a little tiered cake with a lot of tahini and marzipan

last week, two of the most wonderful humans on the planet got married. lydia and ben have been friends of mine since juilliard, and on friday i sat weepy on the couch as jacob, who was in north carolina catering their little six-person wedding, live texted the thing to me:

they signed the paper! it's official!!!!

*****ahhhhhhhhh!!!!!! i am crying****** 😂😭😂😭😂😭😂😭 is she the most beautiful human on the planet?1?1?!!!!!!!!! 

pull yourself together! and yes. she is. now, i'm about to put the rosemary on your cake, how do you want it???

whatever feels right!!!!!! make it pretty!!!!! i am so weepy happy!!!!!!!!!!

by all accounts, it sounded like a total dream. and i was so *tickled* that they asked me to make their cake. shipping a decorated cake is something new for me, so earlier in the summer, i did a test run where i put a buttercream frosted cake on dry ice and shipped it 2-3 day in a styrofoam cooler. it worked! but in the end, i strayed from the buttercream route and shipped a sturdy room temperature cake wrapped in tons and tons of bubble wrap. it was very tahini and halva centric, as lydia and i have bonded over a mutual loooove of halva, and i aimed to keep the decorations elegant and classy and quirky, just like her :) here is what i made:

the bottom layer // a simple chocolate cake, filled with halva floss and tahini that i sweetened a bit with sugar.

the top layer // layers of tahini dirty blondies baked in my favorite mini cake pan, and covered with apricot jam.

the whole thing got wrapped in marzipan, decorated with marzipan braids and fresh rosemary, and gobbled up by the new mr. and mrs.

congratulations, lydia and ben!!!!!!!!! welcome to married life!!!

-yeh!

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pictured: cake stand // cake server // mini cake pan // scissors

a happy list, by eggboy and me

coveralls that keep my pants from getting greasy

a morning coffee at the town coffee shop

the panini press

restaurant salads

gluten-free alternatives

bread

considering the evolution of communication

booking plane tickets and not train tickets

splitting a peanut butter cup

splitting a dark chocolate, well-salted peanut butter cup

the truck stop's loyalty rewards program

pictures of rhubarb things

***

...can you tell which are mine and which are his?

happy thursday :)

-yeh!

THE AWESOME BITS

this week was bat-shit cray. i got to see eggboy for a combined total of mayyybe two hours because of harvest, and i almost destroyed my esophagus with lye. i showered but once, and at work i dropped a freshly decorated cake.

however.

there were so many awesome parts about this week that are much more interesting than a kvetch fest. so here are the ones that i can remember:

1. i got to watch my dad play verdi's requiem on the chicago symphony live stream. i miss that orchestra so much. growing up in chicago, i totally took them for granted. and when i lived in new york, i loved seeing them on tour and eating at the burger joint after their concerts. but you know what is also great? watchin them from my bathtub. 

2. there were so many delicious recipes on the internet this week! there are just too many to name them all, but here are a few that i need to try soon: southern graham crackers with sorghum from nothing but delicious, fall cornbread panzanella salad with maple-mustard vinaigrette from naturally ella, and raw chocolate pistachio gelato from oh, ladycakes.

3. sugar cookie sleigh ride herbal tea. my little sis brewed me a cup of this last year around the holidays and i've been looking for it ever since. i finally found some at target because they started getting their holiday stuff in. yayyy!! 

4. eggboy surprised me for lunch today with pad thai. our town's pad thai place is literally the best ever. i ate it so fast i was convinced i'd puke.

4a. i didn't puke.  

5. my girl brooke from fargo came to town and we met with mia about the wolftree cookbook that we are editing. (pssst: there is still time to submit your recipe!) it was so lovely to hang out with them. all of my new homies here are so awesome.

6. i had some fun articles published: 

-this one on jew and the carrot about eating my favorite lentil soup on a tractor 

-my first post on food52. it features the pretzel challah recipe that i posted a while back, but it has a different intro, which i wrote in my head, entirely in the shower. 

7. i wrote an article for modern farmer which i am so excited about. it's about sugar beets, so if you're wondering what the big deal is with the thing that eggboy is holding in the above photo, sit tight for this article to come out!

8. this week had a great playlist. a mix of lorde, john adams, sufjan stevens, mahler, and vampire weekend. you can hear it here.

another awesome thing is that eggboy will be home for dinner tonight, so i am off to bed right now so that i can be up to make him dinner before i go to work! 

happy weekend!

-yeh!!!!!