Dorie Greenspan’s Perfect Party Cake
This month’s Daring Baker’s challenge involves making Dorie Greenspan’s Perfect Party Cake, from her outstanding cookbook, Baking: From My Home to Yours. This is my first Daring Baker’s challenge, and having just made Red Velvet Cake (recipe coming soon) for D’s birthday, I was less than enthusiastic about my debut revolving around another cake. I wanted something I could really get excited about, but after eating cake all of last week (and a heavy cake at that) I was putting off making this cake until the last possible day- yesterday. Evening. I swear I wasn’t procrastinating. It’s not like baking a cake is a daunting task or anything, I just couldn’t bare the thought of more cake. Frankly, neither could D.
Those were my thoughts before I started mixing the cake batter. During the mixing process, my thoughts went gradually from “mmm..this lemon zest smells good, maybe this won’t be so bad,” to “wow, this is a really nice cake batter,” to “god, I love the smell of cake baking in the oven,” to finally D and I scarfing down slices of cake thinking, “this is some of the best cake we’ve ever had!”
What makes this cake excellent is that the batter is flawless, easy, and well-balanced (i.e. not too sweet, not too heavy) and the filling and frosting can be varied in innumerable ways. The original recipe calls for raspberry preserves inside and shredded coconut to be pressed up to a buttercream frosting on the outside of the finished cake, but I had fresh strawberry jam in the fridge, D doesn’t like coconut, and we were not in the mood for such a rich frosting as buttercream, so I made those substitutions. I suppose I could have decorated my cake a little better, garnished it with some fresh strawberries or the like, but my original indifference to the outcome of this cake told me not to buy those “extras” while buying the ingredients I needed at the supermarket. So be it. When I serve the cake I can always add extra berries at that time, but frankly, this cake needs nothing more than a fork to get it into your drooling mouth. This is the first recipe I’ve tested from this cookbook of Dorie’s, but it certainly won’t be the last. Enjoy! : )
mmm…cake innards!
Dorie Greenspan’s Perfect Party Cake (adapted from Baking: From My Home to Yours)
Makes one 9-inch layer cake
For the Cake
2 1/4 cups cake flour
1 tablespoon baking powder
½ teaspoon salt
1 ¼ cups whole milk or buttermilk (use buttermilk if you want to intensify the lemon flavor)
4 large egg whites
1 ½ cups sugar
2 teaspoons grated lemon zest
1/2 cup unsalted butter, at room temperature
½ teaspoon pure lemon extract
For the Whipped Cream (double this if you want to cover the whole cake with whipped cream)
1 cup heavy cream, cold
1/8 cup sugar
2 tbsp raw wild flower honey (or another flavorful honey of your choice)
For Finishing
2/3 cup strawberry jam, stirred vigorously to loosen (feel free to use another flavor of jam)
Method
1. Center a rack in the oven and preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Butter and flour two 9 x 2 inch round cake pans and line the bottom of each pan with a round of buttered parchment paper.
2. Sift together the flour, baking powder and salt.
3. Whisk together the milk and egg whites in a medium bowl.
4. Put the sugar and lemon zest in a mixer bowl whisk until the sugar is moist and fragrant.
5. Add the butter to the lemony sugar mixture and working with the paddle attachment, or with a hand mixer, beat at medium speed for a full 3 minutes, until the butter and sugar are very light and fluffy.
6. Beat in the lemon extract, then add one third of the flour mixture, still beating on medium speed.
7. Beat in half of the milk-egg mixture, then beat in half of the remaining dry ingredients until incorporated. Add the rest of the milk-egg mixture, beating until the batter is homogeneous, then add the last of the dry ingredients.
8. Finally, give the batter a good 2- minute beating to ensure that it is thoroughly mixed and well aerated.
9. Divide the batter between the two pans and smooth the tops with a rubber or offset spatula.
10. Bake for 25-30 minutes, or until the cakes are well risen and springy to the touch – a thin knife inserted into the centers should come out clean. Cool the cakes in the pans for about 5 minutes, then run a knife around the sides of the cakes, take them out of the pans, and peel off the parchment paper. Invert the cakes so they are right side up and cool to room temperature. The cooled cake layers can be wrapped airtight and stored at room temperature overnight or frozen for up to two months.
11. While the cakes are cooling, whip heavy cream to soft peaks, then add sugar, slowly, continuing to whip. Once sugar is incorporated, add honey in a slow stream to the mixture. Make sure the honey gets incorporated by scraping the bottom of your bowl well, as the honey will sink to the bottom. Whip cream to stiff peaks and set in the refrigerator until you’re ready to assemble the cake.
12. Once the cake layers are cool, place one layer on a serving plate. Top that layer with the strawberry jam. On top of the jam, spread 1/3 of the whipped cream. Place the second cake layer on top of the whipped cream and top that with the remaining whipped cream. Enjoy!
-M : )
