed to say i loved it.
p.s. who else is super excited that it's dragon year? i would totally have a pet dragon if i was a mermaid.
-yeh!