Friday Round-Up: May 17, 2013

Have a great weekend, folks! I’ll be doing some apartment rehabbin’ on Saturday and then it’s my dad’s birthday on Sunday. Cheers to the weekend. What are you doing?

- Have you heard of the Canadian astronaut Chris Hadfield? He’s been at the International Space Station for a while, and he seems like one cool dude. Here’s how he made us care about astronauts again.

- Can Jay-Z time travel? This photo from Harlem in the ’30s seems to suggest that he can. Hova can do no wrong (Thanks, Jon)

- 10 hotel secrets from behind the front desk. Wash that minibar glass, apparently.

- The most controversial places on Google Maps. An interesting read. (Thanks, Amy)

- In other cartography news: a map of the world’s most and least racially tolerant countries. (Thanks, Zac)

- Carrie Bradshaw’s boyfriends on “Sex and the City,” power-ranked. Still Team Aidan.

- Totally common occurrences in Australia. The nightmare koala forever and ever. (Thanks, Michelle)

- The bakery kicked off Gordon Ramsay’s “Kitchen Nightmares” takes to Facebook to vent their frustrations, in the most epic brand meltdown ever.

- Why, yes, this video of pandas romping on a slide is as cute as it sounds. (Thanks, Zach)

- HGTV is giving away a dream home in Jacksonville, FL, plus $100k in cash and a new car. Enter daily until the 31st to win.

- And lastly, a photo of monkeys lounging in hot springs in Japan. Thank you, Internet! (And you, Anna)

Angel Food Pudding Cake

I made this light and semi-healthy dessert for Mother’s Day yesterday and I thought it turned out yummy enough to share with you.

The base is angel food cake, covered with a vanilla pudding/cool whip concoction and topped with fresh strawberries and sliced bananas. As far as summery desserts go, it’s the trifecta: easy to make, chilled, and light. NOM NOM NOM.

Confession: I had no idea what to call this. Angel fruit dessert? The recipe I loosely followed called it that—but zoinks, too many nouns. Angel cake fruit pudding? Sounds like something from Google Translate. I decided on Angel Food Pudding Cake. Eh. Not a homerun with the name. Just remember: a rose by any other name, yadda yadda.

Click here to download the recipe.

Ingredients:

• 1 baked angel food cake
• 1 large package of instant vanilla pudding
• 1 12-oz container of Cool Whip
• Fresh fruit for toppings (I did strawberries and bananas but you could also do kiwi, peaches, blueberries, raspberries, etc)

Directions:

1. Tear angel food cake into bite-size pieces and cover the bottom of a 13 x 9 pan.

2. Prepare instant pudding according to package directions. Allow it to set. Add in the Cool Whip, mixing until blended. Pour the pudding mixture over the cake.

3. Top with fresh fruit. Refrigerate and serve.

4. After noshing on said dessert, attempt a mother-daughter photo. Get photobombed by large German Shepherd.

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Do you have a go-to summer dessert recipe? Oooh, please share if so! 

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