asakiyume: actually nyiragongo (ruby lake)
asakiyume ([personal profile] asakiyume) wrote2015-04-11 12:55 pm

Epic eruptions, dramatic pies

Yesterday at the blog The Blue and Green House, they talked about the year without a summer--1816, the year following the massive eruption of Mt. Tambora. In my neck of the woods, snow fell as late as June and as early as August--across Europe there were famine conditions from failed crops. Wikipedia says that there was so much aerosolized material in the atmosphere that sunspots were visible to the naked eye.

Later in the day, out of the blue, [livejournal.com profile] wakanomori started telling me about one of the most powerful eruptions in recorded history, which he'd seen tweeted about. "Oh, maybe it was the eruption of Mt. Tambora," I said--fresh from my reading. He looked at me strangely and said, "Yeah, I think that's the one."

We both mused on why, in two separate venues, two separate people should have happened to talk about Mt. Tambora.

... And discovered that yesterday was the bicentennial of the eruption. Well then!

Meanwhile, on Twitter, people were tweeting humorous thoughts for new Hugo Award categories, and Nisi Shawl suggested, among other things, an award for Most Dramatic Pie.

So I decided to make a volcano pie--surely dramatic--to commemorate the bicentennial of Mt. Tambora's eruption. Behold the Pie:

Lots of red-lava chunks



[identity profile] amaebi.livejournal.com 2015-04-11 07:54 pm (UTC)(link)
Is that actually a deliberate volcanic pie? If so, how did you do it? (I'm betting it went more or less volcanic by itself, and that you added Dramatic Fruit Lava. But I'm wrong quite lots.)

Because of William Pene du Bois's The Twenty-One Balloons, I thought for decades that the year without a summer was due to the explosion of Krakatoa, and when I looked it up several years ago was rather shocked to find Tambora instead....

[identity profile] asakiyume.livejournal.com 2015-04-11 07:56 pm (UTC)(link)
It was deliberate! I prebaked the shell, leaning the pastry onto a cone-shaped cardboard form. Then after it was baked, I cut the cardboard out. Unfortunately, it wasn't really baked hard enough, and the side that you see that's collapsed, collapsed. Then I poured in the filling and reheated the pie to warm it up. Then I made the decorative lava flows :-)

Yeah, I think I thought it was Krakatoa too. Live and learn!

[identity profile] amaebi.livejournal.com 2015-04-11 08:04 pm (UTC)(link)
Wow! Well, for that height of eruption it makes sense, you genius, you. :)

[identity profile] asakiyume.livejournal.com 2015-04-12 11:33 pm (UTC)(link)
I was pleased with myself--I will try it again one day, and take more time with the form.

[identity profile] amaebi.livejournal.com 2015-04-13 01:49 am (UTC)(link)
That seems well-justified by your results! Excellent edible sculpture!

[identity profile] amaebi.livejournal.com 2015-04-11 08:38 pm (UTC)(link)
BTW, did you know that not terribly long after the explosion of Krakatoa it was abruptly noticed that Mimulus moschatus, musk monkey flower had lost the scent for which it was treasured (http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v134/n3376/abs/134054a0.html). Well, not very quickly afterward, but I always wondered whether there was any connection...

[identity profile] khiemtran.livejournal.com 2015-04-11 08:55 pm (UTC)(link)
Interesting, thanks! I'd never heard of that before...

[identity profile] asakiyume.livejournal.com 2015-04-12 11:34 pm (UTC)(link)
What an interesting hypothesis! I wonder if there'd be a way to research it. (I wonder if anyone has...)

[identity profile] amaebi.livejournal.com 2015-04-13 01:50 am (UTC)(link)
It's hard to conceive offhand, how it could be tested. :/