Michigan Tailgate Cake: Simple Football Cake
On Saturday Michigan played Northwestern and the tailgate theme was Chicago, since Northwestern is in Chicago. I wasn't really sure how to translate that into a cake and I had some extenuating circumstances so I just made a generic football cake instead of something fancier.
This week's cake was a bit of a cop-out for me. I had some late nights at work so I was planning on whipping something up on Friday night. Unfortunately, there was a huge traffic jam in town as I was trying to get home that night due to some road closures so it ended up taking me nearly an hour and a half to go the last two miles to my house. It was annoying but the real problem is that due to my frugal ways, I drive a little hatchback that happens to be a stick shift. Holding in the clutch for that long was just miserable and since we were creeping almost the whole time I didn't have much chance to put the car in neutral with the parking brake. By the time I got home my left leg was so sore I was having some trouble standing and there was no way I was baking. That was the first time I wished I didn't have a manual car.
So instead I woke up early on Saturday (6:30 am!) and whipped up this simple football cake. I have a Wilton pan that is shaped like a football so I baked a chocolate cake in it, popped it in the freezer to cool it down quickly and iced it with chocolate buttercream frosting. I used a star tip to pipe the laces and then wrote "Hail to the Victors" on the cake. It was super simple, but sometimes you just need to get things done quickly. Plus it still tasted delicious so I don't think anyone really cared.
For tailgate food Frank made Portillo's style sausage and Italian beef sandwiches which were awesome. He also made waffle fries and a wonderful sausage chowder which I especially loved.
The weather was unseasonably warm (mid-60s in November? I'll take it!) so it was a great day for tailgating and watching the game.
The game was up and down and towards the end it looked like Michigan had really squandered their chance to win. With barely any time left and an unbelievable catch to move the ball down the field, Michigan made a field goal to tie up the game at 31-31 and send it into overtime. In OT Michigan managed to score a touchdown and stop Northwestern making the final score 38-31 for a Michigan win. Looking back I really don't see how Michigan pulled out that game, but we'll take it!
How was your weekend? Did you get up to anything fun?
Monday, November 12, 2012 at 8:16AM | Posted by Lisa | 4 Comments | Share Article | Email Article | Print Article 
Reader Comments (4)
Yay Portillo's! Frank's version looks delicious!
I have to say boo Michigan because my daughter is a Northwesterner! But I am glad you had a good time and the cake was darling!
I forgot to answer your question! I had fun Saturday, I went to Chicago with my husband for John and Sherry Petersik's (younghouselove.com) book signing. They were there so long, what troopers. I may have earned myself a spot on their blog, when they do a recap of this stop of their book tour! My sister was supposed to come with, but at the last minute was unable to make it. She was really disappointed, so that morning I printed a photo of her face and put it on a stick. Then When I took a photo with them, my sister got to be in the pic too! Such a funny pic and they were laughing hysterically! John took a photo with their camera and told me it had to go on the blog, so fingers crossed! You can see one on Instagram if you search #younghouselove (my user name is hilabeans).
Hilary- How fun to get to go to the book signing! I love their blog. It is so much fun with interesting ideas. That is so funny that you brought a picture of your sister's head on a stick. I looked for the picture on Instragram, but it looks like your pictures are private. Hopefully the photo makes it on their blog!
Kathy- Northwestern is a good team and I hope that for you and your daughter they win their remaining games! (I am glad that Michigan won, though!)