LEMON SCENTED WHITE CAKE WITH ORANGE GRAND MARNIER BUTTERCREAM

Cake, cake, and cake. Yes folks, it's official..I've entered my 3rd module of culinary school and it's all about cakes! I've been looking forward to this module since I first read the curriculum long before I enrolled. Is it everything I thought it would be? Absolutely. I'm so incredibly obsessed with school these days I can hardly wait to wake up at 6:38am everyday. By 8am the baking, assembly, and decoration of cake madness begins. It's fantastic!

With all this said, the next several posts over the coming weeks will be tons of cakes; so suit up, buckle in, and join me down the aisle of cake love.

The first week of class featured a lemon scented white cake which is very similar to Dorie Greenspan's perfect party cake. This wasn't a surprise to me when I found out that Dorie and Nick Malgieri, who wrote the curriculum for my baking and pastry arts program, are very dear friends. Perhaps Dorie emulated Nick's lemon scented white cake for her perfect party cake..? Nonetheless, it tasted exactly the same; delicious.

When our cakes are done baking, each student individually has to select one of several flavor/design combinations offered to us in our books. Once you choose a cake theme you stick with it through the filling, stripping (if applicable), the frostings of the outside and top, glazes, as well as a particular design. In my case, I chose the orange Grand Marnier cake which featured an orange marmalade stripping, Grand Marnier swiss meringue buttercream filling in between layers and around the cake, and then garnished with sugared almonds. I piped 12 rosettes across the top indicating 12 slices and added some criss-crossed candied orange rind.

I've learned the art of cake assembly in the first 2 weeks of 'Advanced Cakes'. My layers are all neat and even, the top and sides of the cake are perfectly flat and straight, and my slices look divine! I have many many more cakes to come so don't be a stranger!