The marching band scored.

Band Camp. Monday thru Friday, 8am to 8pm with a two hour break from 4-6 for dinner. This was the week we hit the triple H: Heat, Humidity and Haze. It was brutal, and all I did was spend a few hours chaperoning. These kids worked five long days in the sun and heat to go from nothing to a full show with music and marching. If you've never been exposed to the work that goes into putting together a marching band performance, it's ENORMOUS. By the time they're uniformed up and marching at the first football game, it'll be great.

So I baked THIS lovely confection (thanks to my new Segullah friends) to bring to the BBQ tonight. I pondered how much I loved tasting each part as I assembled it, and decided that if chocolate is the flavor of heaven, then lime could most likely be the flavor of sin. Because if I weren't bringing it to share, I might just sit down and eat the whole thing myself.

Lime Lover's White Chocolate Cake

Anne Byrn's Lemon Lover's White Chocolate Cake from Chocolate from the Cake Mix Doctor. (Modified Byrn's original recipe to be a Lime Lover's cake instead of a Lemon Lover's cake).

6 oz white chocolate, coarsely chopped

1 package plain white cake mix

2/3 c. water

1/3 c. vegetable oil

3 large eggs

2 large egg whites (save yolks for curd)

2 T. fresh lime juice (1 lime)

1 t. grated lime zest (1 lime)

1 recipe lime curd

1 recipe Limey White Chocolate Cream Cheese Frosting

Preheat oven to 350. Grease and flour two 9" cake pans. Melt chocolate in the microwave. Place cake mix, water, oil, eggs, egg whites, lemon juice and lemon zest in a large mixing bowl. Pour in melted chocolate. Blend with an electric mixer for about 3 minutes. Divide batter into pans and bake 28-32 minutes. Allow to cool for 10 minutes in pans, then invert onto a cooling rack and allow the layers to cool completely, about 30 minutes. To assemble, split each layer horizontally. Spread split layers with lime curd. Spread in between the two cakes with frosting and frost the outside (so looking at a cross section of the cake, you'd have cake/curd/cake/frosting/cake/curd/cake/frosting).

Lime Curd

It's perfectly acceptable to use jarred lime curd here, if you can find it. If you can't, this is actually pretty easy.

3/4 c. sugar

1/4 c. cornstarch

1 c. water

2 large egg yolks, lightly beaten

2 T. butter

1 T. grated lime zest (3 limes)

5 T. fresh lime juice (3 limes)

Combine sugar and cornstarch in a saucepan. Gradually whisk in water. Place pan over medium heat and cook until the mixture thickens and comes to a boil, about 3-4 minutes. Boil, stirring 1 minute and remove from heat. Spoon about 1/2 c. of hot mixture into a bowl with egg yolks and stir to combine. Then return egg mixture to the saucepan. Return pan to medium heat and cook, stirring, until curd is thickened and lemon-colored, about 1-2 minutes. Remove from heat and stir in butter, zest and juice. Cool.

Limey White Chocolate Cream Cheese Frosting

6 oz white chocolate, coarsely chopped

1 8oz pkg cream cheese

1/2 stick butter, softened

1 T fresh lime juice (1 lime)

1 t. grated lime zest (1 lime)

4-5 c. powdered sugar

Mix together cream cheese and butter. Add everything else and mix until smooth.