Pheonix cake?

This week I was in charge of dessert again and I made a cake! :)  I found this cake and recipe in Southern Living Magazine!

So pretty!  I knew it was a lofty goal but I thought it was possible.  Boy was I wrong!!  This was the hardest cake I've ever tried to make.  And on top of it I decided to do a lemon curd filling inside (recipe also inside).

1st challenge: a homemade cake.  NO BOX!  I used cake flour and everything!  The hardest part was beating the egg whites until they were fluffy!  I did not realize that it would take so long for the peaks to get stiff.  I used a hand mixer instead of the kitchen aid...BIG mistake.  My arm was so tired. It took forever!!  So I am pretty sure I did not let the peaks get stiff enough so the batter was a little denser than I think it was supposed to be.  The cake ended up being only 2 layers instead of 3.

2nd challenge: the assembly.  I went to put the cake together and I think I overfilled it...The lemon filling came pouring out the sides!  So instead of the beautiful white cake it looked like this... :(

I'm not gonna lie...I cried.  At this point I had spent about 6 hours on this cake! And my kitchen was covered in dirty pots and bowls.  So depressing!  So I left it alone for a while.  Later, when I came back  I remembered that I had some fondant left over from another cake I had made.  And some edible pearls.  And like a pheonix rising from the ashes my cake was restored!

Its not the beautiful white cake from the magazine but I wasnt too disappointed with how it turned out!  And it tasted pretty delicious too.