Help me make an easy and yummy dessert for my book club meeting tomorrow! The book was The Eyre affair, a detective story in an alternate England with zeppelins, reconstituted dodos, time travel, and where art and literature are very, very important.
My favorite part is where the radical wing of the New Marlovians firebombs the Baconian meetinghouse…or maybe the riots between the surrealists, who attack with giant soft watches, and the humanists, who chant Renaissance slogans…
Anyway I’m having a hard time thinking of a good dessert. I like them to go with the book, and there isn’t much food in the story, and all I can think of that Jane Eyre would have made is oatcakes and gingerbread, both a little less exciting than I would like. So, help me out here with ideas!
How about a Banana Pudding. It’s easy to make, and you could maybe rename it to be relevant to the book.
I saw this really delicious recipe for banana pudding on the food network called Not Yo Mama’s Banana Pudding.
It looks really good and uses Chessman cookies…maybe that could tie into the novel?
Oops, I forgot to say a couple of things. First, I made trifle last time. It was a big hit. Also, we’re mostly LDS, so no recipes featuring liquor or coffee (my trifle was non-alcoholic).
Since you mentioned gingerbread in your OP, why not make a good, rich gingerbread cake? There’s no alcohol or coffee involved, and the flavors are perfect for this time of year.
I’ve made this recipe for gingerbread cake a dozen times over (minus the chocolate glaze), and it’s wonderful.
Do you have a grill pan? You could do Grilled Peaches served with Vanilla Ice Cream.
You cut the peaches in half (and pit them, of course) beforehand, and marinate them in honey with cinnamon added. Then grill and serve with vanilla ice cream. Garnish with a cookie or a piece of chocolate or a sprig of mint. Mmmmmmm!
You put fruit in your trifle? What an abomination!!! TRUE trifle is chocolate, chocolate, more chocolate and khalua (sp?). I don’t use the khalua though because I don’t like alcohol. I just use mudslide mix and it’s really good.
Here’s my recipe:
1 box of Devils Food cake (the kind with pudding in the mix)
2 boxes of Vanilla pudding (it’s supposed to be chocolate but the vanilla’s prettier)
1 cup of mudslide mix (is supposed to be khalua. mine is good for kids)
1 tub of cool whip
8 crushed chocolate toffee bars (Heath, Skor, etc…)
you can substitute crused toffee pieces (no chocolate covering. Hershey’s sells them by the bag.
Cook and cool the cake according to the directions. It doesn’t matter what kind of pan you use.
Make the pudding and let firm up.
Put half the cake on the bottom of a trifle dish (or any round, preferably glass dish with high sides). I’ve crumbled the cake completely and made a thick layer. I’ve also cubed the cake and made a neater layer. It doesn’t really matter.
Drizzle half the mudslide mix over the cake.
Spread half the pudding over the cake.
Spread half the cool whip over the pudding
Sprinkle half the toffee over the cool whip (cover it completely)
Repeat cake
Repeat mudslide mix
Repeat pudding
Repeat cool whip
Repeat toffee
Refrig. over night. The longer you refrig., the flavors mix more and the better it tastes.
My goal is to make a 3rd repeat of everything but I always run out of room in my trifle dish.
Everyone loves this, even people who don’t like deserts. I made one for a coworker for Thanksgiving. Her husband (who never eats dessert), ate the entire thing, by himself, in less than 4 days.
dangermom, you might be interested in The Book Club Cookbook. I heard an NPR interview with the authors and the whole idea of serving food themed with the books sounds like such a kick! I’d love to try their Honey Cakes recipe while discussing The Secret Lives of Bees, heh.
I just find the whole concept of bringing the book alive enchanting.
And I think my pancreas seized, reading congodwarf’s recipe. God that sounds delicious! Curses on my sugar restrictions!
Not really and truly. I could probably get some peaches at one of the pricier grocery stores, but they’d most likely be not-too-wonderful, and really expensive as well. Most Californians have learned to enjoy fruits and veggies in season, when they taste best.
I think we’re going to have parkin (Yorkshire gingerbread cake), apple cider, and chocolates.* Thanks everybody! And read The Eyre affair, if you haven’t yet.
*In our family, it’s chocolate season; my mom and I dip our own bonbons. So she did a batch last night for this meeting. It’s pretty funny really–we put all this effort into making a variety of truffles and creams, but the best ones are the marshmallows and the almonds, which are no effort at all!
