Moven over at Food Art and Random Thoughts is the hostess for this month’s Daring Baker Challenge. I was going to sit out it out as it has been a challenging month for me in so many other ways …. did I really need another challenge this month? As well, I was scared to have a big beautiful cake sitting around the house for L and I to devour. When I woke up yesterday morning I told L how I was going to use this months challenge as one of my two, to not do. Even though I felt it would be the easiest one I have done as of yet. Well …… he convinced me that I should not give up and I should do it.

So, yesterday at 5pm, I was making Dorrie’s Party Cake, to take over to an impromptu dinner party at our friend’s J and A’s home. Was I crazy to try to make a cake at 5pm for a 730pm dinner party!?!?! Kind of…….

The recipe is so simple to follow, everything just started falling into place, so easy. The house smelled of sugar, buttermilk and sweet Meyer Lemons – was delicious! Then came the time to whip up the buttercream …. I could not keep my fingers nor my sweet little god-daughters out of the shiny meringue and buttery goodness – we were being pretty naughty over the kitchen aid!

I used tart raspberry preserves for the filling as the recipe calls for. I was worried I may run out of buttercream to frost the cake so I did skimp on the buttercream between the layers – now I know better. I opted out of the coconut part of the challenge only because I am not a big fan of flaked coconut.

I was finished with the challenge by 645pm, just enough time to wipe off the flour from my hands and pretty up for a dinner party. The cake turned beautiful and what a wonderful combination of flavors. The tartness of the buttermilk, the sweetness of the raspberry preserves and the freshness of spring that came from the Meyer Lemons was really nice. The cake was light and not to dense and the buttercream was amazing light and fluffy. We served the cake with a chilled glass of Lemoncello – everyone loved it!

Thank you L for convincing me not to give up on this challenge and Thank You Dorrie for creating a beautiful recipe – we will be using this more often!