A cake you don't want to make

This has been a bad food week. For one, I wasn't able to eat for two days and am still having trouble choking down even the blandest of foods... I am just getting over the most awful stomach flu. I haven't been this sick in at least 10 years. Unfortunately, I caught the bug from my 19 month-old daughter, Addison, so we were both grumpy and vomiting. I'm sure there's plenty of parents out there who know what it's like to have to clean up your child's vomit while all you want to do is lie down and take a nap.

Earlier in the week, before the bug struck, I made a Grapefruit Upside Down Cake thinking I'd make good use of all the grapefruit we have on hand. It was a bad call. The cake itself tasted great- it was a light, fluffy spice cake, and it was what inspired me to make it in the first place as it was not the traditional yellow cake batter usually used.
After turning the freshly baked cake upside down, we were excited for our scrumptious warm treat to eat with the homemade vanilla ice cream that was waiting in our freezer. Unfortunately, the sour grapefruit just does not lend itself well to a topping for a sweet cake. The sugars brought out the pure bitterness of the grapefruit and covered up any of the citrus flavor I had expected. It was so disappointing and at first I felt like it was a total waste of time and a waste of two grapefruits, but it seems mistakes in the kitchen end up teaching a cook just a little bit more about flavor. I may try another dessert using grapefruit, but I know it won't have chunks of the bitter sections, perhaps it'll be something using the juice or the rind. For now though, I think I'll stick to eating it straight or in savory salads.