Having a Par-tay

A full pound of butter.

8 egg whites.

Over a cup of whole milk.

Over two cups of sugar.

I think I gained two pounds just reading the recipe (and another two or three drooling over the photograph). To prevent further weight gain, I decided that Dorie Greenspan's "Perfect Party Cake" BEGS to be shared with a crowd. A large crowd.

Lucky for us, large crowds are often our specialty. This month, the tasting honor fell to John's Wednesday night square dance group, who hosted their annual Circus Circus hoedown this evening. (Yes, a more accomplished baker would have decorated the cake in the circus theme. But my cake decorating skills rival those of a four year old).

Morven of Food, Art and Random Thoughts was the gracious hostess of this month's Daring Baker challenge and she offered bakers plenty of leeway in interpreting Dorie's recipe. In the interest of meeting our get-out-the-door deadline, I stuck pretty close to the original, baking the cake in a single half sheet pan and slicing the finished product in thirds to create a rectangular layer cake that would fit perfectly in my cake carrier and slice easily on a crowded buffet.

John jumped in and assembled the butter cream with the same ease he displayed with December's yule log. We used blueberry preserves as the filling, providing a worthy counterpart to the meyer lemon scented cake and butter cream.

The cake made the 45 mile journey to the dance just fine. The refreshment committee opened a rather impressive buffet at quarter to nine. At 9:05 I decided I'd better snag one of the last dozen pieces if John and I were going to taste it. By 9:15 the refreshment committee had washed and stowed my cake carrier.

Three people asked me to share the recipe. Eleven asked me to bake this cake for them for {insert significant event here}.

Dorie. Morven. We have a hit.

I'm late to this month's Daring Baker challenge, but if you missed the hoopla last weekend you can catch up here. And to try the cake in your own kitchen, Morven has the recipe here.

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