Real Baking with Rose Levy Beranbaum

This posting represents the grand finale of Hector's Take on My Cake Previews because soon he will have a link that will go to his own exclusive blog. Please click on this link before reading the rest so as not to spoil the surprise!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b1TAsVVPIB4

From Hector:

This is my take on the Pumpkin Cake with Burnt Orange Silk Meringue Buttercream: If the legend says that you can turn into a pumpkin, why can't a pumpkin turn into a turkey? This fabulous oil-based pumpkin cake recipe from Rose's Heavenly Cakes turned into a turkey when baked in the Nordic Ware 3D 2-piece turkey pan. Let me share with you a glimpse description of this cake, a full write out will be posted later when Hector's Take project launches... stay tuned...

- what can be done better: touch up with ganache some irregularities/bubbles on the feathers, head, neck, etc, so the Laquer Glaze will have better definition.

- what is a miracle: the turkey didn't collapse when standing, in spite of the cake been an oil-based cake and knowing oil never gets hard with refrigeration, as a butter cake would. In fact, I ran out to dinner and left the glazed cake at 74˚F room temperature for about 3 hours, the two halves were glued with just buttercream.

- what is amazing: the rose turkey tail defeats gravity. This is done with the silk meringue buttercream! Roses were individually piped on parchment, frozen, then attached on the turkey tail with the same buttercream. It remained at 74˚F room temperature for at least 2 hours without anything falling!!!! You pipe extra petals between the gaps of the frozen roses for the full quilt look.

I used mac nuts and mac oil, instead of walnuts and safflower and walnut oils, was GREAT.

Happy Thanksgiving month everyone!

For more information about how this cake was constructed, visit http://myyellowkitchen.com

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I will add to this posting as I find out about more events so if you are interested in following this, please click on "post/read comments" and then on the little box at the bottom: "let me know if someone adds a comment"

Tuesday, November 3, 11:15 AM East Coast: The Frank DeCaro Show, Sirius XM Radio

Tuesday, November 3, 1:00 PM East Coast: Faith Middleton Show, CT Public Radio, WNPR (taped--will let you know when it airs)

Thursday, November 5, 12:00 PM East Coast" Joan Hamburg WOR Radio 710 HD

Friday, November 6, about 4:30 to 4:45 Enid Goldstein, Enid Live: Michigan's Harbor Country area--106.7 FM, streams on www.radioharborcountry.org, rebroadcast from noon to 1pm eastern on Monday November 9

Saturday, November 7, 2:30 PM East Coast: Cleverley Stone, Houston, CNN Radio

Wednesday, November 11, 2:00 : Dolores Kostelni The Happy Cook Show: WREL

Tuesday, December 1, 12:00 East Coast: Lynne Rossetto Kasper, The Splendid Table

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I will be signing my new book at the Kitchen Arts & Letters Booth at the Jacob Javits Center this Monday, November 9, from 12:00 to 1:00.

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What's wrong with this picture?

Lemons on sale at Morton WIlliams this morning 3 for $1. I needed only 2 and after some deliberation decided not to go for the special deal and watch the unneeded lemon rot in the frig.

When I went through checkout I paid attention to the price of the two lemons because i was curious and also because that was all I was purchasing. 60 cents! Are people being penalized for purchasing three at a time? You do the math!

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Apple Up-Side-Down Cake Uncut

Cut Cake Showing the Texture

Plum and Blueberry Up-Side-Down Cake before Baking

Karmel Cake Whole (to show the exceptionally beautiful color of the top crust)

The Lemon Poppy Seed-Sour Cream Cake Whole

Apple-Cinnamon Crumb Coffee Cake (If you push the crumbs in a little you will get this effect that Woody achieved)

The Cradle Cake Whole (Doesn't it look like Close Encounters of a Third Kind?!)

This Photo is of Me Presenting the Chocolate Tomato Cake for the Campbell's 50th anniversary celebrated at the NY Stock Exchange where they were given the honor of ringing the bell!

Chocolate Covered Strawberry (when I made it for the first time and was trying out different decorating techniques this one reminded me of a starry night.)

The Chocolate Covered Strawberry Cake Whole

Woody's Magnificent Lacquer Glaze Perfected for the First Time on the Bernachon Palets d'Or Gâteau

Chocolate Velvet Fudge Cake Whole

Classic Carrot Cake Cut (to show texture)

Banana Ripe Enough for a Banana Cake

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Rose's Heavenly Cakes was just named one of the top 10 cookbooks of the year by Amazon!

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What a great host. If you click on this link you'll hear what fun we had:

Table Conversations: Rose Levy Beranbaum

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It seemed a lot longer—that’s how many terrific things were packed into that short space of time by our hosts Michelle and Jonathan of Appétite for Books in conjunction with publisher Wiley of Canada.

Appétite for Books, located in the beautiful Westmount area about 20 minutes from the center of downtown Montréal, is a very special bookstore offering cookbooks from all around the world. It is most unique in that it has a professional quality kitchen setup as a demo area towards the back of the store. The place provides a most welcoming home to regional and international authors and food lovers from the community and other regions of the province.

It was quite prophetic that the message in a chocolate fortune cookie from dinner at the Chinatown Brasserie in New York City three nights earlier was: “The weekend ahead predicts enjoyment.”

Continue reading "Two and a Half Perfect Days in Montréal" »

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I asked Luis to share the photo of the cake she was planning when she posted a question on the blog about a challenging cake request. Here was her response:

This is the cake I did where the customer was "not too much not too sweet; not too this not too that." I didn't end up doing the meringue sticks as planned because she said they were too sweet so this is what ended up being done. It wasn't stacked in the normal way but it worked.

Well done Luis!

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We have something really fun and instructive to share with you! it is the book within the book--all the photos Woody and I took during the creation of Heavenly Cakes! There are many process shots and also different views of the cakes and different variations so you will be able to see many more possibilities.

These postings will be every other week and will be arranged according to where the specific cakes appear in the book. I am posting the pumpkin cake first, however, because it is so perfect for Halloween and Thanksgiving. I thought you'd enjoy the beauty of the cake itself still in the pan. I love the way the three curved splits form--almost a pity to hide them with frosting!

Also there wasn't room in the book for the wonderful photo Ben Fink took below of shaping the marzipan leaves. Special thanks to Jason Menegus who provided the original pumpkin leaf from his pumpkin patch. It was difficult finding one that was still in good enough shape as there had already been a first frost. But this one held up long enough to photo copy. I then reduced it to a much smaller size more proportionate to the cake.

And here's the actual photo of the pumpkin leaf to print out and use as a template.

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