TWD: Perfect Party Cake

When I first made Dorie's fabulous Perfect Party Cake a little over a year ago for a Daring Bakers challenge, I remember commenting that I wished I'd had an actual party to bring it to. Well, it took a while, but I finally got that wish. Last month was my twin nephews' 7th birthday, and when I saw that the Perfect Party Cake was in the TWD queue, I volunteered to make it for the twins' party.

The Perfect Party Cake starts with layers of lovely moist and light white cake, which are filled with raspberry jam and enveloped in clouds of fluffy white Swiss buttercream. Then, sweet, tender flaked coconut is pressed all around the perimeter of the cake. The result is a beautiful mountain of snowy cake perfection.

Because I had already made this recipe as written once before, I wanted to do it a little differently this time. Also, since I was making the cake for two little boys, I wanted to make it a little more kid-friendly. For the filling, instead of the raspberry jam, I used strawberry jam and fresh, sliced strawberries with a thin layer of lemon curd on top. I nixed the coconut altogether, because the boys don't care for it.

Probably the last term I would ever use to describe myself is "cake decorator". I'm pretty hopeless in that department! Anime characters and Transformers were just not happening. But still, I wanted the twins' cake to look fun and whimsical. I tried to achieve that by decorating the cake with multi-colored polka dots that I made with a fondant cutter out of candy melts. I also found some really pretty candy melts that were white with multi-colored sparkles in them. I melted those down and let them harden into one big block. Then, I used a vegetable peeler to make big candy curls, which I piled on top of the cake. It was perfect because the flecks in the candy curls matched all of the different colors of the polka dots.

There were lots of "oohs" and "aahs" heard around the party table as the cake made its entrance. The adults all seemed suitably impressed. From the looks of those big smiles on those happy little faces, I think the kids liked it too!

Many thanks to Carol of Mix, Mix...Stir, Stir for choosing our recipe for this week. If you'd like to make your own Perfect Party Cake, you can find the recipe on Carol's site. And, as always, check out the Tuesdays with Dorie blogroll to see what the rest of the group come up with.