Football & Lemon Frosting

Our awesome neighbors are always great about hosting things at their place, so all we have to do is walk downstairs. So, we make sure and bring baked goods with us as a gesture of thanks.

For this year's super bowl, I needed to find something to bring. I haven't been baking much, so I'm out of the loop and always short on ideas. I went to my old standby Baking Bites and hunted out a recipe that wouldn't require me to buy any ingredients...I have to say, it can be really difficult to find recipes that don't require something special on hand (heavy cream, buttermilk, etc).

When I came across this Gingerbread Layer Cake with Meyer Lemon Frosting, I figured I would go for it. For once we actually had lemons on hand (not Meyer lemons, mind you, but I just substituted in the regular kind).

So, I baked up the cakes. It was a simple recipe that didn't even require me to get out the mixer, extra fantastic.


I whipped up (literally) the lemon frosting. It was a meringue and SO MUCH FUN to make. After whipping the eggs whites and boiling the sugar, water and cream of tartar, it was time for the fun stuff. Adding the hot syrup into the whipped egg whites was awesome - it just ballooned up. Yay! I probably got far too much enjoyment out of this, but it felt like a science experiment.

Anyway, back to the cake - I frosted my layers all nice and pretty.


And then I finally used the black cake stand that I bought for my wedding but have never used. I also learned that I sucks taking pictures of it because of the reflection. And I kind of suck at taking pictures. Sorry readers...my husband is obviously the photographer in the family, not me!


So during the super bowl after we had eaten a ton of deliciously fatty food (I had my first chicken wing ever....spicy and good!). Anyway, we cut into the cake. It looks yummy and fluffy with lemony frosting.


However, it wasn't all too fantastic, sadly. The cake was rather dense. The flavors were fine, but not to die for. The lemon frosting added a nice contrast - I would definitely make it again to go on another cake.


So, sadly, all of that hype and the cake was a bit of a let down. It was better after we had let it chill in the fridge for a bit, but still. Sigh.

I do have to say that if you head on over to Baking Bites to check out the recipe, the frosting was awesome...make it and enjoy all of the wonderfulness of it poofing up in the mixer. Yah, I said it - poofing.