Slice of Pi

My favorite time of March is almost here! No, I'm not talking about St. Patrick's Day or March Madness.  My favorite March holiday happens to be this Thursday, it's Pi Day! For those of you unfamiliar with the holiday, it is the celebration of the mathematical constant representing a circle's circumference to its diameter.  Not sound very exciting?  Well, the interesting thing about Pi is that it has been calculated to over a trillion decimal places without any repetition or pattern! It's approximated to 3.14 which is why it is celebrated on March 14. You can read more about the irrational constant and the day set aside to celebrate it here. Fun fact, Pi Day also happens to be Albert Einstein's birthday! Believe it or not, lots of people all over celebrate the day and Congress even officially declared March 14 as National Pi Day back in 2009.  If I'm losing your interest, don't worry, I do have a yummy recipe to share!

I will admit I'm quite the nerd math enthusiast. As strange as it may sound to some people, I've always loved math.  When I was in elementary school I used to beg my dad to write out math problems on a napkin when we were waiting at a restaurant.  I know, who does that?! I guess it's not too much of a surprise I went into the very mathematical field of engineering!  Every year I've at least gotten a slice of pie to celebrate Pi day.  Thankfully, I married an equally nerdy guy who enjoys celebrating the day!

I really wanted to celebrate Pi day with a special treat this year. We had plans on Thursday, though, and I have a busy weekend of baking ahead (5 dozen cupcakes and a smash cake)! I decided to make a no bake pie that had flavors both my husband and I love - caramel and banana!  If you were expecting a math themed cake, then check out my calculator themed cake I made for my brother-in-law a couple months ago. 

The pie I went with is a caramel banana, also known as Banoffee.  The caramel is actually a dulce de leche sauce similar to toffee, which is where the Banoffee comes from.  You can find a lot of wonderful Banoffee recipes online, I've seen several delicious versions.  Ultimately, I ended up choosing one that had the ingredients I had on hand.  The recipe is based on the Banoffee Pie from Mel's Kitchen Cafe. I made a few changes, I left out the chocolate toffee pieces and I changed the crust.  The Other version used sandwich cookies for the crust, but I decided to go with vanilla wafers.  I was thinking that would go well with the bananas, like in banana pudding.

Caramel Banana Pie Ingredients:

• 10.5 oz (just shy of a box) vanilla cookies (ie Nilla Wafers)
• 5 tbsp butter
• 2 bananas
• 20 oz dulce de leche (1 1/2 cans)
• 1 cup heavy whipping cream
• 1/4 cup powdered sugar
• 8 oz cream cheese (room temp)
• 1/4 cup brown sugar

Caramel Banana Pie Directions:

• Using a food processor, or blender, mix together the vanilla wafer cookies and butter

• Pour mixture in 9 diameter pie pan
• Press down mixture into pie pan

• Refrigerate or free pie pan until crust hardens
• Pour 1 1/2 cans of the dulce de leche onto the crust
• Spread out evenly over the crust

• Beat brown sugar, powdered sugar, and cream cheese until fully mixed
• Beat heavy whipping cream into mixture until light and fluffy
• Slice bananas in 1/4 in pieces
• Cover dulce de leche with banana slices

• Pour heavy cream mixture over bananas and spread out, make sure you completely cover bananas

• To finish the Pi Day theme, slice banana into 1/4 in pieces and place in Pi shape

Hope you enjoyed this recipe and have a great Pi day!  Don't forget to check back soon, I have some posts coming soon with a garden themed smash cake and elephant themed cakes. Make sure you follow me through Facebook, Twitter, Google Friend Connect, or by email to get updates on new posts. You can find more details about my other social media sites, and ways to follow on the right side of the site.