Dories Key Lime Pie

Steve doesn't have much of a sweet tooth. He doesn't give most of my bakery items a second look. He does, however, request Key Lime or Lemon Meringue Pie for each of his birthdays. Today is the big 45. Yikes! I'm quickly following behind him.

This pie is from Dorie Greenspan. All of her recipes are fantastic and this one is no exception. It came together easily, baked up in 12 minutes flat and was oohed and ahhhed over.

I doubled the recipe and baked in a deep dish 10" pie pan.

Graham Cracker Crust
3 C Chopped Graham Crackers
2 sticks butter, melted
1/4 c sugar

Mix and press into pan. Bake 10 minutes at 350.

Beat 4 egg yolks, add juice of 6 key limes, 1 can condensed milk. Beat well.

Boil 1 cup heavy whipping cream with 1 cup coconut until cream is reduced by half.

Place coconut mixture into baked crust, add egg mixture. Bake 12 minutes as 350. Freeze one hour.

You could use meringue but I used heavy whipping cream to top the pie. Whalla. Easy Peasy!

Key Lime Pie: Steve's Happy Birthday

The Cake Slice

I've joined a new baking group and couldn't be more thrilled. As I was taking part in one of my favorite activities-combing through the shelves of the baking section at Barnes and Noble-I came across Sky High: Irresistible Triple Layer Cakes by Alicia Huntsman and Peter Wyness. The cookbook is big and beautiful with full color pictures of over half of the cakes, yes, only cakes and triple layer no less. I had to purchase it.

When I came home and googled some of the recipes I couldn't believe my good fortune: The Cake Slice. Gigi and Katie decided to use the cookbooks they actually have upon their own shelves and came up with this premise: bake from the book one recipe each month. The group votes upon the cake to bake, eventually baking 12 of the cakes. I love it!

Not only do I love to bake, but cakes are my favorite item to bake..bread is a second and brownies a third. I have baked every cake in Dorie Greenspan's My Kitchen to Yours and every cake in Williams Sonoma Cakes. I am ready to move onto Sky High!

Today's cake is the Triple Lemon Chiffon Cake. Triple as in triple layer and in triple lemon. The cake consists of three lemon chiffon layers-9" with a rich lemon curd filling and then a lemon cream frosting. Amazingly lemony!

I am by no means an expert on cake baking; after all of the cakes I have baked I have never made a lemon chiffon nor have I made lemon curd. The words lemon curd remind me of curdled milk. They reminded Tyler of bean curd and Troy of cheese curd. We weren't too excited about lemon curd, but let me tell you, the lemon curd was wonderful!

The cake went together easily-only baking for 16 minutes. Tyler and Troy both like the cake-this rarely happens that they both agree on a flavor. Tyler doesn't have a sweet tooth and usually stays away from chocolates so I did think he would like this. Troy likes chocolate, but also likes sour flavorings. Both boys rated this cake as superb!

I now need to learn how to photograph as well as decorate :)

You may check Gigi's blog for the recipe The Cake Slice for other bloggers/pictures (bloggers who take better pictures and who decorate cakes better than I)