My 25: Brown Derby Grapefruit Cake; Or FAIL Cake, As I Call It

So I have been obsessed with this idea of grapefruit cake for a while. I first encountered the concept in a recipe from Women's Day about 15 years ago and clipped the recipe, (I still have the clipping, by the way) but when I added this to my 25 dishes list, I looked up other variations and decided on this updated recipe from the LA Times. . It didn't use corn syrup, or canned grapefruit, or a cake mix. It looks so elegant!

Since I was going to Places, Spaces and Faces on Saturday, and our theme was vintage recipes from the '50s and '60s, it was clearly grapefruit cake's time to shine. I begged off on a movie with my mom on Friday to bake. I managed to use the Kitchenaid to whip the egg white into a stiff peak, juiced and zested a grapefruit, combined the rest of the ingredients, and tucked it in the oven.

Surely, the batter would spread out and fill the pan, I thought.




Um, no. It's pretty flat. Good flavor.

I went back to the recipe and then noticed that among the lameass complainers there is a report from one person who made the recipe and reported it to be screwy. That one egg white? Yeah, it should be 4 plus one. Note the recipe is a bit vague on that detail. So I filled the dishwasher, and went to bed, knowing that after a quick trip to the store in the am for more eggs and grapefruit I could knock this sucker out.

Except the next morning I managed to deflate my egg whites when incorporating the dry ingredients. At that point I decided the most historically accurate thing to do would be to buy a butter cake mix (because that's my favorite) doctor it with grapefruit juice and zest, and use the cream cheese frosting recipe. And it was great--so great I won for favorite dessert at PSF! Yea me!



But damn it if I am not still pissed and determined to master that stinking cake! Just let me back burner it for a while.