Jump to content
  • Welcome to the eG Forums, a service of the eGullet Society for Culinary Arts & Letters. The Society is a 501(c)3 not-for-profit organization dedicated to the advancement of the culinary arts. These advertising-free forums are provided free of charge through donations from Society members. Anyone may read the forums, but to post you must create a free account.

80's Dessert


Suzi Edwards

Recommended Posts

Make a cake with some 80s-type new-wave graphics on it.  Or take a look at some Memphis design by Ettore Sottsass and come up with some cake construction based on those colors (think yellow, red, and blue) and geometrical designs.

Or better yet, get one of those professionally made cakes where they can actually airbrush sugar pictures on them with a computer.

I'm thinking the Synchronicity album by the Police, or Darryl Hall and Jon Oates. Or a Madonna cover.

oh wait. WHAM! or The Breakfast Club.

Or the chick on the "Rio" album - the colors would go nicely with raspberry coulis.

oh my god yes...an airbrushed nagel print oin the cake.

how horrificly 80s!

I *LOVE* the Nagel idea!!

How about a big white cake with big black words that say "Choose Life" or Frankie Say Relax?" So 80s and super easy! :biggrin:

Edit: Or maybe "Frankie Say Eat" :laugh:

Edited by MsRamsey (log)

"Save Donald Duck and Fuck Wolfgang Puck."

-- State Senator John Burton, joking about

how the bill to ban production of foie gras in

California was summarized for signing by

Gov. Schwarzenegger.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I'm with Bill, there are two desserts I recall from the 80 Frusen Glasen (Spelling??) and Cocaine. Most people preferred the latter.

I think it was Frusen Gladje. Do you remember the Ben and Jerry's commercial, "There ain't no Haagen, there ain't no Dazs. There ain't no Frusen, there ain't no Gladje..."?

Michael aka "Pan"

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Kiwi is what jumped to mind first also for me...

But besides that, I think 'noveau' Southwestern/Santa Fe cuisine was big then--think Mark Miller and Coyote Cafe, John Sedlar, Modern Southwestern Cuisine. Also chefs from Texas like Anne Lindsay Greer and Robert del Grande.

Glancing through I cookbook called "Southwest Tastes" from the TV series, Great Chefs of the West here are some of the recipes:

Dessert Tostadas (make a shell from deep fried tortilla and fill w/custard and then fresh fruit, strawberries, ????kiwis?

Fresh Berry Mousse in Pizzelle Cookie Bowls

Cookie Tacos (nut crisp cookie shaped as a taco, filled w/raspberries, strawberries, etc and shavings of white chocolate 'cheese', surounded w/creme anglaise

Neon Tumbleweed w/Biscochito cookes (fresh fruit arranged on plate, squiggle of different fruit purees, cookies shaped as cacti)

S.Western Fruit Flan w/ Pricky Pear Glaze

Peach Mouse w/Raspberry Coulis

Red Yam Flan

White Chocolate Ravioli

This cookbook is actually pretty good--once dessert recipe I have made that is excellent is:

Ibarra Chocolate Cake (a flourless chocolate cake w/ground almonds and flavored w/orange and cinnamon, covered in chocolate glaze) The idea is to mimic mexican chocolate flavors w/orange.

One thing many of the recipes have is lots of decoration w/squiggles of different colored fruit puree. Also lots of flavored mousses...

"Under the dusty almond trees, ... stalls were set up which sold banana liquor, rolls, blood puddings, chopped fried meat, meat pies, sausage, yucca breads, crullers, buns, corn breads, puff pastes, longanizas, tripes, coconut nougats, rum toddies, along with all sorts of trifles, gewgaws, trinkets, and knickknacks, and cockfights and lottery tickets."

-- Gabriel Garcia Marquez, 1962 "Big Mama's Funeral"

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Looking back over others comments, I also seem to remember lots of flourless chocolate cakes. Could serve w/strawberries, kiwis on the side and the ubiquitous fruit puree design. (I don't really love this combo, but I think it would be very 80's...)

"Under the dusty almond trees, ... stalls were set up which sold banana liquor, rolls, blood puddings, chopped fried meat, meat pies, sausage, yucca breads, crullers, buns, corn breads, puff pastes, longanizas, tripes, coconut nougats, rum toddies, along with all sorts of trifles, gewgaws, trinkets, and knickknacks, and cockfights and lottery tickets."

-- Gabriel Garcia Marquez, 1962 "Big Mama's Funeral"

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Are these people going to the party eGullet types who are into food and spent a lot of time at restaurants in the '80's?

If not - they probably aren't likely to "get" some of the references. They might be more likely to "get" the cake with some '80's icon on it or something like that.

Of course, since you'd have to eat it too - make it a really good cake.

edit - For some reason I have been doing a lot of "air quotes" lately and it looks like it is spilling over into my posts.

Edited by bilrus (log)

Bill Russell

Link to comment
Share on other sites

edit - For some reason I have been doing a lot of "air quotes" lately and it looks like it is spilling over into my posts.

did you ever see the billy connolly sketch where he mimics people doing "air quotes" by doing all of the punctuation in a sentence? i hadn't either until "everyone" starting ribbing me for my air quotes.

the people are deffo not foodies so i do think some of the ideas might go over their heads. i keep thinking that a black forest gateau would fit the bill (despite being of the wrong era) as it will be something that we all had as children (we're all in our twenties) and that's the main desert i remember. although i love the idea of getting some retro 80's designs in there, i think it might be beyond my skills.

hmmmm.

will report back on sunday. thanks for all of the ideas. especailly the sherbet cocaine one. i *loved* that.

Suzi Edwards aka "Tarka"

"the only thing larger than her bum is her ego"

Blogito ergo sum

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Rice Krispy Squares or a Jello Mold with extra Cool Whip!

Actually, I was thinking about sugar-free jello with fat-free dream whip stuff thrown in.

And remember the "dirt cake" made out of oreos and cool whip that got served in a terra cotta pot, with gummi worms on top?

amanda

Googlista

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I was originally thinking tiramisu, but, especially as the guests are not foodies, I really like the idea of a Rubik's Cube cake. You could assemble it in 3D too, like a really simple square wedding cake. Just assemble many layers of cake with a nice filling like ganache (too modern?) until it is a cube shape, use thin dowels to support the layers, if necessary.

Make a nice white icing. First, crumb coat the entire cube. Then divide the icing into several bowls and use food coloring to make orange, blue, green, red, yellow, the sixth color is white. Pipe on the grid with dark chocolate icing. Fill in with the colors in a random pattern for an unsolved cube (use about 5 squares of each color, since the 6th side is on the bottom). Touch up the grid as necessary. I think that would be a huge hit.

For a reminder, click here.

edit: it would actually be much easier to make a solved cube. Just coat each side in a different color and then pipe on the grid. Remember to do the edges as well.

Edited by Rachel Perlow (log)
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Maybe a cake decorated to look like a Rubiks Cube.

That's the first thing that popped into my head when I saw this thread. :raz:

Or how about a Ms. Pacman cake? Just a round cake with a wedge cut out and some frosting. Like, totally easy dude!

Ideas

Edited by sherribabee (log)
Sherri A. Jackson
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Or how about a Ms. Pacman cake? Just a round cake with a wedge cut out and some frosting. Like, totally easy dude!

Hey, I HAD that cake two years running for my birthday as a kid! Moms musta loved that cake design... don't even need a special pan and she gets an extra slice... :wink:

"Give me 8 hours, 3 people, wine, conversation and natural ingredients and I'll give you one of the best nights in your life. Outside of this forum - there would be no takers."- Wine_Dad, egullet.org

Link to comment
Share on other sites

×
×
  • Create New...