new pear, new me...

a new year cake and a 2024 in and out list

Jan 14, 2024

Happy happy 2024! I’m ringing mine in with a celebratory bake (my favorite yet) and a 2024 in’s and out’s list.

So what did I make? Well, here is my- (*deep inhale*) Almond-RoseCakeWithHomemadeRedWine-PoachedPearJamAndSaltedVanilla-WhiteChocolateSwissMeringueButtercream :) And it was soooooo good. And yes I did place each almond slice on one by one. And yes I did brave the new Wegman’s in Astor Place because it was the only store selling blanched, slivered almonds. And yes it was all completely worth it just for the crunchy crack the cake made when sliced into.

Both the cake and buttercream recipes come from Thalia Ho’s website, which you can find here. Such lovely recipes, though I will try in the future to reduce the amount of butter in the buttercream by just a tad, should I be able to do so without compromising too much of the structure. Additionally, I probably won’t be using salted butter to make my buttercream. Look, I love salt as much as the next person, but I’ve learned my lesson. Using salted butter just makes it taste so much like pure butter. And clearly, I have some sort of problem with that.

The basic jam recipe is here, but bear in mind I riffed a little. I added a cinnamon stick and a couple of star anise pods to the liquid while it cooked, taking care to remove them before immersion blending the mixture. Oh, and I added a TON of extra red wine… like, there was nearly an entire bottle total in the final cake. lol

So it’s for that reason that I keep saying that this would make for a phenomenal wedding cake. It was so decadent and boozy and it tasted like a wedding cake but didn’t taste like Wedding Cake - you know, like the typical vanilla sponge with strawberry jam. ~~I’m so different! Mine is~~ ~~pear~~ ~~jam instead!!~~ But you know what I mean! If somebody, anybody, would like to commission me to bake their wedding cake, I would love to recreate this. And since it’d be for such a big occasion, I’d go all out. I’m thinking very much large, very much over the top, very much a la Feisty_feast’s super XXL cake . Please let me make your wedding cake and curse myself to the fate of hand-placing 5,000 slivered almonds on one by one. I welcome the opportunity.

feisty_feast

A post shared by @feisty_feast

And that brings me to my next segment: My 2024 In’s and Out’s list.

COMING IN:

1. Secret Niche Instagram Side-Accounts

Tumblr is so back, baby. I’ve been chasing the high that is online anonymity since I unofficially departed from Tumblr circa 2017-ish. You just can’t get it nowadays… or can you? Look, the value of the secret side-insta isn’t anything other than wanting to recreate the joys of early-day social media, back when posting was no work and all play.

In making the super-secret-side-insta, we free ourselves from the judgment of our close friends, graduating class, and that one random, but very pretty and sweet girl you met at a boiler room set. We can craft an entirely new online persona that’s super cool and epic and funny and, y’know what, maybe kind of cringe because cringe is also in nowadays. Nobody we know has to know about it (unless we start telling them, of course). So me? I’m creating my own little world and you’re all just living in it.

2. Referring to People You Know Online as “FirstName, InstagramHandle”

I just think it’s funny, so let me reintroduce myself. Hi, my name is Sam Pistachiomilkmatcha. Some of my favorite accounts and people are:

Don’t they all just roll off the tongue? It’s so disastrously, chronically online of me to do, but I’m not going to stop any time soon.

3. Finicky-Ass Recipes

This is in defense of Aimee Yungkombucha420’s muffin recipe. Didn’t she make and eat over a hundred muffins? Let her, and anyone else for that matter, formulate their recipes in peace and make them as finicky as they please. At this point, technique is really the only thing that can set most recipes apart.

4. Excessive Flavor Combos

I wanted a flavor list so long it’s bulleted, hyphenated, and/or paragraphs long. No, I am not writing this in my own self-interest. I’ll list some of them here just to clear my notes app:

Chili and calamansi buttercream, salted egg yolk buttercream, espresso/brown butter/malted milk powder chocolate cake, amaretto/orange/cherry anything, chocolate cake with persimmon jam and brown butter amaro buttercream, Earl Grey/London Fog tiramisu, sesame and matcha tart. Anything candied, preserved, or spiced.

5. Joint Bakes

I did one this past fall with Miss Laura Blackberryseason and we both had a total blast. The anticipation had us both downright GIDDY. It’s such a fun way to interact with your friends online and rest assured that you will be seeing a few collaborations from some friends and me this upcoming year.

GOING OUT:

1. My Too-Much Gene

This is entirely self-directed. I have an awful habit of squeezing just a biiiittttt too much lemon into dishes and sprinkling a haaaiiiir too much sugar into desserts. I’ve had enough! (And so has my boyfriend.) Maybe 2024 is the year that my intuition finally kicks in and I learn when enough is enough (but probably not).

2. 6+ Hour Screen Time

It’s time I break free from the shackles of Instagram, even when considering its recent increase in value in my life. I’ve actually never felt MORE of a need to stay connected. Every time I open the app I am greeted by the most beautiful creation to ever bless my eyes, and my friend just casually posted it on a Tuesday. But the short-form video content especially is absolutely nuking my attention span, and I’ll be the first to admit that my screen time has been outrageously high the past few months. I will attempt to cut down on my allotted iPad-baby time, but in order for this to not feel like a completely dull, regurgitated take, I’ve taken the time to include a list of pastimes more worthwhile than being on your phone.

Reading
Journaling
Penpalling aforementioned friends from Instagram
Writing daily to-do lists
Calling your family’s landline (i.e. NOT Facetiming, good old-fashioned phone call)
Sitting in a cafe and doing any of the above activities, but mysteriously
Hosting dinner parties
Playing board games
Ordering one drink at a bar and nursing it over a couple of hours while chatting with friends
Cleaning your room (self-directed), reorganizing your space
10-minute stretch routine
Going on a walk

3. A “Fun” (AKA Caffeinated) Drink Every Single Day

2023 saw my addiction to caffeine flourish and now 2024 will witness its decline. Any time I step foot outside my apartment, I’m overcome by an insatiable urge that guides my feet to the nearest cafe. I’m a prisoner! So in saying caffeine is somewhat out, I’m saying that carrying around a water bottle is inevitably in. And NYC tap water is actually so good.

4. Baking Just For Content

Truthfully, I go back and forth on this one but I’d generally like to move away from baking solely as a means to fill my feed. This desire mainly stems from the fact that I’ve watched many a baking project die in the back of my cramped fridge after not having enough people to finish it. I’m consciously trying to shift my perspective of baking away from viewing it as a grandiose, somewhat frivolous undertaking towards something more functional and practical. Enter sourdough bread. (Shoutout to my starter that’s nearly a week old now, it’s currently smelling of acetone.)

I’ve begun the immense undertaking that is breadmaking and I couldn’t be more excited. I’m conscious of the challenge and want to embrace the failures I know I’ll encounter along the way. I think allowing myself to fail is something I don’t do often enough and I’m always wanting to expand my understanding of baking and cooking. It’s just a bonus that I’ll never have to buy bread again.

However, I do think there exists a time and place for those frivolous, unnecessary bakes. I recently met up with Bernadette Buttermilkbabuska while she was in town and we discussed how sometimes it’s just nice to be able to control all the variables of a project. Sometimes I want to bake something on my own time and do so just to get a nice picture, it’s a great way to document my overall progress. I’ll just have to pawn them off on my friends, not that they really complain about that.

Alright y’all, thanks for letting me share my very lukewarm takes for the New Year, two weeks late. I’m looking forward to sharing my future projects here, of which there are a few very exciting ones. If you have any additions to my 2024 In’s and Out’s, let me know in the comments, I’d love to read them. Until next time!

xoxoxosami