Pineapple Tarts and My Mom
Image created by Lilian Darmono (Also https://www.facebook.com/liliandarmono). You can also purchase products bearing illustrations created by Lil here –> http://society6.com/liliandarmono
The image above was created by my friend, Lilian Darmono, who’s a freelance illustrator in London. It’s part of her “100 Days of Cakes and Characters” project, a 100-day long exercise during which she creates characters based on desserts suggested to her by her friends.
This picture makes me think of my mom, and all the hard work she did and the sacrifices she made to provide for me, my sister and my brother. She’d stand at the kitchen counter for days, baking literally thousands of these cookies in a TEENY stove top oven, much like the one in the picture (maybe even the same one!).
She’d start by first going to the market to select tens of pineapples that were *just* right, then grating every single one of them into a large container. She cooked the mixture of pineapple and sugar in a large pot, constantly stirring the sweetened pineapple sludge to ensure that it cooked evenly. After that, she made the dough, which she pumped out onto baking sheets, scooped out little servings of pineapple jam to top the tarts, formed them into shape using a spoon and placed little crosses on top of them using excess dough. An egg wash on the edges of the tarts and the crosses followed, before the final step of baking in the oven. Yes, it is as laborious and time intensive as it sounds. Thanks for your love and sacrifices, mom, and Happy Mother’s Day again!