secret cake + friday links + a mustard giveaway

eggboy doesn't know it yet, but i have plans to take over the old workshop, the oldest building on the farm. it's home to the most magical natural light, it's heated with a wood stove, and i'm going to nail a sign above the door that says "cake house." i'm going to sit in my cake house all day and listen to opera and make cake, and when i've made too much, i'll erect a big neon sign at the end of our driveway that says "cake, this way" and people driving by can stop in for a slice and a spot of tea. i'll have a wall of sprinkles and a little craft corner where people can make their own cake toppers out of felt and ribbon. it'll be the cutest. there will be a password to get in.

...speaking of passwords and cake, i made secret cake.

it's for a friend's sister who is having a gender reveal party for the tiny human in her belly! the party isn't until tomorrow so i can't tell you the color of the cake or the color of the candy that is going to pour out of it when she and her husband slice it open. but i can tell you that i used a double batch of this delicious velvety cake (and dyed it either pink or blue) to make four 8-inch rounds, cut 4-inch circles out of the centers of two of the cakes using a small coffee can, and then stacked them all up with a bunch of pink or blue candy in the middle. like this. i sealed the sucker off with buttercream, used jordan's tutorial to get those nifty scallops, and topped it with gold sprinkles and felt flags. then i played around with the two leftover 4-inch circles and some cream cheese frosting. i tested out some linda-inspired frosting looks that i've been wanting to try, and settled on a rustic ball of glee, topped with naturally dyed sanding sugar.

i made a huge mess, but as mum always says, a messy kitchen is a happy kitchen.

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friday links!

it's scotch egg porn

i love love lovvvve the new new brooklyn rider album

you know i don't eat bananas, but this banana cake for harry styles is...bananas. file under: inspiration for my mandy patinkin/benedict cumberbatch fangirl cakes.   

this week in tahini and marzipan: pumpkin tahini bread and a plum and marzipan galette. yes!

this is the huckleberry cookbook as outfit inspiration!

"easy" and "laminated," an unlikely pair of words, smooshed together so elegantly with nutella.

hokkaido milk bread, get in my belly.

not that i wouldn't cross the pond just for dessert at st. john bread & wine, but look, we can now have their donuts anywhere.

i can totally spell zwetschgendatschi.

this fried cauliflower ciabatta sandwich reminds me of the schnitzel sandwiches from the schnitzel truck that i used to get all the time. i must make this soon.

and i also must make this carbonara soon. as soon as i find chinese sausage up in this town. 

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lastly, my friend sara from cake over steak is working hard with her brand new husband (!!!) and father-in-law to take their condiment business to the next level!! they've got a kickstarter going and they're giving away a variety pack of goodies to one of you! to enter this giveaway, leave a comment here or on Facebook with your favorite condiment. (open to u.s. residents only!)

update: this giveaway is now closed.

happy weekend everyone!!!

-yeh!

salt & vinegar potato galette + a farmers' market feast

if there's one thing i love most about living on a farm, it's the long lazy dinners. ones that i can spend hours preparing and then serve to a dusty eggboy, the egg parents, perhaps an egg sister and her man, or an egg cousin dropping by to deliver cilantro. i like sitting around our big, kind of awkwardly square table, basking in the bright bright sunset, and eating vegetables off of my favorite three-sectioned plates that i bought on staten island two years ago. one day i'd like a big spacious dining room that has a massive window overlooking our fields, so we can have a golden or snowy white or earthy brown backdrop. 

preparing seven courses doesn't feel like a lot when you have a never-ending list of recipes to try, a new my brightest diamond album to listen to, and a happy little rainbow of vegetables to work with:

because, rewind, i went to the farmers' market. (farmer's market? farmers market? farmer market?) which is a thing i haven't really done since we started our garden, but i am very mad at myself for waiting until the second-to-last market of the season to go because, in just one short visit, i:

1. learned how to choose a good cantaloupe

2. learned how to preserve my corn

3. made two new friends! 

it was so fantastic that i hurry scurried home, told eggboy to alert the eggs that i'd be cooking dinner the next day, and got to work. here was my menu:

kale salad with coconut sesame dressing

zucchini noodles with basil almond pesto

bacon wrapped cantaloupe with balsamic glaze (inspired by these peaches)

hoisin and sesame glazed corn

salt & vinegar potato galette with caramelized onions and parmesan (recipe below)

marinated rainbow bell peppers

watermelon and donut peach salad, sub the donut peaches for actual donuts because i am an idiot and misread the recipe and bought donuts from the nice man at the market instead of donut peaches

also: pesto, a grilled baguette, and brie.

...it was so fun and delicious!!!! my donuts got a little soggy. and i made everyone d.i.y. their kale leaves for the salad since i was afraid of bugs. but people laughed, people cleaned their plates, people left with tupperware filled with leftovers. 

about this galette: this is a recipe for people who enjoy hanging out in the kitchen, smelling the smells, and cutting the things. it's not a difficult recipe, but it does take some time and attention. it's equal part journey, equal part end product. in my research on salt and vinegar potatoes, i discovered that the vinegar flavor in salt and vinegar chips is actually from sodium acetate, which is also (sometimes?) referred to as "vinegar powder." so i made it from vinegar and baking soda, and i felt science-y, and i wore my glasses out of fear that the fumes would blind me, and then i made this galette with some of it sprinkled on, and it was, i don't know, fine. not worth the effort. something i don't want to order that you do. something i might revisit in the future. eventually i turned to the method that lauren and bon appetit and marissa use, and that's to boil the potatoes in salt and vinegar first, fry them a bit, and then toss them with more salt and vinegar. it's delicious. it plays well with sweet caramelized onion, the umami of parmesan, and a buttery pie crust. (does anything not play well in a buttery pie crust?)  

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salt & vinegar potato galette with caramelized onions and parmesan

makes one galette

ingredients

1 large onion

1/4 c butter

1 tb kosher salt, plus more to taste

2 medium potatoes (about 1 lb), thinly sliced (1/8 inch)

1/2 c white vinegar, plus more to taste

2 tb chopped chives

black pepper, to taste

1/2 lb your favorite pie dough

1 large egg

1/2 c shredded parmesan

clues

set your oven to 375.

get your onion caramelizing in 2 tablespoons of butter and a pinch of salt, and let them just hang out there over medium-ish heat while you do everything else. stir them when you think about it. (ask yourself why yankee candle hasn't made an onions and butter scented candle...)

place your sliced potatoes, 1 tablespoon of salt, and 1/2 cup of vinegar in a large pot. fill it with cold water until the water covers the potatoes by an inch or so. bring this to a boil and then let it sit somewhere between a healthy simmer and a low rumble for 15 minutes, gently stirring occasionally. 

strain your potatoes and pat them dry. get your remaining 2 tablespoons of butter heating in a skillet over medium high heat, and then fry your potatoes in batches, for about 5 minutes each. try to avoid overlapping in the pan for this step*. 

toss your potatoes with the chives, black pepper, and additional salt and vinegar to taste.

*(now, ok, if by this point you're starving or have decided that you don't like galettes (??!), you could continue to cook the potatoes for an additional few minutes, until they're fully cooked, season, toss with the onions and sprinkle with cheese and enjoy just like that. but if you're in this for the longer haul, continue...)

roll your pie dough out into a 12- or 13-inch circle and place it on a baking sheet lined with parchment. whip up your egg with a splash of water and brush it onto the dough, leaving a 2-inch perimeter. in the center of the dough, layer up your toppings in this order: a sprinkle of cheese, the onions, a sprinkle of cheese, half of the potatoes, a sprinkle of cheese, the other half of the potatoes, any additional chives or black pepper. brush the edges with egg and then fold them up around the potatoes. brush the outside edges with egg, sprinkle with salt, and bake until the pie crust is nicely browned. you could start checking for doneness at about 25 minutes, but it's one of those things that you can keep in the oven for up to about 20 or 30 minutes more, depending on how you like your crust. 

let cool slightly and enjoy!

-yeh!

p.s. yo check this out: all of the fruits, vegetables, donuts, and bread* for this feast fit in this mz wallace + food52 market bag! granted, it was quite heavy, and i briefly considered taking the cantaloupe and watermelon out to just carry in my hands, but i couldn't figure out how to hold both of them in front of my person without alluding to boobies. despite the fact that i am still crabby about the fact that more of you guys voted for the tote to be blue than green, this bag is the bee's knees. it's lined for easy cleaning, it has a zillion different pockets to keep your bread safe from any wiggly friends on your kale, and there's a small zippered lip gloss (change purse?) pocket. it is available for pre-sale on food52 provisions now!

*two softball-sized yellow onions, five pounds of potatoes, one cantaloupe, one watermelon, nine peppers, two bunches of green onions, one bunch of kale, one large baguette, half a dozen donuts, seven ears of corn, a bag of green beans, about four too many bugs (!!!!!!!!!!!!)

thank you so much to food52 for sponsoring the ingredients for this farmers' market feast!!!!

an apple picking party

fall is here!!! fall is heeeeeere!!!! holy root vegetable, i am so excited. 

clearly i've already gotten into the spirit of things, but here's a scientific fact for you: fall isn't fall until you've picked an apple from a tree. (right??) like, you can eat all the pumpkin spice things you want, but you mustn't forget about the apples. 

in the past, my annual apple orchard trip has coincided with a trip home to illinois, but this year i figured there would probably be some hardcore apple orchards in the middle of all this rural business, so i conducted some research on the best places to go apple picking around grand forks. 20 minutes of failed googling later, eggboy came in from the fields, laughed really hard, and then directed me to the two fairly large apple trees in our backyard. apple picking parties are a thing here explained cathryn. 

oh.

...cool!!!!!

so rather than having our regular brunch club, the ladies and i became the most hipster versions of ourselves, took a picnic out to my backyard, sipped some wine, and picked a ton of apples. it was perfect. we talked weddings and miss america, we ate cheese and more cheese. we took moody photos of handfuls of apples. (good thing one of us had a fresh manicure.)

and then we retreated inside, away from the buttercream-loving bees, put on the sufjan, and stretched our definition of proper caramel apple coatings...

here was our menu:

for noshing // brown sugar challah, jam, baked teddybear camembert with raspberry preserves, and a bunch more cheese

for dessert #1 // sprinkle cake

for dessert #2 // caramel apples with coconut, toasted sesame seeds, sprinkles, sea salt, and smoked sea salt

for sipping // kendall-jackson avant chardonnay

for supper // chicken with apples + chardonnay 

i highly recommend an apple picking party, even if you don't have an apple tree. make friends with someone who does! or grow your own. or trespass. (don't trespass.)

-yeh!

thanks so much to kendall-jackson avant for sponsoring this post!!!! all opinions are my own!

apple & honey muffins

alright so as of right now, my rosh hashanah menu consists of:

challah

more challah

tacos

and these apple and honey muffins (when i imagined myself getting all sticky from balancing a jar of honey and slicing an apple in the cramped little cab of a tractor, i got all squirmy...)

do i need to have a vegetable? i should probably have a vegetable. who has easily transportable autumn-y vegetable recipe suggestions??

and maybe i'll try to stuff some matzo balls down the nozzle of our big tall thermos.

i've never been the biggest fan of honey cake. either that, or by the time dessert rolls around i'm just so stuffed with brisket and challah that i could give zero shits about what the dessert table looks like. guilt came over me this year though when i realized that i've been treating a cake--a cake!--with such little love and respect. so i fiddled with it, failed a bunch, read five thousand recipes, pulled knowledge that i learned from my homemade funfetti® process, and came up with a honey cake that i am proud to call a friend.

this is a no-pressure, low-commitment honey cake that is actually a muffin, so you can get away with eating it at breakfast, lunch, or whenever you want. you do not need to wait until after brisket. you can load the sucker up with cream cheese, yogurt, buttercream, or any other dairy product of your affection and be 100% kosher about it. and you can even toss it around a tractor as your fiancé chisel plows and you let your challah digest. the texture is on the pleasingly denser side and the honey doesn't overpower. apples keep it *moist* and just a teensy bit of whiskey in the batter adds a yummy little zing while leaving you more than enough to sip on while you celebrate. 

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apple + honey muffins

makes 12-16

ingredients

2 c all-purpose flour

1 c sugar

3/4 tsp baking soda

3/4 tsp baking powder

1 tsp kosher salt

1 tsp cinnamon

1/4 tsp cloves

a pinch of cardamom

2 large eggs

1/3 c vegetable oil

1/2 c honey

2 tb whiskey

1/4 c hot coffee

1 large apple, chopped

clues

preheat oven to 350, and line and grease a muffin tin. 

in a medium bowl, combine all dry ingredients. in a large bowl, combine eggs, oil, honey, and whiskey. whisk in the dry ingredients and then whisk in the coffee. fold in the chopped apple and then scoop into your muffin tin.

bake until golden brown and a toothpick stuck into the center comes out clean. begin checking for doneness at about 20 minutes.

let cool and enjoy!

i like sprinkling them with powdered sugar or plopping a nice blob of yogurt on top. 

-yeh!

ingredients for this recipe were provided by minnesota grown, which makes it easier for minnesota ladies (like me!) and gents to support their local farmers! thanks, minnesota grown!!!

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p.s. the winner of last week's giveaway has been notified!