V-Day Inspired Color Palette #1: Cream, coral, taupe, & blush

V-Day Gift Guide #1: For your four-legged best friend

because your pup could use a little love on valentine's day too!

1. natural burlap dog toy (found here) | 2. letterpressed valentine's day card by bonvivant press (found here) | 3. chocolate covered strawberry toy (found here) | 4. heart shaped dog biscuits (found here) | 5. la vie en rose dog pillow duvet cover (found here)

Valentine's Day Recipe #1: Chocolate Cracked Earth

I'm going to share a recipe my roommate and I made earlier for our birthdays. I should probably clarify by saying that my roommate made it and I ate it.
At the time, we had a surplus of eggs in our fridge - more than 30 - and I was completely overwhelmed. Each day at work I set aside time to research quiches, egg casseroles, frittatas, and other egg-consuming dishes. While I found some frittata and quiche recipes asking for as many as 6 eggs, nothing came close to this chocolate cake. It requests a whopping 9 eggs! Regardless of eggs needed, it really was quite delicious, rich, and dense. If you ever have so many eggs that you're starting to feel stressed and your boyfriend wants to throw them at a wall so you can finally stop talking about egg recipes, I would highly recommend this cake.

It's Tyler Florence's Flourless Chocolate Cake, featured on foodnetwork.com.

Cook Time : 25 min
Yield: 4 to 6 servings

Ingredients
1 pound bittersweet chocolate, chopped into small pieces
1 stick unsalted butter*
9 large eggs, separated
3/4 cup granulated sugar, plus 1 tablespoon
2 cups heavy cream, cold
Confectioners' sugar, for dusting
Directions
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Butter a 9-inch springform pan.

Put the chocolate and butter into the top of a double boiler (or in a heatproof bowl) and heat over (but not touching) about 1 inch of simmering water until melted. Meanwhile, whisk the egg yolks with the sugar in a mixing bowl until light yellow in color. Whisk a little of the chocolate mixture into the egg yolk mixture to temper the eggs - this will keep the eggs from scrambling from the heat of the chocolate - then whisk in the rest of the chocolate mixture.

Beat the egg whites in a mixing bowl until stiff peaks form and fold into the chocolate mixture. Pour into the prepared pan and bake until the cake is set, the top starts to crack and a toothpick inserted into the cake comes out with moist crumbs clinging to it, 20 to 25 minutes. Let stand 10 minutes, then remove sides of pan.

While the cake is cooking, whip the cream until it becomes light and fluffy.

Serve at room temperature dusted with confectioners' sugar and topped with whipped cream.

TNF Valentine's Day Giveaway!

so we're pretty excited to announce our first nimbus factory blog giveaway and you know what's even MORE awesome? everyone is automatically a winner.

that's right, we whipped up some sweet treats for you all, and we're starting out with the best -- your choice of two different valentines designed with a lot of love, and ready to be shipped to your door and given to your favorite person this year (or keep it for yourself if that floats your boat!).

so how do you make sure you get one of these lovely pieces in your mailbox before v-day? simple! become a follower of this blog (just use our 'follow us' widget in the righthand sidebar) and/or like us on facebook for your FREE valentine. then leave us a comment on this post and let us know which one you've done (if you already follow us or like us, then let us know that too!), along with your email address and we'll contact you by this weekend for your mailing info. if for some reason one valentine just isn't enough, you can earn another FREE valentine by sharing your favorite valentine's day memory!

we can't wait to give these away to you! and so much more in the next 12 days...:)

note: we have a limited amount of each design in stock so get your comments in as soon as possible :)! thanks!

Heart Shaped World Part 2

Love is in the air! Today's post is dedicated to hearts found naturally all around us =)

vintage valentines

(via wvu libraries collection)

i have quite a weakness for charming paper ephemera and these vintage valentines definitely hit the spot. also, a valentine built around a love for pie? absolutely priceless.

Heart Shaped World Part 1

So Valentine's day is in the air, and we all know that we love our heart-shaped foods. This year, I'm trying to cut down. You know, I'm watching my womanly figure. So I'm going to pick one edible heart-shaped item and enjoy it wholeheartedly. The question is ... what shall it be?

First on the list to consider are heart-shaped cookies, chocolates, and donuts. They're just so yummy and cakey!

But suppose this year I want more than just the typical heart-shaped fare. I want complicated things! Like heart-shaped macaroons with raspberries stuffed in the filling, powdered sugar heart sandwiches with jammy filling, and heart-shaped pancakes!

On second thought, I think I'm more of a savory person. Shall I have an egg fried in a lovely heart shape? Millions of tiny heart-shaped pasta? Or hopefully not-so-burnt toast cut out to the shape of a heart?

I've found it! This is it - my one heart shaped food pick for the year. It's a pizza. Yes, an entire heart-shaped pizza. It's so beautiful.