The Perfect Party Cake

Oy, this cake.  It did not like to be photographed.  It mocked me all throughout the 2 days it took to make it.  I found a few decent ones to post, but guys, I took close to 100.  Ridiculous I know, my family thought so too.  Such is the life of a blogger.  Either I really suck at photography, or this cake was camera shy.  I will choose to blame it on the cake if you don't mind.  Every picture was either too dark, too bright, too blurry or just not right.  No pretty pictures of sifted cake flour, or lemon infused sugar, or 6 sticks of buttery goodness buttercream frosting could be kept in focus or be exposed to enough light.  Oh!  And then half the cake faded during the 45 minute ride to Corona!  Never had that happen before.  But this cake took me too darn long to make and tasted too darned good to not tell you about it.

We opted to throw Taylor a family birthday party this year instead of the 50 person monstrosity of a party we've been known to throw, and I wanted to keep it as simple and low key as possible.  The only thing I wanted to do was make her a pretty cake that tasted good.  I'm a little embarrassed to admit that this is the first birthday cake that I've actually ever made her, we usually just order from our local bakery. 

I tweeted Hannah from Honey and Jam and asked her for a recommendation for a good white cake recipe and she instantly responded with this recipe for the Perfect Party Cake.  The title alone had me.  Then when I read the words "not too sweet" and infused with "lemon" I knew this was the cake for me, uh, I mean Taylor.  If you've been reading for a while you know I don't like sickly sweet things, and Taylor is actually much the same. 

Hannah's pictures are pretty and beautiful, I know, so no need to rub it in.  I made a double batch of the batter and buttercream because I wanted a nice high cake, and I spread a middle layer of fresh strawberries mixed with buttercream instead of the jam in the middle, because fresh strawberry filling always seems so fancy to me.  How about you?  Just something about fresh fruit.

The best thing about this cake was the hint of lemon in both the cake and the buttercream.  You guys, this cake was a hit!  Everyone loved it and my mother in law, who can be a tough critic, said it was wonderfully refreshing.  This is the perfect Spring and Summer cake.  Light, fluffy, a little zesty mixed with just the right amount of sweetness.  Sheer perfection.  And the buttercream was surprisingly easy to work with, and tasted amazing.  Next time the only thing I'd change is to make it a 3 tier and add buttercream between all 3 tiers for extra goodness. At any rate, Taylor loved it and that's what matters the most after all right?

p.s. thanks for the Happy Anniversary wishes on Sunday :) We had a wonderful day and I hope you all did too.