Tuesday, September 29, 2015

Pie versus Cake

It's come to my attention that there are people who consider pie to be an adversary of cake.  Or at least, who feel the need to advocate for pie over cake.  I find this crazy, because I am crazy about both.


And to prove it, I treated myself to an adorable mini-pie at the Saturday Market this past weekend.  The market has been hosting three different baked-goods stalls the last couple of weeks, and they are all enticing, but the one in the middle is the one with the sweet treats, and I could only resist the adorable tiny pies there the first time I passed. 

I don't know what it is about pie... we used to have them always at family holiday meals, in multiple flavours to suit everybody's different tastes, but never cake (why?) unless it was a birthday, or Easter when my sister took advantage of the bunny cake molds she bought on a long-ago visit to Germany. And even at Easter, there would be pie.

Sometimes the pies were store bought, sometimes made by hand.  The favourites were rhubarb - the sour stalks tempered by the sweet thick custard they were baked in, YUM - and pumpkin, of course, at both Thanksgiving and Christmas.  I looooove pumpkin pie, and I can make it myself, but the one time it mattered, when I got to host Thanksgiving for Pete's family, I was so overwhelmed by the other things I was doing that day, I forgot to put in any sugar. 

It was not pretty.

This pie, on the other hand, is very pretty in my opinion.  Also, it's peach raspberry, which is a hard combo not to love.  In addition to eating it, I would love to be able to do my living room walls the colour of this piecrust.


Interestingly (to me) it tasted like the only processed sugar in this pie was the chunks of it on the top.  And yet: delicious.  So unlike my pumpkin effort.

I might have to go back to the bakery stall where I got it next Saturday, too.

What about you?  Are you pie or cake, or all over both?


9 comments:

Su said...

Cake. Definitely cake!

Linda said...

Even though I like pie at times, I'm much more of a cake person. Sometimes I crave cake so badly, it almost hurts! I don't bake as much anymore as my husband is diabetic and prefers not to have it (or pie) in the house. But if something is in the house, for him it is pie! Probably more than you wanted to know - LOL!

Linda in VA

Mary Keenan said...

Cake and pie fill such different needs, don't they... Do you have a favourite cake, Linda? And su - favourite pie flavour?

At the cottage this summer Pete and I discovered that the nearest food shop sells THE best home made raspberry pie ever. Raspberry pie was never something that occurred to me as a thing before, but wow, I cannot WAIT till next summer to have more :^)

I wonder if she'll do a batch for cottagers who go up north for Thanksgiving?

Su said...

Pie, to me is savoury, cheese and onion, meat and potato, steak and kidney etc. I prefer crumbles, especially plum crumble, crumbles are warm, filling, sweet and delicious. Cakes, with the exception of the abomination known as carrot cake, are a sweet treat, to be enjoyed very occasionally, usually on special occasions such as birthdays.

Mary Keenan said...

Omigosh Su, I had this amazing apple crumble the other night. It was literally half an apple baked in its own skin, with some crumble topping scattered over the cut side... the skin basically turned into a bowl to scoop the rest out of, and it was the exact right proportion of crumble to fruit. YUM.

(love carrot cake though. haven't you tried that icing??? that icing is why carrot cake exists.)

Su said...

I don't even really like the icing! Sorry. Carrot cake to me is essentially a vegetable with an odd topping. I prefer my carrots as good, honest veg not dressed up as something it's not. Yes, I'm odd!

Mary Keenan said...

Well, if you don't like the cream cheese icing Su, I won't gross you out by mentioning the cream cheese fudge recipe I found at the antique market last month, heh

Laurinda said...

Cake OR pie? Cake AND pie! & crumble! & pistachio cookies! & Lindt chocolates! I have a super sweet tooth!
I've always said that I'm a grown up, & I can like more than one thing. Dogs & cats, ice cream & chips, Chevy & Ford :-D

Mary Keenan said...

I like the way you think Laurinda ;^)