The Perfect Party Cake and Dorie Greenspan: my first DB challenge

Do you know that Italy is famous for lemons and oranges and tangerine....? Really? you didn't know it?

milk-egg mixture? I had a great idea!

It will be well aerated? I hope so!

European Daring Bakers and the batter

fluffy, silky and glossy...anything else? Just an italian meringue

Building a tower...first floor

Here we are...three layer four sponge cake.

Ulrike kindly has converted for european partecipants cup and oz and stick and ounce in grams and ml

This is the Ulrike converted recipe.

I'm inviting you to read it, finally you will read my comments too.

Dories perfect Party Cake
Categories:
DB March 08
Yield:
1 Recipe **** -->
Ingredients
H
FOR THE CAKE
288 (up to 342 *) grams Cake flour, 2 ½ cups
1 tablesp. Baking powder
1/2 teasp. Salt
300 ml Whole milk or buttermilk (I prefer buttermilk
-- with the lemon), 1 ¼ cups
4 large Egg whites
300 grams Sugar, 1 ½ cups
2 teasp. Grated lemon zest
115 grams Unsalted butter, at room temperature, 1 stick (8
-- tablespoons or 4 ounces)
1/2 teasp. Pure lemon extract

FOR THE BUTTERCREAM
200 grams Sugar, 1 cup
4 large Egg whites
345 grams Unsalted butter, at room temperature, 3 sticks
-- (12 ounces)
60 ml Fresh lemon juice (from 2 large lemons, )¼
1 teasp. Pure vanilla extract

FOR FINISHING
5 1/4 tablesp. Seedless raspberry preserves stirred vigorously
-- or warmed gently until spreadable, 2/3 cup
130 grams Sweetened shredded coconut, About 1 ½ cups

Source
Dorie Greenspan's Baking from My Home to Yours (page 250).
Edited *RK* 03/01/2008 by
Ulrike Westphal

Directions

Getting Ready
Centre 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.

To Make the Cake
Sift together the flour, baking powder and salt. Whisk together 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. 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).

To Make the Buttercream
Put the sugar and egg whites in a mixer bowl or another large heatproof bowl, fit the bowl over a plan of simmering water and whisk constantly, keeping the mixture over the heat, until it feels hot to the touch, about 3 minutes. The sugar should be dissolved, and the mixture will look like shiny marshmallow cream. Remove the bowl from the heat. Working with the whisk attachment or with a hand mixer, beat the meringue on medium speed until it is cool, about 5 minutes. Switch to the paddle attachment if you have one, and add the butter a stick at a time, beating until smooth. Once all the butter is in, beat in the buttercream on medium-high speed until it is thick and very smooth, 6-10 minutes. During this time the buttercream may curdle or separate - just keep beating and it will come together again. On medium speed, gradually beat in more lemon juice, waiting until each addition is absorbed before adding more, and then the vanilla. You should have a shiny smooth, velvety, pristine white buttercream. Press a piece of plastic against the surface of the buttercream and set aside briefly.

To Assemble the Cake
Using a sharp serrated knife and a gentle sawing motion, slice each layer horizontally in half. 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.

Serving
The cake is ready to serve as soon as it is assembled, but I think it's best to let it sit and set for a couple of hours in a cool room- not the refrigerator. Whether you wait or slice and enjoy it immediately, the cake should be served at room temperature; it loses all its subtlety when it's cold. Depending on your audience you can serve the cake with just about anything from milk to sweet or bubbly wine.

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.

Playing Around
Since lemon is such a friendly flavour, feel free to make changes in the preserves: other red preserves - cherry or strawberry - look especially nice, but you can even use plum or blueberry jam.

Fresh Berry Cake
If you will be serving the cake the day it is made, cover each layer of buttercream with fresh berries - use whole raspberries, sliced or halved strawberries or whole blackberries, and match the preserves to the fruit. You can replace the coconut on top of the cake with a crown of berries, or use both coconut and berries. You can also replace the buttercream between the layers with fairly firmly whipped sweetened cream and then either frost the cake with buttercream (the contrast between the lighter whipped cream and the firmer buttercream is nice) or finish it with more whipped cream. If you use whipped cream, you'll have to store the cake the in the refrigerator - let it sit for about 20 minutes at room temperature before serving.

And my comments and opinion

I've enjoied this cake it reminds me some Donald Duck cake, those seen in comics or the fabulous 60th in the TV fiction "Happy Days" with Fonzie and Mrs Cunningham for example.

During the preparation I imagined myself with some of that skirt coloured and voluminous!

So...remaining a little bit serious: I choose strawberries, sweet and perfectly matched with lemon flavour.

A perfect couple in my opinion

Follow the recipe wasn't particularly difficult, expecially since Ulrike published the convertion to metric measure.

I hit it on first time! Despite my concerns reading of some difficult in preparing such kind of cake.

I've just used a wet spoon to frost the cake and it was perfect.

Initially I thought making waves with frost but the butter cream was a little beat hard to handed so I was obliged to change in something more simple.

And was funny decide what kind of decoration use and take a lot of pictures.

I love photography and this cake was a photogenic subject.

A pure white frosting in contrast with the pure red of strawberry...

I hoped to make a better decoration but I haven't enough time and a huge amount of job to do, and...I am a simple person so instead of piping some frost I choose the spring theme of strawberry and playing with colour contrast.

Unfortunately I won't stick a post-it of this recipe on my fridge.

I know, I've seemed enthusiastic but I didn't like the huge amount of fat, my family and I think that it's too fatty and too sweet despite it looks like so wonderful and tasty.

Its a dangerous cake, for health I mean and a thiny slice can be enough for a week and the freshness of fruit doesn't cut the fatty sensation eating it.
And I recognized a taste of baking powder too present into the sponge white cake.

But I've enjoied this experience, it was a good one!

Thanks to allow me to partecipate and looking forward the next challenge!