Almost Perfect Birthday Cake

I LOVE LOVE LOVE to bake!!!!  Of course, I have been trying to lay off lately because I need to get my bum into shape and eating butter, sugar, and flour (the holy trinity) ain’t gonna work for me!  But, sometimes there comes an exception.

When a friend asks – will you bake for me?  The answer is always – without a doubt – YES!!!  Then I ask for details:

-  Chocolate?

-  Layers?  Sheet? Cupcakes?

- Nuts?

-  Fruit?

Well, this past weekend – this scenario happened.  And my friend provided the following answers for her perfect birthday cake idea:

-  Chocolate?   NO

-  Layers?  Sheet? Cupcakes?   Layers

- Nuts?     NO

-  Fruit?    YES!

I have to say that when I ask these questions, I always invitably expect to hear (chocolate, layers, no nuts, no fruit).  This time – it was fruit all the way!

After little research (namely because the answer came so fast!), I found the ANSWER!  Hailed as the PERFECT party cake – I knew I had to try.  Now enter – Dorie’s Perfect Party Cake.  You can find the recipe here, here, and many other places.  Dorie even gives tips here.

The cake took me a while to prepare.  Total time (with cooling of layers in between) was about 4 hours.

And here is the final result:  (I’m not the best decorator but I am practicing!!)

Did I take pictures of the inside? No.  Why?  Two reasons: (1) I’m not very bright and (2) Everyone (about 9 people) finished the cake in 10 minutes!  By the time I even picked up a camera, I was done with my slice and others were too.  Drat the luck!

Final opinion:  I loved the cake.  Very light, moist and had an excellent crumb.  The lemon and raspberry worked excellently together.  I, however, was not the biggest fan of the butter cream frosting – which seems to be a bit of an issue with others that have reviewed it, as well.  I would definitely make this cake again – but am still searching for the perfect butter cream frosting recipe!

And, I suppose most importantly – the birthday girl was very very happy!

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