"Omigod... Look At That _____!"

Okay. Here's the deal.

Again this year, I am invited to the First Saturday In July Dungeon Party at the Pottstown aerie of JPZapper and DogTopper. Longtime readers of SingleTails may remember the first time I was invited to this event a few years ago, prompting all kinds of proxysms (sp?) of anxiety, causing me to remember the short story by Virginia Wolf titled, "The Yelllow Dress."

'Zapper and DogTopper provide excellent barbeque fare, and guests are invited to bring a dessert.

And I'm kinda thinking that this year, I want to bring a really really really impressive dessert. A total confectionary showstopper. As in, my plate is totally empty but all the other plates are filled. So that in years to come, my invite--if I so merit--will be accompanied by a request to bring that amazing dessert again.

Now, desserts have never been my forté. Back in the days of domesticity, dinner guests were lucky if I remembered to pick up some ice cream and Pepperidge Farm cookies. (But of course they were usually so totally blown away by the dinner that they didn't notice. Or so I like to think.)

Since I've been living here in Bucks County, I've started in on this birthday cake thing, taking delight in baking and iciing birthday cakes. I think my magnum opus birthday cake had to be the one I baked for That Guy From LA: the cake was moist and luscious and chocolatey Devils Food, and I made a butter cream iciing flavored with a blood orange syrup that I concocted myself.

Oh I'm sorry... Did you catch that? I said, "A BUTTER CREAM ICIING FLAVORED WITH A BLOOD ORANGE SYRUP THAT I CONCONCTED MYSELF."

Does that make you heave a sigh of desire and longing? Well it should!

Tragically, like most aspects of my fling with That Guy From LA, this effort went totally unappreciated.

So.

I have less than a month to figure something out.

Maybe cupcakes with blood orange butter cream iciing? Chocolate fudge? Cream cheese brownies?

My step mother used to make this pie of sorts with graham cracker crust and a filling of condensed milk and cream cheese. Maybe something like that... only I could divide it in half and cool it till it starts to set, and flavor one half with chocolate and one half with coffee... Hmmmm...

Anyway, I'm open to suggestions for an impressive and astonishing dessert I could make. What's the most amazing sweet thing you've ever put in your mouth?

I'd ask that you not suggest anything that would be really expensive to make, having me run out and buy a bottle of Gran Marnier so I could use a tablespoon of it and then be left with a bottle of Gran Marnier for the rest of my life.

Post your suggestion as a comment below, if you please.

And thanks.

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