Tuesdays with Dorie: Perfect Party Cake

      This week's Tuesdays with Dorie recipe, from the cookbook Baking:  From My Home to Yours by Dorie Greenspan is Perfect Party Cake, can be found on pages 250-252, and was chosen by Carol of Mix, Mix...Stir, Stir. If you would like to try the recipe before buying the book, click on Carol's site above and she will have it posted today. 

      I think this may very well be the Perfect Party Cake.  The cake itself is very lovely: vanilla and lemon flavored, light, and moist, and just the right sweetness.  It was easy to mix up, ingredients readily available, and after it baked and cooled, was easy to slice, fill, and decorate.  The flavor is most excellent as I truly love both vanilla and lemon, so together it was a happy pairing. 

      The frosting was indulgently rich...a lot of butter in this buttercream frosting.  Which is why one thin slice will do you...very satisfying and filling.  It is very rich.  I have leftovers, not because it wasn't well received, but because it is so rich that a little bit goes a long way. 

      Besides butter in the icing is a meringue of marshmallowy goodness...so much fun to make and so tasty on a cake. 

      The filling between the layers is raspberry jam and more of the frosting. 

      While the recipe had several steps, it all went together easily enough, the important note here being that you should give yourself plenty of time and not be in a rush when making it.  I had plenty of time, so I enjoyed the whole process. 

      The only adjustment I made was that I only made half the recipe as a 9" size cake seemed way too much for something this rich as my guys are not big cake eaters.  Half of a 9" cake, batter content-wise, is a 6" size of pan, so I did splurge and purchase two of those as I figured I would have use for them in the future.  This is a great size, and the whole entire decorated cake, with the coconut and all fits securely and neatly under the domed cake stand without touching sides or top, something that cannot be thought of as too incidental. 

      My decorating/filling/icing skills are what they are...not professional, but it didn't make one bit of difference in how the cake tasted, which was wonderfully delicious!  Yep, I think this is the Perfect Party Cake.  Lots of variations can be easily adapted to this recipe. 

      Last photo is of Matt enjoying the cake, and you will note this week, it is a very modest piece as it truly is a rich and filling dessert.  

      Next week's recipe was chosen by Lisa of Surviving Oz, is Tribute to Katharine Hepburn Brownies, and can be found on pages 96-97.  

      

Click here and then on individual baker's blog at the site if you would like to see more of this week's recipe and the various ways in which different people interpreted their quest.  It is not too late to join us.  If you would like to bake along, simply go to the TWD site and send an email through the link listed there.  You can join in the weekly fun.  See you there!