A Springtime Cake

I may have had a small break down while making this cake.  I originally wanted to do a basket weave around both layers, but if you don't do it absolutely perfect it will look like a hot mess, which is what mine looked like.  I ended up scraping it off and starting over 3 times.  After that I cursed a little at my boyfriend, freaked out and yelled, (once again at my poor innocent boyfriend) 'why do you let me do this to myself?! I suck! I'm never going to make another cake again!' Then I changed tactics, and pulled off a pretty cute cake.  Cake orders back on. Ha ha ha.  Devin loves it when I make cakes. 
This is a hot milk cake with pastry cream and fresh strawberry filling frosted with vanilla bean Italian buttercream.

Hot Milk Cake Lemon Buttercream

This was my first attempt at a Hot Milk Cake.  It tastes a bit like angel food cake.  Very light, fluffy and sweet.  I frosted it with a lemon buttercream.  To make this I added 3 tablespoons of home made lemon curd to every one cup of vanilla buttercream.

The hot milk cake recipe I got from my newest favorite book: Miette

This cake is for my boyfriend's mom's birthday.  Happy Birthday Donna!