Food Network's a Birthday Cake For Every Month. April's Lemon Meringue Cake!

Well here it is! You can find this recipe HERE and you'll need the Basic Vanilla Cake recipe which you will find HERE.

I vowed, only last month, to never ever attempt meringue again. I had a disastrous go at meringue cookies in early March and it was horrible. Looking back, I'm certain the recipe was flawed, because this meringue actually thickened and formed it's peaks like it was supposed to. Although, it took a full 15 minutes of beating instead of the 6 to 8 minutes the recipe promised. I'm glad I kept at it really, I had started to think how I could persuade my mom to make it for me at the 11 minute mark.
It wasn't that hard to make, a little time consuming sure, but not very hard. I don't own a double boiler, or a bowl suitable to set on top of a sauce pan of boiling water for that matter, so the only really horrible part was having to literally hold a smaller pan above the water in a larger pan and stir with my other hand for like 10 minutes. It occurred to me that the bowls I put super hot stuff in are metal on the inside but they are the non skid rubber on the outside, so obviously that wouldn't be fantastic to use as a double boiler bowl, all my other bowls are glass and I'm not willing to risk breaking them. Because I'm super impatient, I put my lemon filling in the freezer instead of the fridge and made the meringue. By the time it was done the filling was "set" and ready to go. I ended up using only half the filling that I made, if I ever made this again (which I won't) I would totally cut that recipe in half. The meringue was super easy to spread over the cake, much easier then I thought it would be, easier then using frosting. I'm a horrible cake froster, don't even get me started.  You're supposed to brown this one with a kitchen torch but considering I'm pretty accident prone I felt it was best just to not use a torch in my kitchen, or inside my house at all actually. I like living indoors and not in a tent, in my yard, outside the smoldering ruins that used to be my home. So I just left it as is. The vanilla cake wasn't like cutting cardboard freakishly dense like it was the first time I made it. I actually followed the instructions this time, so that probably helped. The lemon filling turned out delicious with just the right hint of sourness, my only regret is that I should have heated it on low for longer instead of turning the heat up and rushing things. It turned out a little gritty because I don't think all the sugar melted. It still tastes awesome though!  I think if I were to make this again (which I won't) it would be fun to dress it up with some candied lemon slices or maybe some colored large crystal sugar.

One thing I really really love about this challenge is that I'm making cakes that I wouldn't look twice at. I would have changed this recipe to use raspberry or strawberry filling, I definitely wouldn't have used lemon, but I was pleasantly surprised at how tastey this was!

I also wonder if food coloring would turn the filling into more of a happy lemon yellow color instead of the over cooked egg yolk color it is... Not that it's that big of a deal, it's just a thought.
Well enjoy!