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How to Celebrate Pi Day Plus Make Your Own Beauty and the Beast Pie

Yes, Pi Day celebrates the mathematicians out there. However, Pi Day for me equals pie day. More Pi! When I saw the Beauty and the Beast inspired pie video on the Food Network’s Facebook page, it was love at first sight. However, I’m not especially crafty in the kitchen. So I needed a more basic way to make this pie. Thus I enlisted my husband’s help, because he’s artsy like that. Here’s how to make a Beauty and the Beast pie for Pi Day with some simple hacks.

Simple Beauty and the Beast pie for Pi Day. Easy pie hacks for the baking challenged.

When did Pi Day Become a Thing?

Pi Day celebrates the mathematical constant π (3.14). We celebrate (and I use that term loosely) in the United States because we follow the month/day date format. So the digits in the date, March 14 or 3/14, are the first three digits of π (3.14). Pi Day was founded by Physicist Larry Shaw in 1988.

So in our house, we celebrate Pi Day with pie!! Many of the local bakeries or even pie stores will also celebrate with specials or even free slices of pies. When I lived in Texas, Emporium Pies always had free pie, but they made you work for it with something fun!

The Original Beauty and the Beast Pie

First, take a look at the video at the original in the link below.

Food Network Beauty and the Beast-Inspired Pie

Isn’t it gorgeous? 

I saw it, drooled, and dreamed of one day having a pie like that. Well then Pi Day came, school was cancelled, and I jokingly asked my husband to make me one. There was no way we had the time to make one as beautiful as the original, but we gave it our best shot and found some shortcuts.

We used simple tools to make a Beauty and the Beast pie for Pi Day.

Beauty and the Beast Pie Hacks for Pi Day

First, we didn’t bake our own pie. Since we had no idea how this was going to turn out, I just bought a pie from the grocery store. We bought a coconut custard pie, because it had a flat surface to work with.

Second, we purchased clear piping gel from Michael’s. I read in the comments on the video that they used agar and added lemon and sugar. The clear piping gel has agar in it, so we called it good.

Clear piping gel can be used as a pie hack for Pi Day.

Third, we bought refrigerated pie crust to make the design, cut it in strips, and then my husband just twisted the dough to make the rose and stained glass effect. We painted black food coloring onto the strips. I didn’t want to buy black food coloring, so we mixed blue, green, and red together.

When we started painting we noticed it was coming out a little green, so we added a bit more red, and that turned it black. Then we added vanilla to the food coloring, really for no other reason than that’s what they said to do in the comments of the video. But vanilla makes everything better.

Use refrigerated pie dough for designs on pies.

Simple pie ideas for Pi Day on March 14th.

Simple Steps for Making Beauty and the Beast Pie on Pi Day

Next, we separated the piping gel into bowls and added food coloring. You can really make the sections of the stained glass any colors you want.

In the video they used a medicine dropper to add the colors. We didn’t have any of those, but we did have 50 syringes from infant liquid medicine that we’ve accumulated over the years. That did the trick.

My contribution was adding the little Wilton gold balls, also purchased from Michael’s. Once all the gel was on, I just dropped them one by one. Not perfect, but it added a little bling.

When all the colors were finished we baked the pie for 10-15 minutes. I just checked every once in awhile to make sure the pie edges weren’t burning.

Make a Beauty and the Beast Pie for Pi Day with these simple hacks.

And done! The kids were so excited to eat this pie! We are all huge Beauty and the Beast fans! If you want some activities to go with your pie, then check out these free, printable Beauty and the Beast coloring pages. 

How to Celebrate Pi Day

Pi Day is definitely an excuse for me to experiment with pies, and this one was fun to make! But let’s not forget to thank the mathematicians, too. I just saw the movie Wonder Park which has a song in it that made me laugh so hard! “Oh my, here comes pi- 3.1415.” The tune is catchy.

You can also eat circular foods or order pizza – a pizza pie counts, too!

Have a pie baking competition with your friends!

Watch Waitress, a movie about a waitress entering a pie-baking competition. Or watch a movie about brilliant mathematicians like Hidden Figures, a fabulous family film!

You can celebrate Pi Day any way you choose, just have fun with it 🙂

Thank you, Food Network and Pies are Awesome for the inspiration. With these hacks, it really wasn’t *as* difficult as I thought it would be, but then again, my husband did all the artwork. It may not be as pretty as the original, but we were all proud of the outcome. This is for those who aren’t as talented in the baking department as they’d like to be. You know, my people. Happy Pi Day, everyone!

Beauty and the Beast is in theaters now!

What do you think? Were we close? 🙂 Happy baking!

 

How to celebrate Pi Day with these fun ideas and movies! Plus use these easy pie hacks to make this gorgeous Beauty and the Beast pie for Pi Day or movie nights!

 

Ion Freeman

Tuesday 19th of March 2019

That PI day song didn't make the Wonder Park soundtrack. Do you know where I can get it?

tanialamb

Tuesday 19th of March 2019

It didn't?? That's a shame. Such a fun song. Let me ask someone on the PR team to see if they know!

Jessica

Thursday 27th of April 2017

Hi there! I'm the baker who made the original pie and I have to say... I absolutely love your hacks! And the resulting pie is beautiful :) Thanks for the smile!