Here at The Ordinary, in our illustration division (located in a spacious and sunny atrium between the rooftop greenhouse and the outdoor swimming pool in the parpapets) we like to draw mixed up animals. You can find us hard at work, day and night, combining winged creatures, finned creatures and those with claws and tails. The best part of this fantastical exercise, is that the resulting mixed up creature is usually quite delightful. Let us present a few choice examples from our archives…
Malcolm’s fox-owl.

Isaac’s Ring-tailed Ouzel

And my squirrel-giraffe

This dessert is a mixed up animal, too! Part cobbler, part crisp, part frangipane, part clafoutis. It’s fruity, soft, chocolatey, and crispy all at the same time! Here’s how it all went down: I had bought a bag of cherries. In general, cherries don’t last long in this house. However, we went away twice for a few days within a week or two, and before we knew it, the cherries were past their first blush of youth. Well! A chance to bake!! I wanted to make a cobbler/crisp type dessert. I also had clafoutis on my mind (the french cherry & baked custard dish) – specifically I was thinking about clafoutis with a frangipane type of custard. This combines all of those things. We have a layer of warm cherries splashed with rum, a layer of soft baked almond custard with bittersweet chocolate chips, and a crispy coconut topping. If I do say so, and I do, this is one of the most delicious things I’ve ever made! It has a lot of different flavors, it’s true, but they all go very nicely together. We ate it warm with lightly whipped cream flavored with maple syrup and vanilla.

Here’s The Kangaroo Rat from the Beastie Boys. I know that’s an actual animal, but they look so unlikely (perfect, but unlikely!) And the album is called the mix-up, so it’s double extra good.

about two cups cherries, pitted and roughly chopped
2 -3 T rum
1 cup sliced almonds – finely ground
3 t sugar
2 T flour
2 T milk
1 t vanilla essence
1 egg
1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips
2 pinches salt
3 T butter
2 T brown sugar
3/4 cup flaked coconut

Preheat the oven to 375

Butter a baking dish

Put the cherries in the bottom of the dish, and sprinkle the rum over them.

Combine the almonds, sugar, flour, and pinch of salt, and mix well. Stir in the egg, vanilla and milk and beat until quite smooth. Mix in the chocolate chips. Pour this mixture over the cherries.

In a small saucepan, combine the butter and brown sugar, and cook till the butter is melted and everything starts to get bubbly. Add the coconut and a pinch of salt. Spread this mixture over the almond mixture.

Bake for 20 – 30 minutes, until the top is golden brown and looks crispy, and bubbly cherry juices are breaking through in spots.

Serve with lightly whipped cream flavored with a bit of vanilla and maple syrup or vanilla ice cream