Cake # 25 Meringue-Topped Coffee Liqueur Cake

          Finally! I have completed the dreaded Meringue Coffee Liqueur Cake and I have also completed 1/4 of of the cakes in this book - six months in, a year and six months left to go. It is no surprise that one of harder cakes in the book would happen at this time, because it is in waning days of the school year that we find ourselves the busiest. Yesterday was the last day of school for students, I gave out my last final, and at 2pm was ready to go... but not before finding out if I made department head or not. For those who did not know, the old department head at my school resigned a few weeks ago, and I applied and interviewed in order to see if I could get the job. When my principal walked into my room today, I knew she had made her decision; I did not get the job. Now, I will not pretend like that did not deflate me a bit, as I really wanted the job and feel that I could bring valuable skills and energy to the department, but overall our new department head already has experience doing the job elsewhere, is a really wonderful person, and will be a fantastic leader for us in the future, so in the end I am happy.
        After school, Ted and I picked up the baby and went to an end-of-the-year party for Ted's Social Studies department. It was fun, but having Evie made conversation and eating difficult and after an hour we decided to take her home. Evie and I played for a bit and right at bed-time she barfed everything that she ate at the Social Studies party in my face and down my shirt. Awesomesauce. Ted however decided to return to the party in order to be with his friends, returning later in the night (two hours after he promised to return and with a few more beers than necessary). I quickly pointed out that considering my day, this was not the wisest course of action for a husband, and after a considerable amount of talking, Ted quickly admitted that he was an idiotic husband, and the rest of the evening passed in a depressed hush.
       It was with this background that this morning I awoke to start the cake. The cake itself called for flour, baking powder, butter, brown sugar, eggs, coffee extract, milk, an coffee liqueur. We didn't have any real coffee liqueur so instead we substituted Van Gogh Espresso Vodka. The meringue topping was the harder part of the recipe, calling for 3 egg whites, sugar, and coffee extract, and requiring the gentlest touch in order to get the meringue fluffly without falling.

Here is the book's cake:

And here is mine:

To brown the topping, I broiled it in the oven, but a blowtorch would have been so much more fun ...hmm Christmas present in the future?

Next week, I will be in on the sunny shores of Lake Tahoe attending an IB conference, so Ted will be making the cake (Maple Pecan Cupcakes to be exact) and writing the blog, and for that, you should be excited; Ted's sense of humor will be a nice change of pace to my more matter-of-fact tone.  So until two weeks from now, goodbye!