Pie v. Cake

Cake and cupcakes are still going strong in the Seattle area. Metropolitan Market has a huge mountain of little boxes with specialty cupcakes in them, and I saw a pink cupcake maker at Fred Meyer. When asked, the baker at Met Market said cake sells better than pie. Some of pie lovers admitted liking cake more often than their favorite pies, but would eat pie if offered both. One interviewee remarked that “the only bad thing about pie is that there’s no frosting.” See the blog, Hyperbole and a Half for a more scientific, illustrated approach to the cake-or-pie debate.

One ShelfTalk editor told me the movie Waitress “made me want to eat pie every day for the rest of my life.” In fact, in an informal poll conducted by *myself* I discovered everyone has a favorite pie, regardless of their opinion about cake v. pie. The first three people I asked told me that lemon meringue pie is their favorite, then three people told me rhubarb or strawberry rhubarb, two told me blueberry pie, one apple, one chocolate and one pumpkin. Two people mentioned cheesecake which is sort of a compromise between cake and pie. Only one person told me they make their own pie and he makes pie only occasionally. It’s interesting that we want pie but don’t make it ourselves.

The library collection can be an indicator of a possible rising public interest in self-made pies. One of the most recent how-to books on the subject,  Pies, Pies and More Pies! by Viola Goren, is not for the pie novice, but is great for competing in a pie baking contest or impressing someone special. For those who want to know about pie but don’t wish to make pie, download the eBook, Pie: A Global History by Janet Clarkson. One of my favorite pie-related novels is World of Pies by Karen Stolz in which pie features largely. Connected short vignettes trace the arc of Roxanne’s life – beginning with a 1962 Texas pie contest.

Two more recent novels tempt us with pie in the title, but have nothing to do with actual PIE! The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie by Alan Bradley featuring Flavia de Luce, a gifted child with a penchant for mystery – not pie! The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society by Mary Ann Shaffer is not only missing pie, the missing potato peel pie itself is fictional. So, in a fit of book group zeal, Nancy Miyasaki invented a recipe to go with the discussion of Shaffer’s book and posted it on the Cook, Eat Share website.

The cake v. pie race is tied! 
                                         ~  Jen B., Central Library