Perfect Party Cake & My Step-Dad's Birthday

I really wanted to make a fancy cake for Tony's birthday and then I found this beauty - so pretty, so yummy, and still so simple.  I have to thank my aunt Kathy for lending me her Kitchen Aid, someone please get me one? pleaseeeeee

 Perfect Party Cake
from Dorie Greenspan’s Baking: From My Home to Yours

Cake ingredients
2 1/4 cups cake flour
1 tbsp baking powder (3/4 tsp adjusted for altitude)
1/2 tsp salt
1 1/4 cups whole milk or buttermilk
4 large egg whites
1 1/2 cups sugar
2 tsp grated lemon zest
1 stick (8 tbsp or 4 oz) unsalted butter, at room temperature
1/2 tsp pure lemon extract

Finishing ingredients
2/3 cup seedless raspberry preserves stirred vigorously or warmed gently until spreadable
1 1/2 cups sweetened shredded coconut

 

Mix it

Center a rack in the oven and preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Butter two 9 x 2 inch round cake pans and line the bottom of each pan with a round of buttered parchment or wax paper. Put the pans on a baking sheet.

Sift together the flour, baking powder and salt. 

Whisk together the milk and egg whites in a medium bowl. Put the sugar and lemon zest in a mixer bowl or another large bowl and rub them together with your fingers until the sugar is moist and fragrant. 

Add the butter and working with the paddle or whisk attachment, or with a hand mixer, beat at medium speed for a full 3 minutes, until the butter and sugar are very light. Beat in the extract, then add one third of the flour mixture, still beating on medium speed. 

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 and eggs beating until the batter is homogeneous, then add the last of the dry ingredients. 

Finally, give the batter a good 2- minute beating to ensure that it is thoroughly mixed and well aerated. 

 

 Bake it

Divide the batter between the two pans and smooth the tops with a rubber spatula. Bake for 30-35 minutes, or until the cakes are well risen and springy to the touch – a thin knife inserted into the centers should come out clean. 

Transfer the cakes to cooling racks and cool for about 5 minutes, then run a knife around the sides of the cakes, unfold them and peel off the paper liners. 

Invert and cool to room temperature, right side up (the cooled cake layers can be wrapped airtight and stored at room temperature overnight or frozen for up to two months).

Dorie Greenspan then provides her buttercream recipe but I wanted cream cheese frosting so I used:

2 blocks of cream cheese + 2 sticks of butter + 1 1/4 cups of powdered sugar + lemon extract

 

 

 

Assemble it  

Using a sharp serrated knife and a gentle sawing motion, slice each layer horizontally in half. (My cakes didn't rise enough so i left it as a 2 layer cake)

 

 

 

 

 

Put one layer cut side up on a cardboard cake round or a cake plate protected by strips of wax or parchment paper. 

Spread it with one third of the preserves. 

Cover the jam evenly with about one quarter of the buttercream. 

Top with another layer, spread with preserves and buttercream and then do the same with a third layer (you’ll have used all the jam and have buttercream leftover). 

Place the last layer cut side down on top of the cake and use the remaining buttercream to frost the sides and top. 

Press the coconut into the frosting, patting it gently all over the sides and top.

Storing: 

The cake is best the day it is made, but you can refrigerate it, well covered, for up to two days. Bring it to room temperature before serving. If you want to freeze the cake, slide it into the freezer to set, then wrap it really well – it will keep for up to 2 months in the freezer; defrost it, still wrapped overnight in the refrigerator.

Add candles for the festivities 

 

 

 

Eat it