I almost forgot to bake this cake.  That’s not quite true…I didn’t forget about the cake, I just didn’t realize the 20th is already here!  For the month of May, we Cake Slice Bakers have mixed it up a bit and are throwing back to last year’s book, with a recipe for Lemon-Poppy Seed Cake with Almond-Cream Cheese Frosting from Sky High: Irresistible Triple Layer Cakes.

It’s pretty, isn’t it?  Something about this cake seems so sweetly charming and old-fashioned…like something my grandmas might bake (except for my grandmas have never been much into baking).  Underneath the almond-cream cheese frosting is a light white cake, flecked with lemon zest and poppy seeds.  I added a few drops of lemon oil to the batter, just to enhance the lemon flavor.

The lemon oil was my only tweak to the recipe (also not quite true…I cut back on the almond extract in the frosting just a tad), although I did a wackadoo two-fifths of the original amount of batter and frosting (I only wanted to use two egg whites).  I baked the cake in a quarter sheet pan, then cut it into three strips for frosting and stacking.  I like the change from the usual round layer cakes, although I do find squares and rectangles to be a bit trickier to frost.

Poppy seeds are so freakin’ cute!  Their amazing ability to get absolutely everywhere, though, really isn’t.

Here’s a printable link to the recipe…it’s really a keeper.  Better yet, get your hands on a copy of Sky High: Irresistible Triple Layer Cakes by Alicia Huntsman and Peter Wynne.  Cruise through the list of The Cake Slice Bakers to check out all of our mile-high cakes this month.

Oh…Triple Chocolate Fudge Cake…the last cake The Cake Slice Bakers are making as a group from Sky High: Irresistible Triple Layer Cakes.  Sad, but just because the group will be moving on to a new book next month, Sky High won’t be gathering dust on the shelf.  After thirteen cakes, it has proven to be one of my favorite books, and I want to make just about every other thing in it!

This cake is like a high-class Ding Dong (although when and where I grew up, they were called “King Dons“).  If you were raised, as I was, in a house where such ”crème-filled” delicacies were banned, then it will make you very happy.  A moist and dark devil’s food-like cake (made with mayo…but don’t be put off, because you’d never know!) is filled with a white chocolate mousse and frosted with chocolate sour cream frosting.  A piece of advice…my white chocolate filling seemed a bit too soft to use straight away, so I stashed it, still in its bowl, in the fridge for about half an hour to firm up before using it.

The cake is so rich and good– I think we’re seeing this book off with a bang!  Here’s a printable link to the recipe.  Better yet, get your hands on a copy of Sky High: Irresistible Triple Layer Cakes by Alicia Huntsman and Peter Wynne…you won’t be sorry.  Cruise through the list of The Cake Slice Bakers to check out all of our sky-high cakes this month, and stay tuned for next month’s new book!

With marzipan roses on top (however garishly colored–oops!), this Pistachio Petit Four Cake from Sky High: Irresistible Triple Layer Cakes may be the ultimate ladies’ treat– something that you’ll want to eat with your pinkie curled in the air. 

It’s not just for the girls though…R was completely happy to have it as his birthday cake this past week (want to see last year’s, or the year before’s?).  And he’d have been crazy not to want it.  Pistachio butter cake stacked with rolled marzipan, apricot jam and chocolate ganache make for a layered affair that is not just beautiful to look at, but tastes beautiful, too.

Sounds like a lot of fuss for a cake, but it’s completely worth it, and it’s not really that hard…at least not compared to stuggling through the petits fours glacés section of a French cooking school curriculum!  Buy the jam, and what the hell, buy the marzipan, too.  Even though there were instructions in the recipe for homemade marzipan, I confess that I just got the stuff in a log (one log worked great for the six-inch cake I made, but if you are doing a full-sized cake, I’d suggest two).

Here’s a printable link to the recipe.  Better yet, get your hands on a copy of Sky High: Irresistible Triple Layer Cakes by Alicia Huntsman and Peter Wynne.  Cruise through the list of The Cake Slice Bakers to check out all of our sky-high cakes this month.

I really look forward to Cake Slice time every month.  The best part, of course, is getting to eat homemade cake!!  But the second best part is getting in a little decorating practice.  I always keep it simple, mainly because I don’t have the finishing skills to make it fancy, but simple suits me best anyway.  One thing I’ve discovered is that a few easy to crank out gumpaste or fondant flowers can make even a mediocre frosting job look pretty good! 

I was a little on the fence when I saw we’d be making this particular cake, though.  It felt like we’d just done the Triple Lemon Chiffon…although looking at my archives, I now realize that was back in March.  My, how time flies– I guess we are due for another lemon cake!

This one’s a different animal from the chiffon altogether.  You can tell it’s a butter cake, with its nice tight crumb…it is definitely lemony, which I loved (although I do admit to never measuring zest, and may have been heavy-handed).  The frosting is a really rich buttercream…but the kicker is the homemade blueberry jam in the middle (and in the marble).  How perfectly summery!

Here’s a printable link to the recipe.  Better yet, get your hands on a copy of Sky High: Irresistible Triple Layer Cakes by Alicia Huntsman and Peter Wynne.  Cruise through the list of The Cake Slice Bakers to check out all of our sky-high cakes this month.

Anyone who knows me well knows that I like relaxing vacations in tropical places (but really, who doesn’t?).  If I can’t be in paradise, then a frou-frou frozen drink with a paper umbrella and a plastic mermaid can usually put me in high spirits!  But a Piña Colada Cake??  I dunno about that, but if it’s from the book Sky High, I’m willing to give it a shot.

This cake has a couple of standout elements.  The first is the actual cake itself– a brown sugar cake that’s really soft and moist, and it stayed that way over the four nights it took us to eat it (and I only made 1/3 of the recipe!).  The second is the pineapple filling– crushed pineapple cooked down with vanilla bean and lime juice.  It is supremely delicious, and I’m thinking that if I reduced it just to the point of a loose sauce (rather than a jammy cake filling), it would make an awesome topping for vanilla ice cream! 

I have to say, however, that on the first night, I wasn’t so impressed by the total package.  A healthy sprinkling of rum moistens each cake layer.  Normally that would get me pretty excited, but it was just too harshly alcoholoic for me.  And the coconut buttercream tasted overwhelmingly of the coconut extract (which always seems a little fake to me) used to flavor it.  Happily, after a night of refrigerated rest, the flavors nicely mellowed out…just like me under a palm tree with a drink in my hand!

Here’s a printable link to the recipe.  Better yet, get your hands on a copy of Sky High: Irresistible Triple Layer Cakes by Alicia Huntsman and Peter Wynne.  Cruise through the list of The Cake Slice Bakers to check out all of our mile-high cakes this month.

Did you see the birthday cake I made a few weeks ago for my friend’s little tiger?  Well, I promised recipes, so now I am here to deliver.  Tiger’s mum, my friend C, wanted a basic vanilla-on-vanilla– something that both the kids and the other mums at the party would like– so I began my quest for the right cake and frosting. 

I have baked several fantastic cakes from Sky High: Irresistible Triple Layer Cakes by Alicia Huntsman and Peter Wynne, and I really trust the recipes in the book.  I’ve seen the authors’ Vanilla Buttermilk Cake make appearances on countless other blogs, so I thought I’d give it a whirl.  This yellow cake is nice and moist, and has a great crumb that doesn’t fall apart when you level the layers or when you slice it up.  It’s definitely a multi-purpose vanilla cake– just as good for something simple and homey as it is for something dressed-up and fancy.

C had asked for a buttercream frosting, and since I wanted something snow white, I knew it had to be either Swiss or Italian meringue-based.  In the battle between the two, I generally side with the Swiss, only because no futzing with sugar syrups is required.  The recipe below is pretty standard…I like its particular proportions because it’s not too sweet, and it’s really easy to work with.  A basic Swiss meringue buttercream is the perfect canvas for making flavored frostings, if you are so inclined.  Switch up the extracts, add melted chocolate, add coconut flakes…I could go on.

Tiger’s birthday cake was a big triple layer 10-incher, so I scaled up the recipes below.  I overshot a bit, and wound up with enough extra batter and buttercream to make a two layer 6-inch cake for myself (oops, how’d that happen?!?).  I didn’t have quite enough leftover buttercream to fill the layers of my little cake, so I used lemon curd and some smooshed up raspberries in the middle.

Vanilla Buttermilk Cake- makes an 8-inch layer cake
adapted from Sky High: Irresistible Triple Layer Cakes by Alicia Huntsman and Peter Wynne

4 whole large eggs
2 egg yolks
2 t vanilla extract
1 1/4 c buttermilk
3 c cake flour
2 c sugar
4 1/2 t baking powder
1/2 t salt
8 oz unsalted butter, room temperature

-Preheat the oven to 350°F.  Butter or spray the bottom and sides of three 8-inch cake pans.  Line with parchment rounds and grease.

-Place the eggs and the yolks in a medium bowl.  Add the vanilla and 1/4 cup of buttermilk.  Whisk well and set aside.

-Combine the flour, sugar, baking powder and salt in the bowl of a mixer; whisk to blend.  Add the remaining 1 cup of buttermilk and the butter to the dry ingredients and with the mixer on low speed, blend together.  Raise the mixer to medium speed and beat until light fluffy (about 2 minutes).

-Add the egg mixture in three additions, scrapping down the sides of the bowl after each addition.  Don’t overmix. 

-Divide the batter among the three pans.  Bake the cake layers for 28-32 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.  Let the cake layers cool in the pan for 10 minutes.  Turn out the cakes onto a wire rack and remove the paper from the bottoms.  Cool completely before filling and frosting.

Vanilla Swiss Meringue Buttercream- makes about 6 cups
adapted from Martha Stewart

Note: Unless you like to go really heavy on the stuff, this is most likely more than you will need to fill and frost an 8-inch cake.  I always like to be on the safe side with buttercream, however, because finding you are stuck without quite enough is incredibly annoying.  Extra buttercream can be stored for a couple weeks and used to frost a half-batch of cupcakes.

1 c egg whites (from about 6 large eggs)
1 1/2 c sugar
pinch of salt
1 lb 4 oz unsalted butter, at room temperature
2 t vanilla extract (or seeds of 1/2 vanilla bean)
squeeze of lemon juice

-Combine the egg whites, sugar and pinch of salt in a large metal bowl (I usually do this right in my stand mixer bowl).  Put the bowl over a pot of simmering water (double boiler-style), and whisk until the sugar is completely dissolved.  The mixture will feel hot to the touch.

-Transfer the hot mixture to your stand mixer and whip on high speed until it turns white and about doubles in size.  This will take about six minutes.  Beat in the vanilla and the lemon juice.

-Add the butter, a few tablespoons at a time, on medium speed, mixing after each addition.  Raise the speed and beat until smooth; this may take up to ten minutes.  The mixture may appear curdled along the way; this is normal.  Just keep beating and the mixture will become smooth again.

-Buttercream will keep, covered air-tight and refrigerated, for up to two weeks.  Bring to room temperature, then beat on low speed before using.

I liked this.  *sigh*  I liked this very much…but I’ve gone on before about my feelings for devil’s food cake.

Back when I cooked up Southern Coconut Cake, I found that I could bake half of an 8-inch cake recipe in a quarter sheet pan.  Here, I did just a third of the recipe in the same sized pan.  The slightly thinner layers made it more “kilometer-high” than “mile-high,” but trust me, I was quite satisfied with the altitude of this moist cake.  And the brown sugar buttercream?  Well, it is quite a luxury (and one best appreciated at room temperature).  It definitely takes this cake from childhood favorite to grown-up delight.

Here’s a printable link to the recipe, courtesy of  Gigi Cakes.  Better yet, get your hands on a copy of Sky High: Irresistible Triple Layer Cakes by Alicia Huntsman and Peter Wynne.  This is now the eighth (actually ninth, but more on that later) cake I’ve made from the book, and I can’t recommend it highly enough!  Cruise through the list of The Cake Slice Bakers to check out all of our mile-high cakes this month.

Oh my gosh– I made this cake weeks ago, but my heart still skips a beat looking at these pictures.  It’s not from sugar shock, either…it’s from love…true love!  Really, this cake will make you (and by “you” I mean me) forget that silly obsession with those achingly sweet iced chai latte thingies from Starbucks.    

I am so glad that The Cake Slice group voted to make this cake.  I’ve had my eye on it since I got my copy of  Sky High: Irresistible Triple Layer Cakes, and the only disappointing thing about it was that I only made half a recipe!  The cake itself is made with chai tea-infused milk.  The flavor is delicate, and reminded me more of a well-balanced spice cake than of tea.

And the frosting…oh, the gloriously thick, honey-sweetened cream cheese frosting, dripping it’s way down the side of the cake.  Does it get much better?   Add a little Bollywood-inspired sparkle on top, and I think not.

Look for a printable link to the recipe, courtesy of  Gigi Cakes.  Better yet, get your hands on a copy of Sky High: Irresistible Triple Layer Cakes by Alicia Huntsman and Peter Wynne.  Don’t forget to cruise through the list of The Cake Slice Bakers– I guarantee that I’m not the only one who loved this cake!

What’s three times as good as a lemon chiffon cake?  A Triple Lemon Chiffon Cake, of course!  The Cake Slice group chose to go for a lemon trifecta this month– three layers of lemon chiffon, filled with rich lemon curd and frosted with lemony whipped cream.

I don’t think that chiffon cake itself has a tremendous amount of flavor, but it has an amazing spongy, moist texture that makes me want to take huge bites!  This one one of the most successful chiffons I’ve made…nice and tall, with no shrinkage.  When making chiffons, the cake pans are often ungreased so the batter can really climb up the sides, and the baked cakes are left to cool completely in the pans.  I’ve learned to (gingerly!) run a thin knife around the edges of the pans about five to ten minutes after the cakes have come out of the oven.  This helps the cakes to not tear away from the sides as they cool, which I think can cause them to lose some oomph.

Lemon curd must be one of the tastiest things of all time.  Even though I made a six-inch cake (half a recipe), I did a full recipe of the curd…intentional leftovers that were then sandwiched between cookies and used as a dip for fresh strawberries.  The frosting is just a simple whipped cream with a portion of the curd folded in.  Jodie rightly notes that almost every recipe we’ve made from this book (Sky High: Irresistible Triple Layer Cakes) has used a whipped cream frosting.  It’s a little tricky to work with, and you can see in my photos that even though I took care not to whip it too much, by the time I had smoothly frosted the cake, it looked overworked.  Oh well, it happens…at least I didn’t turn it to butter!  I realized that while I was freaking out about getting the frosting on as quickly as possible, I had not given a single thought to how I’d decorate this cake, so I just went with a squiggle of curd and some pastel sprinkles.  OK, it wasn’t my finest decorating effort, but let me assure you that the cake really did taste great!

Here’s a printable link to the recipe, courtesy of  Gigi Cakes.  Better yet, get your hands on a copy of Sky High: Irresistible Triple Layer Cakes by Alicia Huntsman and Peter Wynne.  Don’t forget to cruise through the list of The Cake Slice Bakers to check out all of our lemon cakes this month.

I am a coconut cake fanatic.  I love it in all its forms…filled with pastry cream or lemon curd, iced with cream cheese frosting or buttercream.  Any which way you slice it, I’ll take a piece!  Coconut cupcakes are scrummy too…I made some here awhile back.  So, naturally I was excited when Southern Coconut Cake won The Cake Slice group vote this month (although I know it only came from behind to beat out a chocolate-peanut butter cake because of the current salmonella scare, but so what).

There are no yolks in this cake, so the crumb is snow-white fluff.  I really like that the recipe incorporates coconut milk into the batter.  I punched up the coconut flavor a bit more by using a combination of vanilla and coconut extracts (rather than straight vanilla), and by folding a handful of finely grated unsweetened coconut (the desiccated stuff from the health food store) into the batter at the end.  I made half a recipe, but rather than baking it in three 6-inch pans, like I usually do, I spread the batter into a quarter sheet pan (measuring something like 9″ x 13″).  I then cut it into three strips, which I stacked into a rectangular cake… for some reason, I was obsessed with having a slice that looked like Pepperidge Farm.

The finished cake is not frosted with a traditional cream cheese frosting, but with a super light cream cheese buttercream, made with an Italian meringue.  Wow, is it good…and it’s something that I never would have thought to do.  The book that this recipe comes from, Sky High: Irresistible Triple Layer Cakes, has so many cool ideas– I’m really glad to have it.  I made a two-thirds recipe of buttercream, so I could have leftovers to frost my Valentine’s cupcakes. 

Not only does this cake taste great, but it’s also soooo pretty.  I want it for my wedding cake.  Oh, darn…I’m already married!  But there’s actually something else I can celebrate with a yummy coconut cake– a whisk and a spoon turns two today!  I can hardly believe it (especially when I go back and look at those early posts–ha!), and if it weren’t for all of you who read and leave such encouraging comments, I may not have kept at it for so long.  Thank you for making blogging so wonderfully fun and fulfilling!!

Here’s a printable link to the recipe.  Better yet, get your hands on a copy of Sky High: Irresistible Triple Layer Cakes by Alicia Huntsman and Peter Wynne.  Cruise through the list of The Cake Slice Bakers to check out all of our coconut cakes this month.