When life gives you lemons...make lemon cake!

Have you ever had one of those days where you just can't seem to get anywhere? Well, I have been having one of those weeks. I had left some ground beef in the fridge to make lasagna for yesterday and we ended up eating out with Dad for both lunch and dinner so I never got it made. I went to make it today, too late for serving tonight but I wanted to use the beef up and I realized I miscalculated the days and it was bad. 2 pounds of extra lean organic beef wasted.

I pulled a pound of unsalted butter out to do some baking, only to find it had gone moldy....in the fridge!

Many other little goof ups during the week, some food related, some not, and I was ready to pack it in. But I had one of my summer brides coming over and I still hadn't tried out a new recipe for lemon cake to see if it would be suitable for her wedding cake.

Now I have a cardinal rule - don't bake if your mind isn't on it and your heart isn't in it because it won't turn out and you will just feel worse! But I decided to ignore this rule and make the cake anyway - a fairly complicated recipe - with only two hours before the bride was due to arrive.

I started grating the lemon rind and caught my finger on the rasp. I then stabbed myself twice while separating the lemons into supremes (the sections without the thin skin on them). I finally got the lemons done and realized I hadn't got my butter out to soften (which is when I noticed it was moldy). Thankfully I had another pound and a microwave.

Well, after that point things turned around and the cake came out beautifully. The perfect flavour and texture for a wedding cake. It was cooled just as the bride came in and we had a piece each. She loved it! And I started having a much better day from there on.

So today food was a life lesson for me. Next time I am having a rough day, I will head to the fridge for some lemons and make a cake.....or, maybe even some lemonade!

Now I can't share today's recipe because it is copyrighted, but it is from Warren Brown's book, Cake Love - an excellent cookbook from a baker extraordinaire!