Daring Bakers, March: Dorie Greenspan's Perfect Party Cake

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At the beginning of every month, the ever-growing and always welcoming group of Daring Bakers (DBers) are assigned a baking challenge by the month's host, and at the end of that month, en masse, they blog about the baking project, revealing to the world what it is! This month's host was Morven, and she assigned Dorie Greenspan's Perfect Party Cake.

It's a fairly straightforward white cake recipe out of Greenspan's Baking: From My Home to Yours. It's lightly flavored with some lemon zest and frosted with Swiss meringue buttercream--an easy frosting, and one I prefer much more to American buttercream--it tastes less sweet and doesn't leave that horrible greasy feel in my mouth. We had to follow the recipe exactly, and we had to have four layers. Filling and frosting flavors were totally up to us.

I decided to use apricot preserves and honey
Dorie Greenspan's Perfect Party Cake



I love layering cakes
Dorie Greenspan's Perfect Party Cake

Even though I like Swiss meringue buttercream, I'm generally not a huge frosting fan, so I opted not to fill my cake with buttercream. I stuck with just the apricot honey filling.

I served the cake to friends at my monthly Savories and Sweets party on March 23, which, among other things, was my Mom's birthday. I dedicated the cake to her. I remember her watching her decorate cakes when I was a kid. They were always so beautiful, but I didnt' really appreciate them until I grew up and started decorating cakes on my own. She's so awesome. Happy birthday, Mom!
Dorie Greenspan's Perfect Party Cake

The other dessert was King's Hawaiian Bread with some blood orange curd I made (tasty!).
Dorie Greenspan's Perfect Party Cake

I was worried that my friends might not like it without the frosting filling, but they all agreed that it was just right the way it was, and I got great reviews: light, moist, very fluffy, and yummy.
Dorie Greenspan's Perfect Party Cake

It's definitely a cake worth making again! Thanks for a great recipe, Morven!

Comments

Anzj said…
So sweet that you made one for your Mom. And done so well!
Morven said…
I'm so glad you could bake with us this month - your cakes looks gorgeously light and fluffy. I'm going to make one for my mum this weekend although I'll have to take it on a two hour bus trip ..... hmmmm
Anonymous said…
The decoration is awesome, really !!
Anonymous said…
Love the pipings!
Anonymous said…
Beautiful! And I love the apricot filling... must have been delicious!
Anne said…
It looks absolutely yummy! Simply lovely!
L Vanel said…
Really a nice looking cake! Great job!
Jerry said…
Great job! Lovely cake! Bet your mom was proud!
Gretchen Noelle said…
Lovely writing on top - I am impressed! Very unique filling flavors! Great job!
Anonymous said…
Your monochromatic cake looks gorgeous! How nice of you to make it for your mom (I made mine for my grandma).
Julius said…
I too skipped filling the cake with buttercream (just filled it with jam) so the cake wouldn't be too rich.

This is stunning work! Your mom is lucky.

Julius from Occasional Baker
Unknown said…
I did the just-jam thing by accident, but believe my cake was the better for it. :)

I want to try apricot filling with a chocolate version of this cake, more of a sacher torte. Yummmmmm.
Anonymous said…
Looks great, Julie. The apricot and honey sounds so good together, and I like the white on white frosting.
Madeleine said…
Great party cake!!!!!

Good idea use apricot and honey!! congratulations! :)
Lunch Buckets said…
Beautiful! It looks very elegant, I bet your mom loved it :)
Andrea said…
I agree about using just the preserves in between the layers, but my excuse is to have frosting leftover for decorating! Your cake looks great, and I'm envious of the nice lettering job! I can never make letters turn out right.
Sheltie Girl said…
Fabulous job! I love your decorating.

Natalie @ Gluten A Go Go

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