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!
