Mint

Weekend before last my family visited the NC mountains for my grandfather’s birthday. Not wanting to give him a completely store-bought cake, or spend hours making one from scratch, my Aunt Anita came up with this for his birthday cake. It was so delicious that I decided to make it again and share the recipe with you! I’ve also made some recipe cards that you can download and print at home.

INGREDIENTS:

• 1 angel food cake (I bought mine at the grocery store)

• 2 bananas

• 1/2c golden raisins

• 1/3c sliced almonds

• 1 qt. vanilla ice cream

• 1/2c amaretto liqueur

time: 25 minutes plus 20 minutes of freezing

1. Take ice cream out of the freezer to soften.

2. Slice bananas thinly. Mix with raisins and liqueur in a medium bowl and set aside to soak.

3. Slice the angel food cake into three layers using a bread knife. (Make long, slow cuts to avoid breaking the layers).

4. Spread ice cream about 1/2″ thick over first cake layer. Spoon banana mixture on top. Place second cake layer on top and repeat.

5. Place top layer on cake. Spoon banana mixture on top. Garnish with sliced almonds.

6. Freeze for 20 minutes or until serving to firm up the ice cream. (Note: cake settles and gets a little lopsided if it stays in the freezer for much longer than 20 min. Still tasty, just not as pretty!)

You can download a pdf of the recipe cards I made here. There are four to a page, so you can share with three friends!

A big thanks to Aunt Anita for making up this recipe, and sharing it with me!

[more photos on flickr]

I’ve been meaning to post on Edwin Tse for a while, and when he dropped a note today it was the perfect reminder. These are the things he’s good at:

fashion, music, entertainment & landscape photography (did I even need to say it?); picking out cool sneakers; exercising his encyclopedic knowledge of cartoon shows from the 1980’s; playing really stylish bowling games. Check out his portfolio here.

Past Pace is the work of Jon Daly. He’s got that handmade, off-the-computer thing going on that I really admire. And general all-around awesomeness.

If you keep up with OK Great (you do, right?), then you’ve already seen this cute t-shirt design Nicole made. Nicole Kraieski is a friend and former co-worker (which makes her a fellow laid-off-er) who has been busy making awesome t-shirt designs to submit to Threadless. Who knew she was such a great illustrator? So, cheer her up and vote for When Wookie Met Yeti on Threadless. If she wins, she’ll get $2500 and will host a cool giveaway on OK Great as a thank you to all her new fans.

I saw these invitations on Studio on Fire’s blog, who did the letterpressing. Wow. I love the type, I love that signature printmaking wash of ink on the belly band, and I love that twiney string around the whole package. More beautiful design from Perky Bros, go check ‘em out.

I was catching up on one of my favorite blogs, Two Brunettes, this morning. Carolynn had a link to this cute DIY post on The Storque (etsy’s blog) for How-To Tuesday. If you’ve ever tried to crochet or knit, you probably have lots of leftover pieces of yarn and this is a great way to use them up. And, it’s a great way to spruce up your flats without buying a new pair!

I hope you all have wonderful weekends. Thanks again for all the support and encouragement these past couple weeks. You rock!

After my Julienne Hsu post, Samantha French wrote in to share her own paintings. Samantha is currently living in New York, and graduated from MCAD just a few years ago. Her paintings gorgeous! And for those of us (sadly) can’t buy one of her originals, she has prints available for $64.95. Those are going on my Christmas wish-list for sure!

From her website:

Samantha French’s paintings and mixed media drawings reflect a connection to the past and her own memories of life in Minnesota. Her series focusing on bathers is her link to home and thecontinual search for the feeling of sun on your face, warm summer days at the lake. Shades of blue dominate her work as gestural figures in swimming attire represent memories of her past and a romanticized time far before hers with wool suits, dark eyeliner and bob haircuts.