Party Cake!

Well it’s that time of the month again to share my cooking adventures with the Daring Bakers and I’m excited to say I baked my first 4 layered cake! (Please insert applause and golf clap here, haha). This month challenge was a “celebration cake” hosted by Morvan with the recipe coming from Dorie Greenspan’s Baking from my Home. I have baked many a cakes from my good friend Betty Crocker and have covered them with sickening sweet frosting out of a cardboard tub but this was the first cake I have made from scratch from start to finish. This was a perfect time for a celebration cake because everything has been going so well in my life recently and well... I couldn’t be any happier being me at the moment. Okay okay, enough with the sappy stuff, on to why you’re really here!

The only rules for this month’s challenge was to follow the recipe somewhat close and to fill it with something. Simple enough right?! Wrong! Through my many, many conversations with fellow Daring Baker and eating partner Amy, I finally decided to make a vanilla cake filled with lemon curd and blueberry preserves with a whipped cream, marscapone frosting. YES, somehow that all fit into a cake! I wanted the light airiness of the cake to be matched with the puckering tartness of the curd, balanced out with the fruity preserves and then smother it all with something lighter than air.

Because I was stretched for time this week I made the lemon curd earlier in the week and bake and assembled the cake later in the week. I just used my standard lemon curd recipe and went from there. The cake was surprisingly easy and bake up nice and golden brown as seen in the pictures. I let them come completely to room temperature because I tired to move or deal with them.

To assemble the cake, I sliced each layer (very carefully I might add) in two. I then dribbled the lemon curd and blueberry preserves randomly on the between the layers to give a marbled effect. At first I thought of just doing 2 layers of the lemon curd and then a single layer of blueberry but I thought this randomness would be prettier when the cake was sliced.

To finish it all off, I whipped up the cream and then added in the marcapone with a bit of icing sugar. Just delightful! My kitchen was kinda warm so I had some problems with the whipped cream wanting to separate. I should have just stuck it back in the frig to stiffen but my stomach as not willing to wait.

As you can see that once I cut into the cake the layer of lemon curd and blueberry soaked into the cake and gave it a beautiful effect. I have to say it was mightly delicious and I will defiantly have to keep this recipe the next time a friend has a birthday, or heck, I’ll celebrate it’s a Friday, or the first or a month, or just me! With another Daring Bakers Challenge under my belt, I feel a little more confident in my baking abilities so I’m ready to take on the next challenge!