The Girl Who Loved Grubs
“She was lost in the woods, hemmed in by trees for which she had no name, alone in a place where her town-girl vocabulary had little use, and she was consequently left with just a narrow range of recognition and reaction, all of it primitive.”
I have to be honest with you—the reason I picked this book up was because I thought a survival story would fit these grubs.
And I really wanted to make the grubs.
It’s Halloween, after all.
The more I read it, though, the more I loved it.
The more it fit.
The idea of eating things that you you don’t want to (the cream in the middle of twinkies, in Trisha’s case (75), and the grubs in my mom’s case.
The sweetness of the white chocolate being reflected in Trisha’s love for her family and for baseball.
The bright spot of lemon keeping things from being too terrible, like Tom and her Walkman.
The cake pop filling, way more dense than you would first think… just like the woods.
And, like walking and looking for a way out of the woods, these take up a lot of your time (seriously. These take a long time to make).
They’re hard to eat when your brain is telling you that they aren’t what you think they are. Are they chocolate? Are they grubs? Is that lemon curd? Is it something far more nasty? Is it moving?
Trisha experiences that feeling of uncertainty more than once.
Especially with the wasp-priest’s God of the Lost.
Vanilla Cake (You can use a box mix if you prefer)
-1/2 c vegetable shortening
-1 3/4 c white sugar
-4 egg whites
-2 c all-purpose flour
-1 tsp baking powder
-1/2 tsp baking soda
-1/4 tsp salt
-1 1/3 c buttermilk
-1 tsp vanilla extract
For 30 seconds, whip the shortening.
Add the sugar and vanilla, and mix them in.
Beat in the egg whites for another 30 seconds.
Add the baking powder, baking soda, and salt.
Add half of the flour, and whisk until the batter is smooth.
Slowly stir in the buttermilk.
Add the rest of the flour, mixing until it’s smooth.
Pour the batter into a parchment paper-lined and greased cake pan (9x13).
Bake at 350 degrees for 30-35 minutes.
Let it cool.
Using your hands, crumble up the cake until there are no chunks left.
Vanilla Frosting (Again, you can use store bought if you would prefer)
-1 1/2 sticks unsalted butter, room temperature
-4 c confectioner’s sugar
-2 tbsp milk (I used 2%, but you can use what you have. This just makes the frosting a bit more stiff.)
-1/2 tsp vanilla extract
Whip the butter and vanilla until it’s smooth.
Add the confectioner’s sugar, cup by cup, and whisk it into the butter to make sure your frosting is smooth.
Fold in the milk to thicken the frosting up a little.
Pour the frosting into the center of the cake crumbles.
Using your hands, mix the frosting into the cake until there isn’t any crumbs left.
Take three bags of white chocolate chips. I used Hershey’s, but you can use whatever brand you prefer. You’re going to have to melt the chocolate chips. If you want, you can even use the melting chocolates they sell at Michaels. They’re easier to work with, but they don’t taste like regular white chocolate.
I poured about a cup’s worth of chocolate chips into a bowl and melted it in the microwave in 15 second bursts, stirring between each burst. You have to be careful when you’re doing this! It’s so easy to overcook/ burn chocolate. If you heat it up for just 5 seconds too long, you can end up with a gritty mess.
When the chocolate is melted, put it in a piping bag or a Ziplock bag, and pipe it into the grub molds (I bought my mold at Michael’s). I piped a line about the thickness of a pen. Once all of the molds have chocolate in them, go back in with a spoon and spread the chocolate along the sides of the mold until they’re completely coated.
Once that’s done, the chocolate has to cool. I stuck it in the freezer because I didn’t feel like waiting for it to cool in the fridge.
Put lemon curd into a piping bag/ ziplock bag. I bought my lemon curd, but you can use homemade if you want.
When the chocolate is hard (about 2 minute later), pull it out of the freezer.
Pipe a thin line of lemon curd into the grubs. You need to make sure you leave room for the cake, so it should look like the picture below.
Once the lemon curd is in, carefully put some of the cake on top. You want to press it down, but you have to watch when you do because you don’t want to push the lemon out of the grub.
Spoon a little chocolate on top of it. You want to cover the cake completely and seal it into the chocolate coating.
After that, it should look like the picture below and you should put it back into the freezer for another two minutes. You want the chocolate to be completely hard.
To take the grubs out of the mold, turn the mold upside-down and push down on the top of the grubs, making sure to start on one side and work your way to the next.
If you have to, you can use a knife to clean up any edges, or you can add some more chocolate to any cracks or holes that have appeared.
Mixed a little red food coloring and a little black food coloring and use your finger to paint the heads brown. Gloves will stop your hands from staining, but you don’t have to use them if you don’t want to.
Then, you start over and fill the molds with more chocolate.
And you keep making grubs until you start running out of ingredients.
Or patience.
Whichever comes first.
I served mine over crumbled chocolate cake, but you can serve them on other foods/ cakes/ crushed Oreos.
It’s Halloween.
Have fun with it.
