Lane Cake...in Layman's Terms, "The Cake from Hell..."

I am coming in just under the wire

with my Lane Cake

for this year's family Bake Off.

I have been waiting for most of

the summer to make it

to serve to my knitting group

next time we met at my house.

Today was the day.

This cake was selected by my

sister in law, Pat...

with whom I have a bone to pick...

(Just kidding, Pat.)

This is a labor intensive cake to make.

There are four "from scratch" layers, 

and a cooked filling consisting of

dried peaches, coconut, toasted pecans and bourbon.

I did both of those tasks on Monday.

A cooked meringue frosting is the final step.

I did some reading on meringue frosting

and the general consensus is

that it's better served the day it is made.

Again, today was the day.

Never having made a meringue frosting before,

I followed the recipe to the letter.

You whisk together egg whites and sugar,

add some Karo Syrup and for my cake,

peach schnapps.

Then in a bowl over a pan 

of boiling water,

you beat with an electric mixer

(which I borrowed from my friend Anne)

 until "stiff glossy peaks form."

I never got to "glossy" but

there were stiff peaks.

Fearing I would burn the motor out

on Anne's mixer,

I decided to go ahead and frost.

You see above what it looked like.

For some reason it went "grainy" on me,

 and there wasn't enough to even 

cover the entire cake.

And it got rock hard as soon 

as it was on the cake.

I made a  quick consult with 

sister Nancy in Fayetteville

and brother Rick in Germany via 

What's App.

Nancy: "Scape it off and

make some butter cream."

Rick:  "Cut a big circle from the middle."

I did a combination of both their recommendations.

Here's my cake scraped and shaved.

Then, I made a quick trip to the 

grocery store.

At this point I was not about

to spend any more time 

making frosting for this cake!

I even bought some cookies,

just in case we couldn't eat the cake.

The Cake from Hell

in all its canned, butter cream glory.

My knitting group is composed of

dear friends.

We have been knitting together 

almost forever.

At any rate, they are very supportive

and ate the cake.

My friend Katherine, 

who is from South Alabama,

where this cake originated,

was even nice enough to say it

 "tasted the way it was supposed to taste."

(She KNOWS because her mother

used to make it every year at holiday time.)

I LOVE my friends.

(Btw, the cookies were not touched.)

Here is the link for the recipe I used.

In my opinion, the flavor was okay,

but the cake was quite crumbly.

This is an old fashioned cake

and I think our tastes have changed.

Or perhaps my cooking skills

have become a bit rusty...

...like several other things.

Anyhoo...bon apetit!