Dorie Greenspan's Perfect Party Cake

I'm baking so often that I'm going to switch my schedule to Monday/Wednesday/Friday for a bit!

My older brother, CJ, just graduated from college a few weeks ago. I couldn't attend because it was during finals week for me, but I watched it online (which, when I told him later, is apparently "creepy"). In honor of his graduation, I baked him this cake on Friday.

It took me about 4 hours to make this cake, and I am extremely proud of it. It fell together very nicely. This is Dorie Greenspan's "Perfect Party Cake", a deliciously light and fluffy lemon cake with raspberry preserves and a very light, delicate lemon buttercream. I decorated it with the suggested coconut and used about a cup instead of the cup and a half of coconut, and only decorated the sides, putting fresh raspberries on top. What made this cake even easier compared to recipes I've made at college, was that I had both a hand-mixer for the frosting, a long serated knife to cut the layers in half, and a cake frosting knife!! Oh my god that made it so much easier! I really really enjoyed this cake, both the making and the eating. It was such a light lemony flavor and a delicate texture. I didn't really like the store-bought raspberry preserves that I used, because it was a little sweet, but my family still liked it.

Unfortunately my brother was very displeased that I did something for him...so he refused to accept this cake as any form of gift or celebration for his graduation...but at least he ate a piece!

Perfect Party Cake
Recipe from Dorie Greenspan's
Baking: From My Home to Yours
For the Cake
2 ½ cups cake flour
1 tablespoon baking powder
½ teaspoon salt
1 ¼ cups whole milk or buttermilk (I prefer buttermilk with the lemon)
4 large egg whites
1 ½ cups sugar
2 teaspoons grated lemon zest
1 stick (8 tablespoons or 4 ounces) unsalted butter, at room temperature
½ teaspoon pure lemon extract

For the Buttercream
1 cup sugar
4 large egg whites
3 sticks (12 ounces) unsalted butter, at room temperature
¼ cup fresh lemon juice (from 2 large lemons)
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

For Finishing2/3 cup seedless raspberry preserves stirred vigorously or warmed gently until spreadable
About 1 ½ cups sweetened shredded coconut

Getting ReadyCentre 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 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.

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 the 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.

I followed the exact directions for frosting the first layer: I put down the preserves and then tried to put the frosting on top of the jam. But it's MUCH easier to spread the preserves, and then on the side of the next layer of cake that you're going to put on top, frost that with frosting before.

Like this:

Burnt Sugar Cake

Yes! I managed to bake a lot these past three days...I'll start here with what I baked on Thursday, and then probably post 3 recipes next week instead of just two to catch up (especially since I'm baking and cooking a lot more to post about next week, too!). This cake was for my friend Kerri's birthday on Thursday.

All the ingredients for this cake were really easy to gather, which is why I made it first. Still, I had a little bit of trouble baking this one: the burnt sugar syrup really freaked me out to make because I thought it would never work, and then the cake took much longer than the alotted time (I baked it a little less than 10 minutes longer than it says it should be baked for) so I was a little worried about it. Also, my mom's old 9-inch pans refused to give the cake up (I had the same problem baking carrot cake for Kerri here a year ago), but the cake still turned out fine: only one of the layers broke a little bit. It was a little sunken but I just added more frosting to the center at the end.

I didn't get to try this cake, but Kerri sent me a picture text to show me the inside of the cake when she tried it! She liked it, and said it had a little bit of a maple-y taste and something else that she couldn't remember.

Burnt Sugar Cake
Recipe from Southern Cakes: Sweet and Irresistible Recipes for Everyday Celebrations by Nancie McDermott

Burnt Sugar Syrup1 cup sugar
1 cup boiling water


Heat the sugar in a cast iron skillet or another heavy bottomed pan with high sides. Heat over a medium-low heat, stirring occasionally, until the sugar melts into a clear brown caramel syrup. It should be the color of tea.

Gradually add the boiling water, pouring it down the sides of the pan so that if the syrup foams and bubbles up, you should be protected.
Continue cooking, stirring often, until the water combines with the syrup and turns a handsome brown syrup.

Remove from the heat and set aside to cool. Store the cooled syrup in a sealed jar if not using right away.

Burnt Sugar Cake

3 cups all purpose flour
1 tbsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 cup milk
1 cup (2 sticks) butter
1 3/4 cups sugar
4 eggs
1/2 cup Burnt Sugar Syrup (recipe above)

Heat the oven to 350 degrees F. Grease and flour two 9 inch round cake pans.

In a medium bowl, combine the flour, baking powder and salt and stir with a fork to mix well. Stir the vanilla into the milk.

In a large bowl, beat the butter and the sugar with an electric mixer at high speed for 2–3 minutes, until they are well combined. Stop now and then to scrape the bowl down. Add the eggs, one by one, beating well each time. Pour in 1/2 cup of the burnt sugar syrup and beat well.


Add a third of the flour mixture and about half of the milk, beating at a low speed, until just incorporated. Mix in another third of the flour and the rest of the milk. Finally, add the remaining flour.

Divide the batter between the cake pans and bake for 20 to 25 minutes until the cakes are golden brown, spring back when touched gently in the center and begin to pull away from the sides of the pan.

Let the cakes cool in the pans on a wire rack for 15 minutes. Turn out the cakes onto a wire rack to cool completely.


Burnt Sugar Frosting
3 3/4 cups confectioners sugar
1/2 cup Burnt Sugar Syrup (above)
1/4 cup (1/2 stick) butter
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
2 – 3 tbsp milk

In a large bowl, combine the confectioners sugar, the burnt sugar syrup, butter and vanilla. Beat with a mixer at medium speed for 2 to 3 minutes, scraping down the bowl now and then to bring the ingredients together.

Add 2 tablespoons of the milk and continue beating until the frosting is thick, soft, smooth and easy to spread. Add a little more sugar if it is thin, and a little more milk if it is too thick.

To Assemble
Place one layer, top side down, on a cake stand or serving plate. Scoop about ¾ cup of the frosting onto the cake and spread to the edges. Place the second cake layer over it, top side down. Frost the sides of the cake, and then the top until it is evenly covered.




And here's the text Kerri was able to send me! I guess it wasn't as underbaked as I thought!

Pumpkin Cookies with Cream Cheese Icing

Okay, maybe I'm taking the weak way out. I've been jet-lagged and job-searching and haven't had time to bake anything new. But at least I'm giving you a recipe! Unfortunately, this is a recipe more appropriate for when I made them in October, but that's okay. I promise to make it up to everyone in a very good way, soon!

These cookies were delicious. Half my friends preferred them with the icing, and half without. I thought that the icing made them more like cookies, because without it they were more like scones because they weren't as sweet or dense as cookies.

Pumpkin Cookies with Cream Cheese Icing
Adapted from allrecipes by me. Found on My Baking Addiction

2 cups unsalted butter; softened
2 cups sugar
2 cups canned pumpkin (solid; not pie mix)
2 eggs
2 tsp baking soda
3 tsp ground cinnamon
2 tsp pumpkin pie spice
1/2 tsp nutmeg
1 tsp salt
4 cups all-purpose flour

Cream shortening, butter, white sugar and pumpkin. Add eggs and mix well.

Sift together the baking soda, ground cinnamon, pumpkin pie spice, nutmeg, salt and flour. Add to pumpkin mixture and mix well.

Drop from spoon to cookie sheet. Bake 13-15 minutes at 350 degrees F.

Cream Cheese Icing

1 (8 ounce) package cream cheese, softened
2 tbsp butter, softened
4 cups confectioners’ sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
2 tbsp milk

Mix the cream cheese with the butter, confectioners’ sugar, vanilla extract, and milk in a bowl. Heat in a microwave for 15 seconds. Drizzle spoonfuls over the cooled cookies and smooth with the back of a spoon or a spatula.

Chocolate Chip Oreo Cookies

And finally, my last day of baking in this kitchen. I'm leaving the East Coast and returning to the West Coast for the summer, where I'll continue baking. I made these cookies on Monday.

I still had leftover oreos from when I baked the last recipe, and I still had some more supplies, so I searched for a recipe that would let me use some of the things I already had without having to buy anything else...these were easy to make but didn't make very many. Still, they were very good and very sweet. The one I tried just melted in my mouth! If I made these again, I would double this recipe (the blog I got it from, Picky Palete, said this was halved) and bake larger cookies (mine were bite-sized so that I could make more).

Chocolate Chip Oreo Cookies
Recipe adapted from Picky Palete

1 stick softened butter
6 tbsp sugar
6 tbsp brown sugar
1 egg
½ tsp vanilla
1 ¼ cup flour
½ tsp baking soda
½ tsp salt
8 Oreo Cookies, broken
1 cup milk chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

Cream butter, and sugars until well combined. Add egg and vanilla until mixed well.

Add flour, baking soda and salt into a large bowl. Stir to combine. Slowly add dry ingredients to wet ingredients then stir in oreos and chocolate chips until just combined.

With a medium cookie scoop, scoop onto a parchment or silpat lined baking sheet. Bake for 7-9 minutes or until cooked, but still soft. Let cool on baking sheet for 3 minutes before transferring to cooling rack.

Chocolate Panda Cake with White Chocolate Frosting

Before I arrived at college this year I think I had baked 4 cakes in my life, and that's a stretch. The first one I remember was in 9th grade, a recipe for La Galette des Rois for extra credit in my French class. Although it good, I was in 9th grade and it was hardly baked by me any more than my parents.

The second cake I remember was a cake-mix cake. I think my mom made the frosting. I cut it into a fish. At least, I think that was me...

The third cake was my first actual cake-from-scratch! My friend told me to make her a carrot cake, and using a recipe my mom found for me (and the carrots she processed for me in her food processor), I made the carrot cake almost all by myself! My dad kind of helped me take it out of the pans, which didn't really work, and I ended up mushing the cake up as the bottom layer...and I didn't take any pictures.

The fourth cake was actually a cake recipe that I made into cupcakes. A very dense, very chocolatey cake recipe from William Sonoma. The frosting was good, but was too soupy at first until I chilled it overnight. It definitely should have stayed a cake, not cupcakes.

And then I came here, didn't bake another cake until Lucy's strawberry birthday cake with a cakemix base, then made David's cake which was delicious but still not great, and then...wow, I just made a lot more cakes than I ever thought I'd make.

This one I made on Saturday for my friends who have summer birthdays, but namely for my friend Steven (aka "Panda"), who requested that I make him a cake. And I think that this one, out of all the cakes I've made so far, is my favorite. I just wanted to use ingredients I have here since I'm almost done with the year and didn't want to stock up on new supplies that I couldn't store over the summer. I didn't even know if chocolate and white chocolate would go together. But I really enjoyed this cake. The filling is a store-bought mix, but that's the only thing I cheated on! For real!

Panda Cake

Grand Fudge Cake
Recipe from Ghiradelli

3/4 cup Unsweetened Cocoa
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 3/4 cups sugar
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup butter or margarine, softened
1 1/3 cups milk
2 large eggs
2 teaspoons vanilla

Preheat oven to 350ºF.

Grease and lightly flour two 9-inch round cake pans.

In a medium bowl, combine flour, cocoa, baking powder, baking soda, and salt, and set aside. In a large bowl, cream butter and sugar on medium-high speed until light and fluffy, about 4 minutes. Reduce speed to low, and add vanilla and eggs one at a time, scraping bowl after each addition. Alternately add flour mixture and milk (starting and ending with the flour mixture), while mixing on low speed. Continue to mix until smooth.


Pour into prepared pans. Bake for 30 to 35 minutes or until a cake tester inserted in the center of cake comes out clean.

Filling
Any white-chocolate mousse. I bought mine from the Tops supermarket. It made 2 cups, but I wish I had more, as I'll explain below.

I added 4 crumpled oreos to the 2 cups of mousse, and chilled it for 2 hours.

White Chocolate Frosting
Recipe adapted from Lisa Yockelson's Chocolate Chocolate
You can find the recipe here


My frosting turned out much too soupy. I added some more confectioners sugar but then chilled it. It makes about 4 cups of frosting, which was definitely enough to cover the outside of the cake and probably could have been in the center as well if you didn't want to make the white chocolate mousse, but I really enjoyed the mousse at the center, it was a nice different texture for the cake.

Assembly

At least 11 oreos, 4 used for mixing into the mousse filling.

Take your bottom layer and cover it in chilled mousse filling. Then place the second layer on top.

My cake layers crowned and I should have leveled at least the bottom layer off, but didn't. I had about 2 cups of filling, which left a lot of space, but luckily I improvised by crumpling up 4 oreos and pressing them into the sides to fill up the cracks:


Cover the rest of the cake with frosting. I decorated it like a panda by taking an oreo apart, making sure all the "white stuff" stayed on one side, and taking a crumb and making that the pupil. I did this twice to make two eyes and two ears, and took another cookie apart to make the nose and mouth, like so:

And again, there was a lot of leftover frosting...

So yeah! Definitely try this cake! It was perfectly moist and there was just enough frosting! The combination was perfect!