reasons to celebrate right this very moment:

1. gummy bears exist

2. so does this carrot twitter feed

3. harvest started yesterday

4. it's been sweater weather here all week!

5. school has begun??

6. the two year anniversary of my first date (this date) with eggboy is tomorrow

7. i bought a can of pumpkin and did not feel premature about it

8. there are oodles of apples growing in our backyard

9. benedict cumberbatch won an emmy

so let's make drunky bears and put them in sangria because we all know that gummy bears + fruit > only fruit. ok?

you can take a lot of liberties with this. feel free to soak your bears in any kind of booze you want. here is a handy drunken gummy bear guide. if you prefer another fruit to apples, go right ahead. i like juicing some fruit and using the juice in addition to the cut up fruit, for more flavor. (this juicer from williams-sonoma is the one i use!) red wine is fine to use, although it might be difficult to see your little bears with that. i like using wine that's not too sweet, since there's already a lot of sugar involved with the fruit, fruit juice, and gummy bears. oh, and the wooden skewers topped with gummy bears do double duty: they're cute, and they help to fish the fruit and bears out of the bottom of the cup.

gummy bear sangria

ingredients

1 1/2 c gummy bears

about 1 1/2 c vodka

1 bottle white wine

1 c apple juice

1/2 c to 1 c fizzy water

2 large apples, sliced

1 lime, sliced, plus more for garnish

clues

place your gummy bears in a jar or container, reserving a few to stick on top of some wooden skewers for serving. pour enough vodka in to cover your bears, cover the container, and let them soak at room temperature for eight hours, or overnight.

(...you'll then have gummy bear infused vodka and vodka infused gummy bears and you might wonder if that's inception or osmosis or both or neither (?))

strain the gummy bears, reserving the vodka for another use. you may even want to add some of that vodka to your sangria to make it extra extra boozy.

in a large pitcher, punch bowl, or hipster jar (sorry, i didn't have anything else...), combine your drunky bears, wine, apple juice, 1/2 cup fizzy water, apples, and limes, and stir. taste and add more fizzy water, if desired. chill and/or add ice for serving. serve with lime slices and wooden skewers topped with gummy bears. cheers!!!!

-yeh!

this time last week i was up to my neck in cake batter that had been spiked with champagne. there was an impending opera premiere, and like all opera premieres, it required cake.

the thing about making mini cakes in someone else's kitchen is that you find yourself doing silly things like hollowing out tomato paste cans to use instead of biscuit cutters and measuring every single ingredient using just a teaspoon and a quarter cup. (the former mathlete in me was proud when i nailed the 2/3 cup of champagne.) the real joy came when i got to style these puppies using all foreign dishes and props, and then top them with fresh stevia leaves grown right outside. have you ever had a stevia leaf? it is so lovely and sweet.

more joy came of course when i served a bunch of hungry friends cake. add that to my list of hobbies: serving friends cake in a post-opera situation.

these little cakes are incredibly moist and at a real good point between dense and light. they're based on my new go-to vanilla cake recipe, from pastry affair, and they're accompanied by a simple fresh whipped cream. i should mention that the libretto for the opera had a really wonderful line about cheese, so in my first test batch of these cakes, the whipped cream got a heavy dose of ricotta folded in. which i thought was yum. eggboy thought it was odd though, so i left it out of the party cakes, but if you're feeling that you'd like your wine cake to have some cheese cream, then do it.

mini champagne cakes with fresh whipped cream and stevia leaves

makes 8-12

cake recipe based on pastry affair's vanilla cupcakes

ingredients

for the cake:

1 3/4 c cake flour

1/2 tsp baking soda

1 1/2 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp kosher salt

1/2 stick unsalted butter, softened

1 c sugar

2 large eggs

2 tb vanilla extract

1/4 c vegetable oil

1/3 c plain yogurt

2/3 c champagne

for the whipped cream:

1 1/2 c heavy whipping cream

2 tb powdered sugar, or more to taste

a healthy splash of champagne, or more to taste

for garnish:

powdered sugar

fresh stevia leaves or other pretty edible plants

clues

preheat oven to 350. line a 9 x 13 casserole dish or half sheet pan with foil (using enough so that it hangs over the sides), grease it, and set it aside.

in a medium bowl, whisk together the cake flour, baking soda, baking powder, and salt.

in a large bowl or bowl of a stand mixer, cream the butter and sugar. add the eggs one at a time, beating well after each.

beat in the vanilla, oil, and yogurt. gradually add the dry ingredients, and then add the champagne, to form a smooth batter.

pour the batter into your pan and bake until a toothpick stuck in the center comes out clean. (check the cake after 18 minutes and add more time as needed.)

let the cake cool. use the foil to lift the cake out of the pan. wrap it tightly in plastic wrap and freeze for at least an hour or overnight.

to make the whipped cream, beat the heavy cream until soft peaks form. add the powdered sugar and champagne and beat to stiff peaks.

to assemble the cakes, use a 2- to 3-inch biscuit cutter to cut out cake circles. if the cake was baked in a 9 by 13 casserole dish, the layers may be quite tall for a mini cake, so i would recommend slicing them in half. stack up the cakes, 3 layers each, with a bit of cream in between. dust with powdered sugar, top with desired garnishes, and enjoy!

-yeh!