Today will be the first of many holiday hangovers. You know the feeling. Tired, bloated, couldn’t-look-at-another-piece-of-pie-if-my-life depended-on-it feeling. Every year this happens and apparently we are all glutton for punishment because we do it to ourselves.
I managed to eat just enough and not feel sick. I didn’t eat dessert until 7 at night. I made three desserts for Thanksgiving. Pecan Pie, Pumpkin Cake with Maple Brown Sugar Buttercream and my nemesis, Lemon Meringue. Now, I’ve made a Lemon Meringue Pie in the past and I don’t remember having issues with it. This was not the case yesterday.
I took Wednesday off and made the Pecan Pie and the Pumpkin Cake in advance. I should have known better than to try to make my nemesis the morning of Thanksgiving. Hindsight is always 20-20.
I thought when I made the pie the first time that I had followed the recipe from Not So Humble Pie. Her directions are incredibly complete using science and everything. Turns out, I did not use this recipe last time as I had thought. And even if her directions are the bomb, my pie ended up looking like her illustration of the pie wetting itself. Sad. Very sad. My filling did not set up for some reason. Still trying to figure that one out. And on top of that, when I went to take the pie out after browning the meringue nicely, I happened to burn my finger on the oven rack. As I was trying to pry my ring finger from the rack I pushed the potholder into the meringue and ruined half of the pie. Thinking back, I should have just made it a half-mask like the Phantom of the Opera and covered my hideous mistake.
But alas, there would be no mask for my pie. I did however almost hope that somehow the pie would fly out of my hands on the way to my mother-in-law’s house and then I could have lied and said it was the most beautiful pie I’ve ever made. This did not happen either. I ate my pride and everyone else ate the hideous pie. I was told it tasted delicious no matter what it looked like. I was going to take a picture of it but I just couldn’t do it.
The Pecan Pie was delicious as was the cake. For some reason I didn’t take a picture of pecan pie unfortunately. I served that with some whipped cream with 3-fold vanilla paste in it.
Here’s the cake:
I used the recipes from the Pumpkin Cupcakes and Maple Brown Sugar Buttercream and adapted it for a cake. I used 3-6″ cake pans and then garnished with some gingersnap cookie crumbles. It was delicious.
I hope everyone had a wonderful holiday! I’m off to start planning Christmas dessert!!!
Lemon Meringue Pie will NOT be on the menu….
Ann