LTH Dessert Exchange - Monday, March 2nd @ 6:30pm

Inspired by the success of Hellodali's small household food exchange, Pucca and I would like to help facilitate further food swapping with a regular dessert exchange. We both bake frequently and would like to share our sweet experiments with others. The basic idea is that we would gather once a month, and each person would bring a dessert or baked good of some kind to exchange--cake, pie, cookies, bread, pudding, candies...

We have a few more specific ideas about how the exchange might work, but we'd love the input of any interested folks, so we invite you to a planning meeting and initial swap.

LTH Dessert Exchange
Monday, March 2nd @ 6:30pm
happy_stomach's House (West Town/East Village)
Bring a dessert to share.

I'll serve a light dinner, and we can discuss the exchange over desserts and coffee/tea. Post here if you'd like to join us and what you plan on bringing, and I'll PM my address. We'd like to keep the group relatively small (say, 5-7 people?) so that we're not each gaining a few kilos with every swap, but hopefully by meeting monthly, everyone who wants to participate will be able to. Join us!

Participants:
happy_stomach (ginger cornmeal pound cake)
Pucca (chocolate and pear cake)
Pie Lady (chocolate mint cheesecake or sour cream apple pie)
aschie30 (lemon cream tart)
ymas (chocolate lava cupcakes)
eli (crack brownies)
Hellodali (gâteau aux noix)
earthlydesire (selection of sandwich cookies)

Waitlist:
Suzy Creamcheese (Mexican hot chocolate cupcakes)
justjoan
jygach
Kennyz (macarons or vanilla cookies with vanilla sabayon)
Cookie Monster

This is evil. I mean that in the most complimentary way. I'll be there!

I'm not sure what I'll be bringing, but I'll let you know at least a week in advance. I guess it should be pie. Does it matter that I have very few recipes that I actually made up myself?

Pie Lady wrote:Does it matter that I have very few recipes that I actually made up myself?

Glad you can join us! It doesn't matter at all whose recipe you use. I've just, just started myself tweaking recipes...with edible results.

How funny! I was thinking about making a grapefruit yogurt cake in the near future too! Great minds think alike! I'll be making a chocolate and pear cake.

Pucca wrote:How funny! I was thinking about making a grapefruit yogurt cake in the near future too! Great minds think alike! I'll be making a chocolate and pear cake.

You rock! (And not just because you were thinking of the same cake as me.) I don't think I've ever had chocolate pear cake--I'm excited!

This sounds so great!
I'll have to skip March 2nd, as it's the nite before a trip for me,
but perhaps I can make it in April...
and pull out a Waitress Pie recipe or a Soprano pineapple ricotta pie...
very film inspired...

happy,

I assume that everyone will bring home a portion of the dessert that someone made (and it won't be that, if there's five people, you bring five pies, one for each person)? So you, in essence, bring home an assorted dessert plate? Otherwise, I, too, am concerned that I'd be bringing home a gluttony of desserts.

Assuming I'm assuming correctly, it sounds like a great idea and I'd like to participate. My dessert is TBA.

To keep it simple given our small gathering size, just make your recipe as is, and don't worry about doubling or tripling. Assuming that there will be leftovers, be prepared to have something to transport it home w/you!

irisarbor wrote:This sounds so great!
I'll have to skip March 2nd, as it's the nite before a trip for me,
but perhaps I can make it in April...

I hope so!

aschie30 wrote:I assume that everyone will bring home a portion of the dessert that someone made (and it won't be that, if there's five people, you bring five pies, one for each person)? So you, in essence, bring home an assorted dessert plate?

aschie30, thanks for that clarification. Yes, each person will essentially bring home an assorted dessert plate. (Gosh, doesn't that sound wonderful?!) So, a slice of cake from me, a slice from Pucca, a piece of pie from Pie Lady, etc.

Just joined the lthforum and would like to attend if there's still space -- thanks!
And if someone could let me know if i get in or not, that would be great -- but hopefully "in"

Regards,
Yumi

happy_stomach wrote:...a piece of pie from Pie Lady, etc.

Yes, here is some incredible decision-making on my part:

Since there are two cakes already, I will not be making cake.
Does cheesecake count as pie? It is Celebrate Your Name Week after all. So yes, I will be making some form of crusted delight. The flavor, though, is still TBA. What's the emoticon for pondering?

ymas wrote:Just joined the lthforum and would like to attend if there's still space -- thanks!
And if someone could let me know if i get in or not, that would be great -- but hopefully "in"

Regards,
Yumi

Welcome, Yumi! We'd be glad to have you join the exchange. Please post when you know what you'll be bringing.

Pie Lady wrote:What's the emoticon for pondering?

...
(OK, I'll stop with the emoticons now.)

I think this sounds great. Is there still room for another? I'd probably make some version of crack brownies: http://elicooks.wordpress.com/2008/11/3 ... -brownies/

eli wrote:I think this sounds great. Is there still room for another? I'd probably make some version of crack brownies: http://elicooks.wordpress.com/2008/11/3 ... -brownies/

eli, with those brownies, you can be the guest of honor.

After eli, let's say we've got room for 2 more.

Oh, man. I love this. I want to do this. But I worry about eating too much dessert given that I am powerless in the face of sugar.

Angel-devil-angel-devil...

OK, devil wins. I'm going to look at this as an opportunity to keep my baking skills current, not as an opportunity to eat desserts I'll be there March 2 with something TBD.

Looking forward to the event, and will post what i'll be bringing as soon as i can decide what to bake -- thanks!

Hellodali wrote:Angel-devil-angel-devil...

I think this is another You-know-you-are-an-LTH'r-when moment. Seriously, you are the third person this week to respond to a food proposition I've made with that (and they've been three different, unrelated propositions). I guess I'm on a roll!

Hi all -- I would really love to participate. I hadn't seen the thread until it was called to my attention and I'm salivating at the fun of this.

I don't know what my contribution will be yet but I will forgo cake -- I'll focus on cookies or some other dessert treat.

Oooh....I'm thinking of the experimentation to come!

Please count me in!

Shannon

earthlydesire wrote:Please count me in!

Excellent, Shannon! See you on March 2nd.

Waitlist begins now.

Can I add myself to the waitlist? I'm thinking I would make something like Mexican hot chocolate cupcakes or similar.

Suzy Creamcheese wrote:Can I add myself to the waitlist? I'm thinking I would make something like Mexican hot chocolate cupcakes or similar.

Done.

3 questions: can a professional baker come, or would that bother people? if the answer is yes, and no, can i get on the wait list? thirdly, are you asking people to exchange recipes, or just food? thanks, justjoan

Any room for one more?

Jyoti

justjoan wrote:3 questions: can a professional baker come, or would that bother people? if the answer is yes, and no, can i get on the wait list? thirdly, are you asking people to exchange recipes, or just food? thanks, justjoan

Hi justjoan,

Of course you can get on the waitlist! March 2nd is still a ways away, so there very well could be some switcheroos with the participant list.

Others can chime in, but I think it'd be wonderful if professional bakers got in on the exchange. I may be getting my LTHer life bios mixed up, but I'm pretty sure there's at least one person in the current participant list who has professional culinary training. (I, on the other hand, am as amateur as it gets. I'm just enthusiastic and practice a lot!)

The recipes question is an excellent one. I was mainly thinking about eating and talking about baking, but questions about recipes will surely arise. I think if recipes can be swapped, that'd be fantastic. If some people would rather not share a recipe and only the dessert itself, that'd be fine by me, but, again, others can offer opinions. I don't want to make up the rules for the group.

I haven't given a lot of thought about how to document the dessert exchange for posterity. I imagine I'll take some pictures to post on the board. LTHers who can't join us may be curious about recipes as well. I say let's talk about all of this at the planning meeting, and we'll see how it goes...

I had already thought that I'll bring recipes for everyone when I show up with my goodies. It just seemed like a nice idea -- so I'll be bringing copies of whatever I make.

Which is still up in the air.

I have to tell you all -- having been laid off last week (anyone need a good Executive Assistant -- if so, PM me!), this dessert exchange is really proving to be a nice little golden light ahead of me in the midst of the fog of uncertainty.

Shan

jygach wrote:Any room for one more?

Jyoti, we'd love to have you. I've added you to the waitlist.

I'm perfectly willing to squeeze people in my place for the first meeting seeing as how I can't stand to turn folks away. The rationale for the participant limit was so that each person isn't going home with more than a platter's worth of desserts. I want the exchange to be sustainable, and I don't want people to feel like they've maxed out their calorie limits with the first swap.

Pucca and I had discussed possibly doing the exchange twice a month, since both she and I bake enough to swap at least that often. Perhaps if there's enough interest, I can put up a second exchange date for March...

justjoan wrote:can a professional baker come, or would that bother people?

Personally, I'm not bothered at all if a professional baker participates.

This sounds terrific. One of my goals for the year is to learn how to make really good French macaroons. If I perfect them by March 2, that'll be my contribution. If not, I'll make almond cookies with vanilla sabayon. (all of this is, of course, if I make it off the wait list)

Kennyz wrote:This sounds terrific. One of my goals for the year is to learn how to make really good French macaroons.

That's one of my goals too this year!

I'm glad there seems to be quite a bit of interest!

earthly desire - I'm so sorry. I will definitely keep you in mind if an opportunity comes up.

earthlydesire wrote:I have to tell you all -- having been laid off last week (anyone need a good Executive Assistant -- if so, PM me!), this dessert exchange is really proving to be a nice little golden light ahead of me in the midst of the fog of uncertainty.

Shannon, I actually started baking in earnest last summer during a particularly wacky time in my life. Baking and sharing were very healing for me. I'll keep an eye out for executive assistant job opps.

Kennyz wrote:This sounds terrific. One of my goals for the year is to learn how to make really good French macaroons. If I perfect them by March 2, that'll be my contribution.

Oh, my. This may be enough for me to call a second exchange date. You're on the waitlist for now, but that second date may be coming soon...