Today is the last day for my daughter to be a 12-year-old. Tomorrow–a teenager. What a great kid she is, and I can’t believe how fast she’s growing up. Her dad and I are so proud of who she’s becoming! One of the big dreams my husband and I had together was to be parents, and she made our dreams come true! She’s the reason for today’s pie–chocolate cream pie was her request. Our day tomorrow is full from dawn to dusk, so we’re celebrating tonight. Even though her dad and I will take her shopping for a cell phone (her first) in a few days, I hope she’ll remember the pie a lot longer than the phone!

“Ruthie! Wake up! Can you hear me? I’ve got hot chocolate pie filling and I can’t come up!” was what I shouted this morning at 7:10, which is about 10 minutes after she should get up for school. About 20 minutes before that–6:50 to be exact–I realized that I would need to make today’s pie BEFORE I took her to school and went to work. Today’s pie. Chocolate creme. With MERINGUE on top.

I tell you that girl was downstairs in 30 seconds or less and said, “Chocolate pie was all I needed to hear.” When she arrived in the kitchen, I was stirring chocolate filling on the stove and realizing that the recipe called for putting the meringue immediately onto the filling. Hmmmmm…..immediately implies that the meringue is already made. OK. So I hurried up and made it. Real quick like. We laughed as I juggled pie-making tasks and finally got the thing ready to go in the oven. Somewhere in there we each tasted the filling and decided that no matter what it looks like in the end, it’ll taste good. Then, as it turns out, we realized we had 15 minutes (that’s how long it bakes) to take showers and get back downstairs. So we shoved it in the oven, set the timer, and ran.

I made it down first when I heard the oven beeping. I opened the oven and loudly exclaimed, “WOW!” For the second time, my daughter ends up in the kitchen, with wet hair this time, and said that she had to see because she wasn’t sure whether my “WOW!” was good or bad.  When she saw the pie cooling on the cake stand, she too declared, “WOW!” That chocolate cream pie with meringue on top just looked really cool. Here’s a glamour shot:

Now. We enjoyed our pie after a yummy dinner of take out Chinese food. Here’s what happened when we cut the pie.

I’m pleased to announce, that with 37 days left in the countdown, we actually have a triangle-ish slice of pie. Now, the meringue shrunk a bit, so it sort of resembled an ill-fitting beret, BUT…man, that pie was good. So super chocolatey. Also, the meringue tasted great and had a very nice texture. Most importantly, the birthday girl loved it enough to ask for a second slice. That’s all any baker can ask. In conclusion, chocolate cream pie with meringue was a success. Indeed, it was a tasty day for this pie maker.