TWD: Perfect Party Cake... Again

Sorry for the poor picture quality! The lighting was terrible at my parents house.

I have been waiting for the day when someone would choose for us to make the Perfect Party Cake for Tuesdays with Dorie and this week, Carol of mix, mix... stir, stir was finally the one to make this the recipe of choice.

I was a Daring Baker when we made this cake last year. I made it then with the buttercream, orange, dulce de leche and strawberries. It was amazing and didn't really give me too much trouble with anything. I didn't have any trouble with the cake layers this time either, and really liked using the lemon in it.

Perfect Party Cake for Daring Bakers

Though I could have finally tried these as cupcakes this time (DB's had to be layered cake) I was making the cake for my Dad's birthday and he expected a birthday cake. He is dieting, so we rationed portions accordingly and rather than make the butter-laden (if oh so dreamy) buttercream frosting and instead of using the sugary jam, I opted to make a fudge frosting from Nick Malgieri since Dorie mentions the recipe for this cake originally came to her from Nick. The frosting recipe is from his book, The Modern Baker. The frosting is creamy, dreamy, and not too sweet. Just a mixture of melted chocolate, butter, corn syrup, vanilla and cream.

My Dad had a small slice of his cake and enjoyed it, but overall, the cake was a little too dry with this fudgey frosting instead of the jam and buttercream. As long as I had a big glass of cold milk though, I didn't mind.

It tasted pretty much like a big slice of my favorite black and white cookies! Which was actually why I tried the frosting. Next time, I may try this again, with filling the inside with chocolate buttercream or something and keeping the jam in the mix as well.

Make sure to see how the other Tuesdays with Dorie bakers did this week!

Chocolate Fudge Icing
From The Modern Baker, by Nick Malgieri

1 cup heavy whipping cream
1/4 cup light corn syrup
12 ounces semisweet chocolate, melted and cooled
6 Tablespoons unsalted butter, very soft
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Combine the cream and corn syrup in a small saucepan and whisk well to mix. Place over low heat and bring to a simmer. Remove from the heat and pour into a bowl to cool to lukewarm, about 110 degrees F.

Add the cooled cream mixture to the melted chocolate and whisk until smooth. Distribute the butter in a small pieces all over the chocolate mixture, then whisk it in smoothly. Whisk in the vanilla. Cool the icing until it is firm enough to spread.