Group 16: Pies & Cakes – Page 2 – Simply Delicious: The Cookbook Project

16-13: Lemon Meringue Pie

Jamie Martin Group 16: Pies & Cakes, Section 3: Desserts & Baked Goods January 3, 2021January 3, 2021all-purpose flour, butter, chilled, cornstarch, curd, cut in, dessert, dough, egg whites, egg yolks, eggs, fairly easy, favorites, filling, flaky, flute, fruit, gift ideas, granulated sugar, grated, inexpensive, lemon juice, lemon peel, lemons, meringue, new book, party food, pie crust, pies, salt, stiff peaks, untested, vegetarian

It’s citrus time where I live, which means that everyone has buckets of oranges, lemons, limes, and grapefruits that they can’t give away fast enough. I myself have an orange tree, but I’m often given lemons from friends and family as well–16-13: Lemon Meringue Pie is a good recipe to use up some of that winter citrus. You can also check out 15-29: Raspberry-Lemon Parfait or 17-42: Luscious Lemon Bars if you have a LOT of lemons to use up.

This is a NEW book recipe, so I never even knew until recently that Simply Delicious even had a lemon meringue pie recipe. If I had known, I guarantee I would have attempted it much earlier than now.

I LOVE lemon meringue pie–it conjures recipes of slowly rotating cake and pie displays in coffee shops. Man, do I miss eating in a restaurant.

16-49: Chocolate-Glazed Raspberry Tart

Jamie Martin Group 16: Pies & Cakes, Section 3: Desserts & Baked Goods December 24, 2020December 28, 2020all-purpose flour, butter, cakes, chilled, chocolate, Christmas, Christmas Eve, dark chocolate, dessert, double boiler, dough, eggs, fairly easy, fairly expensive, food processor, fruit, garnish, glazed, granulated sugar, layers, melted, parchment paper, party food, powdered sugar, raspberries, revisited, semisweet, stiff peaks, tart, TGV 2019, Thanksgiving, vanilla extract, vegetarian, whipped, whipping cream, XMAS 08

I had a goal to finish all the ones I cooked in 2019 by the end of 2020…not sure if I’ll meet that goal (EDIT: I did!), but here’s one more from last year: 16-49: Chocolate-Glazed Raspberry Tart. Not only is this from last Thanksgiving (along with 6-42: Turkey Pot Roast and 17-15: Cream Puffs), but I also made a version of it as part of a fancy Christmas dinner 12 years ago (XMAS 08) as well. Since today is Christmas Eve, I think it’s a good day to tell you about it.

When I made this back in ’08, I made 6 individual tarts instead of one big one–I was afraid it would look weird once I cut it, so I thought individual servings would look better. I had been watching a LOT of Top Chef at that point (and still do, but that’s the ONLY cooking show I’ll watch).

Since I had a few of the same guests attending as that Christmas dinner back in ’08 (and the same number), I decided to make the same modification this time. Usually I will reverse modifications when I recook recipes I’ve already done to try to honor the “original” recipe, but this time I decided to stick with it.

16-16: Chocolate-Frosted Nut Cake

Jamie Martin Group 16: Pies & Cakes, Section 3: Desserts & Baked Goods December 4, 2020December 3, 2020all-purpose flour, baking powder, butter, cakes, chocolate, cocoa powder, dessert, egg whites, eggs, fairly easy, fairly expensive, food processor, frosted, frosting, garnish, gift ideas, granulated sugar, grind, hazelnuts, melted, meringue, nuts, peeled, powdered sugar, stand mixer, stiff peaks, toasted, unsweetened, vegetarian, wax paper, whipping cream

Think of 16-16: Chocolate-Frosted Nut Cake like a Nutella cake–same flavor profile (chocolate and hazelnuts), and maybe even somewhat healthier?

This is a pretty simple cake–it’s just one layer, and all you have to do is frost and garnish it. Or you can do it like me and make little individual cakes instead.

16-42: Easy Lime Pie

Jamie Martin Group 16: Pies & Cakes, Section 3: Desserts & Baked Goods May 6, 2020July 2, 2020butter, cottage cheese, creamed, crushed, dessert, easy, eggs, fairly inexpensive, food processor, fruit, garnish, gift ideas, graham crackers, granulated sugar, grapes, grated, juiced, lemon balm, lime juice, limes, melted, mint, peeled, pie crust, pies, twice-baked, untested

If you were around in the 1980s-1990s, you may remember the obsession with low-fat everything, and finding ways to make “sinful indulgences” into something “guilt-free“. Note the deliberate choice of words, and that we still use that type of psychological framing around food today (and have been for a long time, even prior to the era in question).

The “low-calorie swap” in 16-42: Easy Lime Pie is cottage cheese, which was all the rage in the 1970s as a “healthy” option, but could still be found in a lot of recipes throughout the 80s and 90s.

I feel like even Simply Delicious didn’t really know how to make this pie sound appealing–do you think halved grapes as a garnish can be considered something notable? You can definitely tell this particular recipe was aimed at the dieting/low-calorie crowd.

16-45: Raspberry Tartlettes

Jamie Martin Group 16: Pies & Cakes, Section 3: Desserts & Baked Goods December 1, 2019October 29, 2020all-purpose flour, almond paste, at work, baking cups, blackberries, blueberries, boysenberries, butter, cut in, dessert, dough, egg yolks, eggs, fairly easy, fairly expensive, food processor, fruit, garnish, gluten-free, Grand Marnier, grated, liqueur, mint, nuts, party food, pastry, pastry cups, pie crust, powdered sugar, raspberries, Silpat, snacks, strawberries, tart, tart pan, tartlette, untested, vanilla extract, vegetarian, whipping cream

I’ve used this project as an excuse to make dishes to share at work before. This time, I made 16-45: Raspberry Tartlettes for a quarterly staff meeting. I had a colleague that was interested in trying vegan recipes and another that required gluten-free dishes, so I tried to incorporate both in this attempt.

I had originally bought tartlette tins for 5-20: Golden Cheese Tartlettes, and I’m just glad I’ve finally found another use for them. There’s also 16-9: Raspberry Tart, if you’re looking for something a bit larger, but in the same ballpark.

Did you notice that there already was a #45 for Group 16? 16-45: Colonial Apple Cake is also 16-45. Good job, Simply Delicious. 🙄

16-33: Crispy Almond Cake

Jamie Martin Group 16: Pies & Cakes, Section 3: Desserts & Baked Goods February 20, 2019October 29, 2020all-purpose flour, almonds, American, at work, butter, cakes, chilled, crispy, dessert, dough, eggs, fairly easy, fairly expensive, filling, food processor, garnish, gift ideas, granulated sugar, honey, light corn syrup, melted, party food, peeled, pie crust, Silpat, sliced, springform pan, strawberries, tart, tart pan, untested, vegetarian, whipping cream

I made 16-33: Crispy Almond Cake last September to pair with 16-26: Elegant Almond Cake as a breakfast treat for my work colleagues. This one was the less fancy of the two, but still went extremely well with some coffee on a Wednesday morning.

This title card blurb mentions that versions of this almond cake can be found all over the United States–Google doesn’t seem to want to confirm that claim for me. Searching almond cake results in several iterations of a Spanish flourless almond cake influenced by the Jewish tradition of Passover. Interesting, but none of them look like this recipe.

A search for almond tart (see 16-26: Elegant Almond Cake for my argument that these two dishes are tarts, not cakes as Simply Delicious claims) comes much closer–here’s a very similar version (with video!) from Martha Stewart herself.

16-26: Elegant Almond Cake

Jamie Martin Group 16: Pies & Cakes, Section 3: Desserts & Baked Goods February 18, 2019November 5, 2020all-purpose flour, almond paste, at work, butter, cakes, cherries, cherry liqueur, chilled, cornstarch, cut in, dessert, dough, egg yolks, eggs, fairly expensive, fairly hard, filling, food processor, garnish, gift ideas, glazed, granulated sugar, kneaded, liqueur, maraschino cherries, party food, pie crust, powdered sugar, springform pan, tart, tart pan, untested, vegetarian

A few months ago, I made two Simply Delicious almond cakes for work: this one, 16-26: Elegant Almond Cake and 16-33: Crispy Almond Cake. I think this one came out prettier, but they were both delicious.

Simply Delicious doesn’t mention this in their blurb, but it’s also great for accompanying coffee or tea on a Wednesday morning at the office. They also refer to this dish as a cake, but it’s very clearly a tart. To confirm, here’s a recipe from King Arthur Flour that is essentially this exact same dish (referred to a tart) but with raspberries instead of Maraschino cherries.

16-17: Meringue-Topped Cherry Pie

Jamie Martin Group 16: Pies & Cakes, Section 3: Desserts & Baked Goods February 8, 2019July 31, 20204th of July, all-purpose flour, black cherries, butter, cherries, chilled, cornstarch, cottage cheese, dessert, dough, egg whites, egg yolks, eggs, fail, fairly easy, fairly expensive, filling, flute, French, fruit, granulated sugar, melted, meringue, pies, springform pan, stiff peaks, tart pan, toppings, untested, vanilla extract, vegetarian

I bet you thought I abandoned this project. You’d be wrong–I just started a few others and let this one get a bit dusty. After almost 5 years, I’m still plugging along, and will be until I finish this damn thing. I don’t even know when I cooked this, but here’s 16-17: Meringue-Topped Cherry Pie.

I know I cooked it sometime in 2018, and I know that I wanted to attempt a vegan version (which didn’t go well). I think I was making it to bring to work, but I have a feeling it never made it there. Looking over the pictures of it, I think I know why.

16-10: Strawberry Shortcake

Jamie Martin Group 16: Pies & Cakes, Section 3: Desserts & Baked Goods September 5, 2018July 30, 2020all-purpose flour, American, baking powder, biscuit cutters, butter, cold desserts, dessert, easy, fairly inexpensive, fruit, granulated sugar, honey, Kahlúa, liqueur, marinated, MD2018, Mother's Day, orange juice, oranges, salt, shortening, sifted, sliced, soaked, sour cream, strawberries, summer, untested, vegetarian, whipped, whipping cream, zested

Just to show you how far behind I’m running with entries these days: I’m finally cracking into what I made for Mothers’ Day this year (MD2018) with 16-10: Strawberry Shortcake. You know…back in May. We were growing a ton of strawberries in the yard this year, and a few of them even made it into this dish.

Last year I attempted a Simply Delicious-inspired Mothers’ Day brunch (MD 2017), complete with fancy pastries and attempts at complicated sauces. This year, I kept it somewhat more simple in the interest of time spent and calories consumed. 🍓

16-11: Meringue-Topped Chocolate Pie

Jamie Martin Group 16: Pies & Cakes, Section 3: Desserts & Baked Goods June 7, 2018July 30, 2020all-purpose flour, almonds, at work, baked goods, butter, chilled, chocolate, custard, dark chocolate, egg whites, egg yolks, eggs, fairly easy, fairly expensive, gluten-free, granulated sugar, grated, lemon peel, lemons, macadamia nuts, meringue, milk, nuts, party food, pi day, pie crust, pies, semisweet, sliced, toasted, toppings, untested, vanilla extract, vegetarian, zested

A few months ago, we celebrated Pi Day in my office. Most of the pies were store-bought, but I decided to flip through Simply Delicious and see if there was anything worth contributing. I decided on 16-11: Meringue-Topped Chocolate Pie–everyone likes chocolate, and we had had a mishap with the lemon meringue pie on the way back from the store while preparing the day before.

If you’re not familiar with Pi Day, it takes place on March 14th, which when written as a numeric date is 3-14 (at least in the U.S. it is–some countries reverse the order). Pi (the mathematical constant represented by the Greek letter π) is usually rounded up to 3.14, so March 14th is celebrated with actual pies (and a bit of math) as a play-on-words. 😂

No one really needs an excuse to eat pie, but “It’s a math joke” is certainly an acceptable one.