Dorie’s Perfect Party Cake

March 30, 2008

Yet another month and some more last minute mayhem to finish the challenge and make a post in time. And in time it is! :) This month’s challenge was Dorie’s Perfect Party cake. It was really simple to make, and the best part of it – we had the freedom to put our own personal stamp on it!
It’s the time of the year when the mango will make way into the markets, and what better time for me to use them than my Daring Baker Challenge! Here is my cake with whipped cream and mango bits between the layers and also topped with some mango slices. Since I didn’t have cake flour, I substituted it with all purpose flour.

One of the simplest and nicest cake recipes I’ve tried in a long time. Only one point of contention – the cake didn’t rise as much as expected. I’ll surely be giving it another shot though!

For the Cake
2 1/4 cups cake flour
1 tablespoon baking powder
½ teaspoon salt
1 ¼ cups whole milk or buttermilk (I prefer buttermilk with the lemon)
4 large egg whites
1 ½ cups sugar
2 teaspoons grated lemon zest
1 stick (8 tablespoons or 4 ounces) unsalted butter, at room temperature
½ teaspoon pure lemon extract

To Make the Cake

  1. Sift together the flour, baking powder and salt.
  2. Whisk together the milk and egg whites in a medium bowl.
  3. Put the sugar and lemon zest in a mixer bowl or another large bowl and rub them together with your fingers until the sugar is moist and fragrant.
  4. Add the butter and working with the paddle or whisk attachment, or with a hand mixer, beat at medium speed for a full 3 minutes, until the butter and sugar are very light.
  5. Beat in the extract, then add one third of the flour mixture, still beating on medium speed.

  6. Tagged as: cake, mango

{ 48 comments }

1 Claire March 31, 2008 at 2:08 am

I love mango! This looks so much fun. Great job!

2 Amy J. March 31, 2008 at 6:56 am

How tropical looking! Love it!

3 Susan @ SGCC March 31, 2008 at 8:24 am

Coco-Your cake looks lovely! I love the mango and the pretty flowers. Very tropical!

4 Faery March 31, 2008 at 8:50 am

the cake looks so pretty and delicate with all those flowers around it

5 Miss Ifi March 31, 2008 at 10:32 am

Yum for mango!!!!
I love the fact that you used something like mango in your recipe.. I am sure that it tasted amazingly delicious!! it looks good too!!!
Congratulations on your challenge!

6 Megan March 31, 2008 at 10:33 am

I love the ring of flowers. It’s so pretty. my cake didm’t rise much either so I quess I’ll have to try again too!

7 L Vanel March 31, 2008 at 2:53 pm

Very pretty with the mango and flowers! A great looking cake!

8 Cakelaw March 31, 2008 at 3:57 pm

I love how you have deocrated this cake – it looks very pretty. I am a huge mango fan – I bet that this tasted delicious with mango between the layers.

9 KJ March 31, 2008 at 4:16 pm

oooh mango, yummy. a tropical cake is a great idea. so fresh and delicious. your cake looks just lovely.

10 Sweet Tooth March 31, 2008 at 5:05 pm

Hi Coco,

I came here to see why your cake might not have risen that well. Could you give more specifics? Maybe I can shed some light on what happened.

Also – your link on my site (in the comment) is misspelled – can you fix that? Or can I? Still too new to this whole thing. Thanks to your name I found you in the blogroll :-) .
Alexandra

11 Shaheen March 31, 2008 at 5:16 pm

Hi Alexandra!

Thanks for pointing it out – I have rectified it. :)

You know I don’t know why it didn’t rise. I followed the recipe to the t. Well, maybe it’s the eggs. we don’t get different sizes – just picked the largest ones from the lot lol. Maybe working with weights would do the trick?

12 Deeba PAB March 31, 2008 at 5:28 pm

Hey Coco…pretty cake. I love the cream & mango! WOW…must have tasted heavenly! Are those flowers ‘Madhumalti’? I think I have the same one here in Gurgaon, & its beginning to blossom this season.

13 Shaheen March 31, 2008 at 5:35 pm

Thanks! :)

Yes they are! The tree is full of them. They looked so gorgeous, I had to use some while photographing my cake.

14 Aamena March 31, 2008 at 6:29 pm

hey mango and cream sounds yum! and the flowers look pretty too… hey why dont you try the microwave plus corn flour technique for converting AP flour into cake flour.

15 Kristen March 31, 2008 at 6:47 pm

MMM, the mango looks delicious! What a great idea! My cake didn’t rise like I wanted it too either?!

16 Foodie Froggy March 31, 2008 at 7:15 pm

Yum Yum, I love mangoes ! And your cake is really beautiful !

17 RecipeGirl March 31, 2008 at 8:09 pm

Oh my gosh, that’s soooo pretty! I love the addition of the flowers :)

18 Annemarie March 31, 2008 at 11:05 pm

Mango – how tasty! You have a very colorful and cheery cake – well done.

19 Morven March 31, 2008 at 11:20 pm

You have decorated your cake beautifully. Glad you could join in this month.

20 Ann March 31, 2008 at 11:46 pm

Mmmm… mango! Great cake!

21 Karen March 31, 2008 at 11:46 pm

Beautiful! I just picked up a fresh mango today. I’m sure that flavor was lovely with this cake.

22 Deborah March 31, 2008 at 11:52 pm

Beautiful decorations! It is gorgeous!

23 Jenny April 1, 2008 at 12:13 am

Wow, there must be certain skills required for slicing mangos because I can’t seem to get mine to look like that! They taste good but are SOOOO messy. I like what you’ve done with this recipe.

24 Shaheen April 1, 2008 at 12:18 am

Thank you everyone for your comments! :D

25 Dianne April 1, 2008 at 12:38 am

Your cake looks fabulous! I love the mango and the flowers. Just beautiful!

26 Chou April 1, 2008 at 1:25 am

Oh, hooray for mango! My biggest complaint about where I live is the lack of good mangoes–they’re all hard and green and never as tasty as they should be. So I’ll just drool at your picture instead. :)

27 arjwiz April 1, 2008 at 2:39 am

This picture is so perfect, I love the look of the cake!!!

28 arjwiz April 1, 2008 at 2:49 am

BTW, congratulations on 50 posts, coco! May you post 5000 more! :D

29 Fran Z April 1, 2008 at 4:13 am

Coco, Your cake looks delightful! So creative!

30 kellypea April 1, 2008 at 7:18 am

Mmmm…mango…I’ll bet that tasted sooooo good! And your cake looks like it rose nicely. My cakes rarely are tall unless I use a different size pan or put a lot of filling between the layers. Nice job!

31 Tracy April 1, 2008 at 8:31 am

I never would have thought of mango! Well done!

32 Obsessive Foodie or Food Addict....You Decide April 1, 2008 at 8:41 am

Mango was a great addition. I had the same problem not having cake flour the other day and someone told me you can use 2 tablespoons of cornstarch in the bottom of your measuring cup and then fill the rest up w/flour for every cup of flour you need. I don’t know if it works but I am going to try it.

33 Elle April 1, 2008 at 8:46 am

Absolutely gorgeous! Looks like tropical paradise with the mango and flowers.isn’t it nice we were able to personalize it?

34 Shaheen April 1, 2008 at 8:50 am

I was so happy to be able to personalise it! I love the variations that each one of us has brought to this challenge!

35 Princess of the kitchen April 1, 2008 at 11:41 am

What a beautifl cake. well done. NAd thanks for your comments

36 dailydelicious April 1, 2008 at 4:45 pm

I love your flower, what a good way to decorate a cake.

37 ChichaJo April 1, 2008 at 5:21 pm

Mangoes are my favorite fruit so your cake is looking mighty fine to me! :) Yum!

38 Carrie April 1, 2008 at 5:55 pm

What a fantastic job! I LOVE mangos!! What a great post you have here! Yummy!!

39 Joy April 1, 2008 at 11:59 pm

I love the flowers around the base of the cake and I bet the mango contrasted tastily with the icing!

40 Katie April 2, 2008 at 12:53 am

Ohhh yum! I love mango, I bet it tasted great.

41 Jenny April 2, 2008 at 2:57 am

How very pretty!

42 cookworm April 2, 2008 at 6:39 am

What a lovely presentation with the flowers. And all that yummy mango is mouthwatering!

43 Big Boys Oven April 2, 2008 at 1:43 pm

those topping look awesomely good and tangy! :)

44 Andrea April 2, 2008 at 9:01 pm

The mango sounds perfect, and your cake looks so festive!

45 marye April 3, 2008 at 7:22 pm

yout cake looks awesome! I love the way you did it…and mango? Brilliant.

46 Molly Loves Paris April 4, 2008 at 10:22 am

What an exotic looking cake you have there. Mine didn’t rise like I thought it should either.

47 Recipes April 26, 2008 at 10:23 am

Nice blog to see. I’ll try some of your recipes. Visit my blog too:)

48 jj May 8, 2008 at 7:25 pm

Mango was a great idea and it turned out very tropical!

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