Monday, April 12, 2010

Giveaway: Mila's First Birthday of Pies

Ok everyone, let's vote. And we all win because Designing Mom Shinmin of I Dream of Cake will let us in on one of her coveted pie recipes. Read below and leave a comment on the pie of your desire...



by Designing Mom Shinmin

As Cat mentioned in a previous post, Mila turned one last month.

As horribly depressed as I was that she would be no longer under one year, I wanted to throw her a fun yet casual party to mark this important milestone. Because I work in the event industry, people were really cranking up the pressure and expectations by asking almost daily, "what will you do for your daughter' first birthday?" And especially since I'm a pastry chef specializing in cakes I got this all the time, "Oh she's going to have the most spectacular cake. What will her very first cake be?" Oh the pressure!!!



Then as the first days of spring appeared, through the fresh scent of clean air, warmed by the sun's friendly touch, tulips and daffodils made their presence known. I immediately pictured a picnic. The vision became clear. Grass, picnic tables, taupe linen table cloth, flowers, sun..... and.... yes I think I see them..... Pies!!! Mila's First Birthday of Pies. All kinds of pies. Because Mila never had sweets up until then, I didn't know what she would like. So I decided to make nine kinds of pies and hoped something would please her.


My common sense was temporarily out of commission as I gave in to this pie fantasy and stayed up till 1:30 am baking the night before the picnic. Luckily I had the help of two amazing friends, Leticia and Ariel, who baked into the wee hours with me. With little sleep, I appeared at the Crissy Field picnic site at 6am to reserve the tables. Since I've fully committed to this picnic of pies, and had about 60 pie-hungry guests coming, I had to be sure to secure the tables. In case anyone in the San Francisco Bay Area is interested in a picnic at Crissy Field, I highly recommend it. The view of the Golden Gate bridge and water is breath taking. But the tables are first come first serve. Hence I appeared at 6am to claim my territory. I draped my table clothes on the tables, left a few nonvaluable items (all were stolen by the way) and went home to prep.


Here is a list of the pies I made.

1. Mila's Temper Tantrum Strawberry Rhubarb Explosion
2. Mila's Gone Bananas! - a caramelized banana tarte tatin
3. Mila's Peachy Keen - a tart of peaches poached in a brandy orange reduction
4. Mila's Sweet & Tart Apple Pie - a blend of Gala and Granny Smith pie
5. Mila's Blueberry Madness - a lattice topped Blueberry pie
6. Mila's First Coconut Cream Pie - Coconut custard dream, topped with coconut whipped cream and toasted coconut flakes
7. Mila's Tutti Fruit - a fruit flan tart with strawberies, raspberries, kiwis, mangos, and blueberries, all sitting on a spread of lemon Creme patisserie
8. Pretty Pumpkin Milana - a traditional pumpkin pie with short bread flowers as decoration
9. Milana's Prim & Proper Linzer Torte - an Austrian traditional almond torte with raspberry puree

I'm happy to share one of my recipes. Please leave a comment and vote on the pie you would like to bake!

12 comments:

Our Designing Moms said...

Shinmin, I love that you're a rebel.
I vote for the Banana tarte tatin!

Anonymous said...

i'd love to try out the Mila's Temper Tantrum Strawberry Rhubarb Explosion!!! sounds yummy!

Anonymous said...

i'd love to try out the Mila's Temper Tantrum Strawberry Rhubarb Explosion!!! sounds yummy!

CraftCrave said...

Just a quick note to let you know that a link to this post will be placed on CraftCrave today [13 Apr 02:00pm GMT]. Thanks, Maria

G. said...

Shinmin, this is awesome!! I vote for the Tutti Fruit tart... My family and I are suckers for fruit tarts. It is always the "birthday cake" of choice... how fun if we can actually bake one...

On a side note, I agree, the pressure of the first birthday party is definitely out of control. Can only imagine what it was like for you... Everything looked so beautiful though, Mila will have beautiful pictures to cherish when she grows up!

anne p. said...

Blueberry for sure. It's our very favorite.

loren weltsch said...

i vote for apple!
what an adorable party idea!

MamaSove said...

They all sound (and look) spectacular! What a great idea to present an array of fruit pies for a picnic party ;) I'd love to see the recipe for the Tutti Frutti!

ellyandphil said...

yum, I vote peach! and what if it ends up a tie for all flavors :)?

Princess and the Pea said...

Temper tantrum all the way - I am a princess after all ;)

Jenn White Topliff said...

Shinmin - I did Grace's first birthday at Chrissy Field almost exactly a year ago! I did a blog post about it too (and you were mentioned in it!!). It really is the perfect spot for a birthday picnic at the beginning of Spring - but the early morning wake up call to reserve tables sucks big time! I made my husband go down to reserve tables at 4am!! Anyway, your birthday of pies looks like it was a fabulous time - happy surviving your first year of motherhood!

Oh, and I vote for the coconut number... that's right up my alley!

Jenn

shinmin said...

Thanks so much for everyone's feedback and voting. I'll be sure to post a recipe next week.

Jenn, I would LOVE to see the post on your Crissy Field party. Why was I mentioned, just curious? :)

Related Posts with Thumbnails