2004 was a special year for the dessert party, as it was my 40th birthday. To celebrate, I decided to make a series of desserts that celebrated some of the most memorable events of my life. Not necessarily ones I wanted to remember, but those are usually the most entertaining. Each dessert was accompanied by a short story of what had inspired it, which I've included below.
The Poison Ivy Cake
Ah, Lisa. My first real girlfriend. Smart, cute, and much more knowledgeable than I. And oh so willing to pass on what she knew to someone who wanted to learn… How to drive a standard transmission of course. What were you thinking? Of course at least one of our driving lessons took us to a local park, where it was dark and romantic. Sadly, the patch of grass by the lake where we lay down to, um, look at the stars, turned out not to be grass. For an Eagle Scout this was most embarrassing.
The Pyramids
In the summer of 1974, my parents took my sister and I on an epic journey across the Mediterranean, two weeks in Lebanon, two weeks in Egypt, and two weeks in Greece. Yes. They were crazy. We visited family, saw many historic sites, and refused to eat lots of weird food. Despite the difficulties in finding a bathroom for a 10 year old while visiting ruins in the middle of the desert, it was a great trip. I enjoyed climbing the Acropolis, and visiting family, but the highlight was the Pyramids. Towering masses of stone, enough stone to build a 10’ high wall a foot thick around France. But one of the best parts was the camels. We got to ride them! Of course there was the small snafu that the camel drivers left with my mother, sister, and I while my father was still negotiating the price. Apparently the price went up once we’d left, but then went down again when my dad suggested they could keep me. I guess I’d needed to go once too often.
The Blibbet Mousse
The dessert commemorates the many doomed projects I’ve worked on. Every Microsoft project I worked on after they got rid of the Blibbet was a failure. Often known to be such before we did it, but shipped none the less. Word for OS/2 Presentation Manager (a word processor for an OS that couldn’t print), Pen Windows (whose sole purpose was to kill the Go company), Eforms Designer for Microsoft Mail (cancelled during development, resurrected, shipped, and then cancelled again), Money for Microsoft Bob (a bad idea from the start).
Chocolate Sling Bullets
Well, truffles really. But they look pretty close. Much of my junior high after school time was spent wandering the local parks with my buddy Nelson. Not being satisfied with sword fighting with sticks, we started making slings out of some old scrap leather and some leather bootlaces. After a few weeks of whacking trees with rocks, we were getting pretty good. Not ready to take on Goliath, but good enough to have fun. Then came the day when we were down by the stream and one of the local bullies came riding by on his bicycle. He stopped on the bridge over the stream and started being insulting as usual. I figured, what the hell, I’ll wing a rock over his head and if worst comes to worst we can take off into the woods. Well my rock went straight and true, hitting the bridge right below his feet and exploding with a loud crack. I stood there admiring my shot while he sped away as fast as he could pedal, and that was the last insult we heard from him for a long while.
The Chocolate Castle Cake
A multipurpose dessert, this cake is both for all the wonderful castles my sister and I visited in Wales together the summer after I went to college, and of course for Castle of the Winds, the last successful product I shipped (which outsold several of the ones on that other cake).
Carrie and Steph’s Blocks
One of the best parts of having kids is getting to play with all the kid’s toys again. Blocks, Legos, Lincoln Logs, you name it. And of course getting to read all the great kid’s books that have come out since I grew up. Oh, and going to Disneyland! But in any case, here’s to one of the best things in my life, my kids!
The Princeton Tiger
I’ll spare you the rendition of the school fight song, but this dessert is in honor of all the great friends I have from college, and all the late night diner runs, bull sessions, pinball contests, practical jokes, mutual abuse and occasional studying that happened while I was there. I’m getting old enough to forget all the bad parts and just remember the good stuff, which I’m sure the donations office is counting on.
Cookie Monster Cheesecake
For a period of several years, Cookie Monster lived on my desk at Microsoft. Every Sunday I’d bake a batch of cookies and bring it in to work the next morning. Those of you who knew me then remember, I’d send out an email message with an ASCII picture of Cookie Monster and what the cookie of the week was. I didn’t get much work done on Monday mornings as everyone came through and gossiped about the weekend, but I made lots of good friends that way!
Raspberry Almond Passion Cake
I made this cake for the woman I was dating at the time. Sadly, this relationship didn't end well, but the cake was great!
BerryCobblers
I couldn’t really come up with a good story to go with these, but I made them anyway. Then my sister said I should name them in honor of all the berry bad puns I made as a kid. Lucky for most of you, my college roommates beat that habit out of me before I moved to Seattle.
Toasted Walnut Cranberry Crostada
I love Italian food, and this year I took two trips to Italy. The first was to go to cooking school in Lucca. While this dessert isn’t one I learned on that trip, it is a traditional Italian recipe, and it was something I’d never tried before that looked like fun. The second trip was a cruise from Rome to Venice with Maria. See “Raspberry Almond Passion Cake.”
Nighttime Visitors
I started baking early, back when I was in Junior High, and by the time I was heading off to scout camp I was good enough to be making cookies to bring along. I was pretty proud of myself, and was chortling about how the other kids would be eating Oreos and I’d have homemade chocolate chip cookies. Sadly, the cookies weren’t packed in a smell proof container, and the aroma of freshly baked cookies was an attraction to more than my fellow scouts. In the middle of the night I awoke to the sound of rustling in my tent. Thinking it was one of the raccoons we’d seen earlier I pulled out my flashlight to take a peek, figuring I could scare it off. I’m glad I looked, because the white stripe made me decide that the better course of action was to leave my tent to the skunk and take my sleeping bag to the tent of one of the fathers for the night. I found the bag of cookies in the woods the next day, thoroughly decimated, and was begging Oreos for the rest of the week.
BMW Crème Brulee
Sniff. My poor car.
Gooey Peanut Butter Chocolate Brownie Cake
For my birthday cake. Kind of like an adult version of a peanut butter cup, but much yummier!
