If this year has taught us anything, it’s that birthdays are a blessing – even when they’re celebrated social distance style and even if your candles are placed on a pie instead of cake. Both Ella and I have July birthdays and, as I assume was the case for most people these past several months, the celebrating didn’t look like we expected it to. We mostly spent (more) time at home but we did manage to acquire two Milk Bar pies in the two weeks between our birthdays. While it didn’t exactly make up for not having a huge gathering of friends + family for Ella’s *SIXTEENTH*, it was a small, delicious consolation prize and we have our fingers crossed for a sweeter seventeen.
For my birthday (I’m officially can’t-wait-to-take-my-bra-off-at-the-end-of-the-day years old if you’re wondering), I made my very first trip to Milk Bar LA after watching owner Christina Tosi’s episode of Chef’s Table about a dozen times and drooling over all the amazing treats she makes – particularly that pie. I pictured the trip a little differently in my head – i.e. actually getting to go inside and perhaps taking an in-person class – but it was a nice time nonetheless. I loved the cereal milk ice cream (tastes wonderful without being super sweet) and the compost cookie is the odd combination of flavors (coffee/chips/pretzels/etc) I never knew I needed. And that pie, which was so nice we bought it twice, is the stuff that gooey, buttery, melt-in-your-mouthy, oatmeal cookie-crusty dreams are made of. I’m always afraid to build things up in my mind at the risk of being disappointed but this was not that. This was heaven on earth encased in a pie tin and there’s nothing about it I don’t love.
Two months post-birthday trip, I’ve watched that Chef’s Table episode at least once more and spent a good amount of time paging through Christina Tosi’s cookbook to see what I can bake for the family while we wait out the remainder of 2020. With a little luck, I’ll be learning to make a Milk Bar birthday cake (or that pie!!) in time for next year’s festivities but for now I’m grateful for the mini experience I did get to enjoy, all the baked goods we can still order to go and another trip around the sun because no matter how you slice it, being alive + well is a gift and any good thing beyond that is buttercream.
Have you been to Milk Bar? What’s your favorite non-traditional birthday treat? Let me know below…
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