November 2, 2012

• Birthday Treats

  No matter how much I try, I can never quite get cakes and frosting to turn out right.  So I don’t tend to enjoy baking cakes.

  And I’m not actually fond of pie, but it turns out that I’m much better at making pie than I am at making cake.  Plus, when you’re trying to cut back on sugar, it’s a lot easier to make something edible and treat-like in the pie range low-sugar than just about anything else out there.  So, for these and various and sundry other reasons, birthday cakes around here tend to be birthday pies.

  Stephen’s birthday is the day before Epiphany, and the traditional Epiphany treat in Paris is a Galette des Rois.  It’s more of a pastry than a cake–puff pastry dough with a frangipane center.  So that’s been Stephen’s birthday cake for many, many years now.

  I just discovered my birthday pie.  I made it this year for the first time and wondered why I’d been messing around with other stupid stuff for so long.  I made a caramelized nut tart, and drizzled a simple chocolate ganache over it.  Wow.  It was like a Snickers bar, all grown up.  And none of the y-chromes in this house like nuts very much, so there was lots, lots more for me. 

  Theo was born in July, and his grandparents have huge blueberry bushes at their house, which usually produce a delicious crop just in time for Theo’s birthday.  So his birthday pie is blueberry pie.

  

  (He thinks this is perfect.)

  Isaac hasn’t really settled on “his” birthday pie/cake/whatever yet.  We’ve tried several things, all of which he likes, but none of which he likes so much that it feels like “his” birthday thing.  Maybe we’ll do a cheesecake this year.  Or lemon meringue.  I don’t know.

  And Amos needs a pie, too.  Not this year–I’ll probably do an apple or blueberry tart, because we avoid sugar entirely the first few years, and those are easy to make without sugar.  But after that.  It’s going to be hard, trying to come up with Just The Thing for the day after Christmas.  It’s got to be special enough to feel special even the day after all the Special you just ate for Christmas.  But not so decadent that nobody wants to eat it, the day after all the Special they just ate for Christmas.

  These are very complex problems.  Any assistance you could render would be appreciated.

  • 11:34 am
  • 3 Comments