The 90th Birthday Cake

For my grandmother's 90th birthday (and my mother's and sister-in-law's, which are on Monday and Tuesday) I thought I'd take on a bit of a bigger challenge. I got this CIA cake art cookbook for my birthday and wanted to try a lemon chiffon cake recipe from it. This, it turned out, was a bit TOO big a challenge for me. My cakes came out looking like, well, pancakes basically. They tasted alright, but the two of them together barely made the height of a regular single layer and, well, they could have under studied in a street hockey game no problem.


I went back to what I know from there and used a Duncan Hines Golden Butter Yellow mix, but substituted fresh lemon juice for the water and I have to say it was outstanding (and I don't even like lemon cake).

I saved grace a little by finally mastering a Swiss Meringue Buttercream recipe (also from the CIA book). It was actually kind of easy... It's definitely my new go-to frosting, light and fluffy and without that synthetic kind of taste you get from powdered sugar.


I filled the cake with lemon curd and fresh blueberries which I meant to get a picture of but forgot. Lemon curd is a delightful way to get fat.

I kicked the decorations up a notch and pulled out my rose tips and I have to say that although my "golden yellow" food color seems to have turned peach, I think this cake is one of my finest to date. I even had seconds :-)