Party Cake

Ever since I started to baked it's been a tradition in my family that I'll make the birthday cake (except on my birthday, of course;) ). I've been frantic in finding the perfect cake for mom's birthday. It took me THREE (3) DAYS browsing through my baking books, just to choose ONE! I planned on doing a Marcel Desaulnier's Shoo Fly Cake, or FOOD Magazine's Caramel Cake, however press for time and ingredients for both recipes I scratched that idea. I even though of Carrot Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting, had everything ready and then to my surprise no CARROTS! I mean, we love eating carrots and when I needed them there aren't any around!

By Saturday night I was in panic! Have to choose one, with the ingredients already in my pantry, of course, don't have the time to go to supermarket to buy ingredients, JUST ONE! How hard could that be ?!?
On my last attempt I brought out the Dorie's heft book Baking From My Home to Yours. There I saw Party Cake hmmmm.......intriguing it looks so WHITE! Seems like easy to do and had tons of egg whites stashed away in the freezer. FINALLY! I have CHOSEN! Gosh Darn it! I finally have chosen! I wanted to start making it as soon as possible but my conscience is telling me no! calm down first you'll mess it up with all that adrenaline pumping!

I started my baking Sunday after lunch when I'm fed and satisfied :) Its actually a very easy and fast recipe, so it was a breeze to make. As I was making it still wondering how the heck would I get that white cake look! And was a bit concerned with the fact that the batter is so thin! its the thinnest batter that I have ever made, so even if the recipe said 30 minutes, by 20 minutes I was already checking for doneness. I was even quite surprise to see that the cake turn out so pale, even though I know its suppose to be like that duh! My problem only came when, one of may cake layer turns out crooked! Needless to say instead of a 4 layer cake it turned into a 3 layer cake. The frosting is easy to do as well, though my right arm would protest with all that whisking it did :) Love doing the assembly part and decorating part, because it means I'm actually about to finished and get to eat it later!

We celebrated my mom's birthday last night, we ate at Emerald Garden, one of her favorite Chinese restaurant for their fabulous seafood. Didn't get to bring the cake because it was pouring outside. Darn ..... hey at least I had a fabulous time doing it! Happy Birthday Ma!
Good news is mom LOVE it! Of course when she asked me how much butter it took to bake the cake didn't say a word ;) I would definitely make this cake again!

nikcreate

I'm a nine to five pencil pusher who loves to play with flour and paper during my free time. Dreams of going to Europe and eat croissants and make pastries all day long!

7 comments:

  1. I've made this cake as well and loved it!! I knew once I saw the picture of it in the book that I had to make it.

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  2. Well I think all your research and looking over paid off, beautiful choice!!

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  3. have a question though, how come in the book the picture looks soooo WHITE? mine looks off white? it has yellowish tint from the butter. how could I make it white white?

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  4. Anonymous6:30 PM

    What a coincidence! Now that I think about your question regarding whiteness, might it be because of the type of butter you used? Was your butter yellowish?

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  5. yeah but aren't all butter yellowish?

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  6. I love Dorie, and I love your cake!

    A few thoughts about the colour (I assume you were talking about your buttercream, because your white cake looked pretty white):

    (a) All buttercreams are off-white (in this cookbook, compare Dorie's pale buttercream against the white coconut flakes)
    (b) Some butter brands are more yellow than others. Not sure why (additives? process used?) but I know this to be true because sometimes, I buy certain brands because they are a deeper yellow.
    (c) Vanilla extract - some are darker than others. Cheap brands pile on the artificial colour. Expensive, high-quality extracts are naturally deep amber/brown.

    Personally, I love how your cake has many shades of white coming together. :)

    This is my rendition of my favourite Dorie Greenspan cake: White Out Chocolate Cake.

    All the best!

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  7. Anonymous7:56 PM

    Yeah but some are off white and some are more yellow than white. Check out the alternatives at your grocery store, you might find one that is closer to white..

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