Yes, I went THERE

Something monumental happened this past week. I fulfilled a life dream. Checked off a most important entry on my bucket list, if you will. I went to dessert club.

My cousin Kari has this blog. For the past few years, I have looked and awed and sometimes even drooled every few days as I check the next entry she has up. Sometimes I feel like a Pavlov canine... but to see is to salivate. Kari is legend in my family, and she even has a fan base from my college friends. When my BF Carrie met Kari, she told me she felt like she was meeting a celebrity. Justly so. 

Said cousin has a most inspiring tradition of having a monthly dessert club. This month, I got to be a guest, and it is a night neither I, nor my taste buds, nor even my stomach will forget. Oh, so many delights. Such good company. 

I have a fantastic cousin... even though Melinda and I came way too early (I need to be more careful when I put things in my calendar), she let us stay and chat. Her girls showed us around the house and told some scar stories. I got to see a steam mop in action for the first time in my life. Then the desserts started to plate in. (Pour just doesn't work there).

As for the desserts, you will have to look at her blog to see when the post comes up. She's amazingly creative in her baking, so there are always a several recipes that make their way onto the site between the monthly dessert club post. 

I had three favorites, but you only get two votes. The Lemon Pie was a hands down vote for me (inspired by the book A Walk in the Woods). The Blackberry Mudslide parfait (inspired by the book Where'd You Go, Bernadette?) with from scratch Irish Cream pudding was so deep in flavor and still light enough that it was all too easy to eat every last demi-spoon-ful. Had I another vote, or if I could have voted a tie, it would be between the parfait and the "Eat Me" cake, inspired by Alice in Wonderland. As it was, I chose "Eat Me;" it was breathtaking and smooth and flavorful. I have never had a cake with a texture like that. Mmmmmm.

Melinda and I were invited to come, and she was kind enough to make it optional for us to bring a dessert. Goose had the great idea of actually testing our recipe before showing up with it. Good thing, too. We made a cake. I think we are going to post it on "Nailed It," the Pinterest-inspired failure blog. Everything sounded good; white cake, chocolate mousse, fresh strawberries and ganache, and cream cheese icing. In the back of my mind I was thinking that we might have needed that shortening-icing for making roses-- "A Rose for Emily," the eerie short story by Faulkner, was the inspiration. That and this:

The flavors together should have been better than they were. It should have been awesome, in fact...but it was just bland. The icing, soft because of its creamy cheese, melted off the cake so we added way too much merengue powder to stiffen it. Bleh. Between that and "no-taste red food coloring," We tried a piece, ate about a forkful, then decided we couldn't look at it any more. Before we left the kitchen that night, Melinda wrote a note to any roommates who might want it.

So, cake-less but story-filled, we went to dessert club. I happen to know that I will never be the same again. 

Thanks, Kari.