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baking boys Dorie

Tuesdays With Dorie: Perfect Party Cake

cake 2

I made this cake a month ago. I was so proud of myself — I was ahead for once; I could write the post at my leisure, and just hit Publish when it was time.

But I neglected to actually write the damn thing, or process the photos. I had a month.

Anyway, now it’s 10 p.m. on Monday night, and I suppose this will once again be a not-very-good post. I’m sorry.

I made this cake for #2 Son’s 12th birthday party back in May. He was a good enough sport to accept a white cake, but he held out for chocolate frosting.

So I left out the lemon and added twice as much vanilla, and needless to say I left out the jam. I made the frosting as Dorie instructs, but I melted 6 ounces of bittersweet chocolate and added it to the meringue after it was cool. I intended to add the coconut, but there were people here already, and I forgot. (I have a long, inglorious history of decorating birthday cakes while guests are in the next room.)

As I recall, this was easy to make; I even managed to slice the layers in half without destroying them. And as I further recall, I liked it. It wasn’t the best cake I’ve ever had — #1 Son and his beloved America’s Best Recipes were responsible for that — but it was good. I didn’t think the buttercream was buttery enough; I’m a big fan of buttercream, something of a buttercream connoisseur (connoisseuse?), you might say. This was more of a chocolate marshmallow fluff: not bad at all, but not buttercream. And considering how much butter was in there, I was expecting buttercream.

cake 1

Family thoughts:

Husband: I could taste the strange flour [the cake flour], but it was very light. I thought the overall effect of the chocolate icing on the cake was good. It wasn’t too sweet all together.

#1 Son: [He’s away for the week, working at a Civil Air Patrol encampment. And I seem not to have written down his impressions back when I actually made the cake. Sorry again.]

#2 Son: I thought the frosting was a little sweet, but the cake itself was pretty good. It was too big, though; I had to unlayer it.

cake 3

Go check the hundreds of variations helpfully provided by the Tuesdays With Dorie bakers, and if you want to try it yourself — it is a Perfect Party Cake, after all — buy the book or visit mix, mix… stir, stir, where Carol will have the recipe.

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