The Daring Baker Challenge That Almost Wasn't

The end of the month means another Daring Baker challenge and this time our host is Morven of Food Art and Random Thoughts. Morven hails all the way from New Zealand, a place I’ve had on the brain lately to visit. Morven chose a recipe from my favourite book that needs no introduction: Dorie Greenspan’s Baking From My Home to Yours.

You might be surprised then to know that for a while I considered not making this recipe and bowing out of a Daring Baker Challenge for the first time. Shocking, I know. It’s not that I didn’t want to make this cake but that I couldn’t foresee any occasion that would warrant making it. And as much as I love cake, I didn’t think I could reasonably make it if I was the only one eating it.

As the due date for this month’s DB challenge drew closer I started to think that I could cheat and throw up a picture that I had taken last year on my blog’s birthday when I made a version of this cake that incorporated three different Dorie recipes. For that particular cake, (pictured at the bottom of this post) I used the white cake, raspberry and white buttercream from The Perfect Party Cake, incorporated a chocolate layer made of Dorie’s Nutty Chocolaty Swirly Sour Cream Bundt Cake and spread both of them with Dorie’s Bittersweet Chocolate Ganache. It was an epic cake and certainly one worthy of being shown again. With that in mind I had resigned myself to the fact that I would not be baking The Perfect Party cake when Kmac, (you should all know her by now, she’s been around here a few times) said that she needed a birthday cake made. I told her I would do it, but only if I got to choose the cake.

Instead of making The Perfect Party cake as written, I decided to tackle another Dorie recipe that I hadn’t made yet to go with it: Lemon Curd. I’ve been thinking of making lemon curd for a while now, which was fueled by seeing a St Patrick’s Day post by Tanna of My Kitchen in Half Cups where she made Lime Curd as a variation of Dorie’s Lemon Curd, (which she had also made previously). So my Perfect Party Cake was made with the lemon white cake, (as per the recipe) but it was layered with Lemon Curd and Whipped Cream and topped with Coconut Scented Whipped Cream and Toasted Coconut.

The birthday boy in question loves Lemon Meringue Pie, (and was actually the recipient of a couple of the mini Lemon Meringue Pies I made for the January DB challenge) and I figured he would also enjoy this lemon cake with coconut. So with a few hours to spare before the deadline, I made The Perfect Party cake, with a few variations and an extra Dorie recipe. The birthday boy was happy with his cake, (and was willing to share, as noted in photos…) and I didn’t have to miss a DB challenge.

As always, if you want to see a million other versions of The Perfect Party Cake, check out the Daring Bakers Blogroll.

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Daring Bakers + Dorie Greenspan + Blogging Event + Baking + Lemon + Cake