Quotessence
Home / Quotes / Quote by J.S. Mason

Quote by J.S. Mason

Work

The Stork Ate My Brother...And Other Totally Believable Stories

Browse quotes and source details for this work. more

Author

J.S. Mason

Browse famous quotes and profile details for J.S. Mason. more

You May Also Like

“Mirth,” Dr. Tuttle said. “I like it better than joy. Happiness isn’t a word I like to use in here. It’s very arresting, happiness. You should know that I'm someone who appreciates the subtleties of human experience. Being well rested is a precondition, of course. Do you know what mirth means? M-I-R-T-H?" "Yeah. Like The House of Mirth," I said. "A sad story," said Dr. Tuttle. "I haven't read it." "Better you don't.”

“It's Kitty B.'s specialty: a lemon sour cream pound cake with a little hint of Grand Marnier liqueur. Each tier is iced with an ivory-colored buttercream and decorated with pearl drops and an elegant piped pearl border. A cascade of real white orchids starts at the top tier and curls its way down the side to the bottom, encircling the base with delicate white petals and dark pink centers.”

“It was a monumental 'croquembouche,' a classically French, intricately crafted tower of individual profiteroles, each thinly crusted with hard-crack sugar, filled with pastry cream, bound together with luscious, glistening strands of caramel and chocolate into a conical, colorful Christmas-tree shape that rose proudly high over the heads of the delighted newlyweds. 'Chef de Patisserie' Pettibone had covered his 'piece montee' with a lustrous white-chocolate marzipan roses and dusted ever so lightly in twenty-four-karat gold.”

“Antonio spotted the owner, Signora DelAbate, who was coating the sides of a Trionfo di Gola cake with chopped pistachios. Trionfo di Gola, or Triumph of Gluttony was a very old cake recipe passed down from nuns over the centuries. The batter was divided among three different-sized round cake pans. After the individual cakes were baked, filling was spread on top of each layer, and then they were stacked one on top of the other. Once the cake was assembled, it was then frosted with marzipan paste, and the finishing touch was the coating of the chopped pistachios around the cake. The cake's tall, pyramid shape gave it a unique, impressive appearance. Rosalia had wanted to make a cake that was more elaborate than a typical wedding cake.”

“America may have landed a man on the moon, but the French have the coolest wedding cakes on earth. It's not really a cake. It's called a croquembouche- a "crunch in the mouth"- or, more regally, a pièce montée. It's like you climb the ladder to your new life on a four-foot pyramid of individual vanilla cream puffs, held together with glossy praline- caramelized sugar that shatters in your mouth like glass and sticks in your teeth like toffee.”