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Piece, Love & Happiness​ By Sarah Baird

For 10 months out of the year, the battle between cake lovers and pie diehards rages as a sugar-fueled tit for tat over which dessert is more beloved by the public. Birthdays have long been cake territory — whether you’re talking heirloom recipe carrot cake or from-the- box rainbow sprinkle — but pie has been making some serious moves into these celebrations. (Peach pie with candles in it, anyone?) Pie typically finds itself center stage at summertime potlucks and family reunions, particularly in situations where frosting might become a buttercream puddle in the sun. But the needle has been moving toward cake recently, as (typically icing- free) bundt and pound cakes are having a moment of potluck-dining glory. The two months out of the year, though, that remain firmly and undeniably pie territory — no questions asked — are November and December, the holiday season. Pie’s stranglehold during these colder months dates all the way back to 14th-century England, where it was a celebratory dish that began as a gussied-up porridge. “In the beginning, there was frumenty — a plain wheat porridge that was the staple food of peasants,” writes Janet Clarkson in 2009’s Pie: A Global History. “It was

enriched for special occasions (such as Christmas) with sugar and spice and all other things nice, such as eggs, dried fruit (‘plums’), wine and finely chopped meat. This Christmas porridge…eventually evolved into Christmas (mincemeat) pie.” As for Thanksgiving, sweet-tooth-approved pies have become as critical to that beloved November meal as any turkey and stuffing. (Just try to imagine your family’s reaction if someone forgot the pies one year. A nightmare, right?) “America has developed a pie tradition unequivocally and unapologetically at the sweet end of the scale, and at no time is this better demonstrated than at Thanksgiving in November,” Clarkson writes. “It seems that the country goes pie-mad at this time…” And after a particularly trying year for many, who isn’t anticipating that first slice of pie and its ability to melt away troubles — at least momentarily — with its sweetness? Maybe you’ll eat the pie before the meal itself, or maybe you’ll have multiple servings back to back. Maybe you stack one slice atop the other to make a double-decker pie slice! Whatever your approach, we’re all afforded a little extra room to indulge as wackily as we please this holiday season. After all, as David Mamet wrote in his 1999 play, Boston Marriage, “We must have a pie. Stress cannot exist in the presence of a pie.” If you’ve ever been curious which pie reflects your personality best (and which one you might consider hitting up first on the dessert table), the following quiz will help reveal your baked-to-perfection doppelgänger.

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