When I was 13, I attended a friend’s Bar Mitzvah. I was amazed by the fancy décor and those hired dancers whose job description includes motivating people’s grandmothers to knock back their gin and tonics and hit the dance floor. But I was most impressed by the flambéed baked Alaska that was paraded through the banquet hall.

Unfortunately, a friend of mine was a little too excited about the flambéed dessert, and ended up with her hair on fire. Luckily, not every grandma at the party knocked back her drink, and my friend was lucky enough for one grandma to pour the gin and tonic all over my friend’s torched hair.

Since that moment, I have loved flambéed desserts, something I could never tell my friend, who still cringes thinking about that moment. My favorite is the bombe, or baked, Alaska. For those of you naïve to this greatness, it is an ice cream dessert encased in a sponge cake topped with meringue. For my favorite variation, a little dark rum is splashed on the desert and then torched in front of a captivating audience (who all should stand a few steps away from the flames).

But I was curious about more flambéed desserts and did a little research. This was inspired by an argument I got into about this Bar Mitzvah incident, which resulted in my friend telling me I would be incapable of cooking a flambéed dessert. I like to prove people wrong, so I decided here was my chance.

Sadly, I think she might be right. But shhh, don’t tell her that. Over break, I was all ready to make Crêpes Suzette. Having always been a big fan of crepes, I decided this was the recipe for me. Traditional Crêpes Suzette calls for a sauce of orange juice, caramelized sugar and orange peel, topped with liqueur. But I wasn’t really excited about Suzette’s idea of crêpes, so I decided to make my own crêpes, and flambé them. Crêpes Cara calls for chocolate syrup, strawberries, whipped cream and powdered sugar. Sound delicious? Yes, yes it is. Sound messy? Oh yeah.

Crêpes Cara fell apart almost instantly the first, and then second time I made it. I never even got the chance to try to flambé. After eating both failed attempts I had to give up on my homemade flambéing (mostly due to how full I was). But I am only telling you this, and no one who was at that fateful Bar Mitzvah. RLD

Crêpes Suzette

Ingredients for the crêpes: 1 cup flour, 4 large eggs, 1 1/4 cup of milk, a pinch of salt, 1/2 stick of butter.

Then use a long match to ignite the sauce. Remove pan from heat and garnish crêpes with confectioners sugar and orange slices.