Winter White Cake with Blood Orange Curd & Buttercream

I believe that everyone should have a no-fail chocolate and white cake recipe that they can turn to whenever they have the desire or need to bake a cake. I luckily have my go to for decadently rich dark chocolate cake from  Bon Appétit, but until recently I was always on the lookout for a white cake that completely blew me away (and let me say this is no easy task, since I am a chocolate girl through and through).  Luckily, my search has ended and my favorite chocolate recipe has met it's match - meet this white cake that I layered in Blood Orange Curd and topped with buttercream and coconut.  This cake is like eating a slice of heaven. It is incredibly light and moist while the blood orange curd gives it a sort of creamsicle taste and  the coconut transports you somewhere warm - very, very warm, but to bring it back to reality (sigh), I topped with a gilded pine cone.   Continue for recipe...

A Few Things: I opted to bake the cake in two circular pans and to make the individual-sized cakes I used a medium-sized round cookie cutter.  If you do not want to create individual cakes, just fill each layer with the orange curd and top with buttercream.  

*All photographs by Alison