Hi Rose,
I have your wonderful book, Heavenly Cakes. Some of the recipes calls for sour cream, should the sour cream be at room temperature for all the recipes? I made the Lemon Poppy Seed-Sour Cream Cake, the cake turned out dense and and not as soft as the picture shows, I use the sour cream direct from the fridge. Could this be the reason? But the taste of the cake is delicious! I would like to bake it again and would appreciate if you could advise on this. Thank you!

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Thanks for your advice! We will give that a try. :)

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mmm! the cake tastes absolutely wonderful! Thank you! My mom just baked her second one today, but I unmolded it too fast in my excitement to syrup it. Here are another two questions
1) We are using a pan similar to this. http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/41JVDKKMDFL._SL500_AA300_.jpg
It is 9 inches in diameter and the cake is really, really flat! Would it be okay to double the recipe and bake it in the same pan - will it cook alright? We would like the cake bigger and higher :) Mummy is thinking of baking another one.
2) We reduce sugar by half consistently in all your cake recipes because most people where I live like it exactly like that. We're more salty people. The cake is still moist and even more delicious to us - how does it affect the cake? Even in the lemon glaze syrup the sugar is reduced to half. It has worked for me so far :) but i wonder if it will affect other recipes like meringue or buttercream?

Thanks! Really appreciate it, Beka

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Hi Mrs. Rose,

My mom just baked this cake today and it was delicious! I was so moist and the teeny bit of lemon zest had such great flavor.
However:
1) She mixed in the eggs together with the butter accidently, because the recipe instructions in the cake bible were not numbered and she got lost in the paragraph! Hahaha...she also was waiting for the butter to get "squishable" and forgot to add it in until the eggs were in
2) The butter separated from the cake mid-baking and started boiling. It dripped down the bottom of the pan because it is a springform. Not a big mess but puzzling This happened with another brownie recipe I got elsewhere. Why did this happen? Is it because of the mixing mistake? Why does butter boil on top of cakes?
3) Again, perhaps because of the mixing mistake, the cake was two-colored. The top was yellow and the bottom grey-slightly aqua- dark green. Most of the poppy seeds were at the bottom. It was odd! Was it because of the mixing method too? I tinted the shortening I use for greasing pink becos its pretty Do you think that contributed to the odd color on the bottom of the cake?
4) My grandparents enjoyed the cake, but were a teeny bit concerned about the use of poppys in baking as related to opium.
5) The cake was really flat and thick. I think the mixing mistake contributed to that.

Anyway, the recipe is delicious and we enjoyed the cake very very much. The lemon zest added just the right amount of flavor and the poppy seeds gave a wonderful crunch! Thank you for sharing your recipes so freely with the world!

Beka

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what if you don't have a fancy bundt pan can you make in a loaf or ? would appreciate knowing

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to me a "coffee cake" is a cake made of coffee. of course, the meaning is other. is this what is referred as lost in translation? you tell me, as English is my third language, and although i have learned the language A LOT, like baking, i yet have a lot to learn!

i am posting here because one day soon, i want to make a NEW coffee (literally) cake. cake bible has an excellent recipe and shown on the picture pages with a luscious coffee buttercream. also, rose's melting pot has an excellent coffee chiffon which i have indeed made several times and offer as my signature 'coffee' cake. i sure hope rose's upcoming new book has a recipe, too.

my wish is to make this 'coffee' cake with 100% hawaii grown coffee from the island of molokai, by artisanal grower Coffees of Hawaii. last week, i've met two wonderful ladies from coffees of hawaii at the whole foods seal of quality event and was skeptical to try their coffee, specially their espresso roast.

you know i am an illy advocate, and EVERYONE around me must be one, too. i have enough empty illy cans to build a wall... and ALWAYS i order coffee where ever i go, just to verify my disappointment that no-one in the usa knows what espresso should be. illy sponsored all the coffee beans on my Hawaii Way cake which used a case of coffee!

when i tried the molokai coffee, i immediately recognized the unmistakable characteristic of what i call good espresso beans: when done thru a standard drip coffee machine, espresso beans should taste a bit metallic, low in acid, watered down, and never bitter. so remember this for once, espresso coffee beans ARE NOT beans that has been TOASTED (overly roasted, dark, bitter).

next saturday you will see my rendition of a cake to help the macadamia nut industry. later this year you will see a cake for the vanilla, chocolate, and mac nut oil industry. so soon, i also want to make a new 'coffee' cake.

here some pictures of my newly found locally grown espresso coffee together with fondest memories of molokai. enjoy.

http://www.hectorwong.com/roselevy/CoffeesOfHawaiiMolokai.html

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Normally, I do not eat anything with sugar or flour. However, I sometimes break this rule and have the lemon poppy seed coffee cake at Starbucks. Rose, darling, I should have guessed it was yours.

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Hi Rose-
Just watched your video on the sour cream coffee cake, it was great to see how you deal with the streusel! My coffee cakes notoriously eat all the streusel in the oven. We've learned to love the gooey center, but my goal is to have it stay on top for once! I am excited to try your recipe and tips!
I am writing to comment on your trick to lightly grease the spring form cake bottom to help anchor the parchment. I have another trick which works great: instead of greasing, I open the spring form pan, lay a slightly larger sheet of parchment over the cake pan bottom, then "trap" it in with the spring form side, cutting away the excess after resealing the spring form. This is a double blessing: the parchment is well anchored AND, in the case of my older, occasionally leaky spring form pans, the pan is well sealed.
And now a question: my son says make the cake, but without the fruit layer. What do you think, will it work just as well?
thanks!
regards
Susan

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Hi Rose,
I can't wait for the new book..(((btw)) The video of you making the lemon Poppyseed cake is fantastic...You look wonderful..
God I love this technology,
I can't begin to Thank-You for all your help,your recipes have become my go toos...Now my families favorites too.
HUGS,
Andi in Vegas

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Your right Sparky!! I went to Starbucks last week in Lisbon and the cakes there are tastless and very expensive. By NO MEANS can put themselves on the same pedistal as Rose.

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Hi Rose,

The lemon poppy seed cake that is sold at Starbucks here in Canada is so inferior to yours that you shouldn't even mention them in the same sentence. Your recipe is so superior and Starbucks should be ashamed to even call their stuff cake-rubbery tasteless stuff that it is. I wonder why people are willing to pay so much for it.
I am very appreciate of the efforts you are making to post these videos and I always learn some new trick.

Thanks so much,

Sparky

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I'm so happy to see these videos! The sour cream coffee cake is one of my all-time favorites.

Great story, Bill, thanks for telling it!

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Well...in the division of labor in our household, Food is my job, laudry belongs to my "other half". and I quote..."I can't believe this! and I'm not washing them..well they're old anyway!" - I actually bought them when I just finished dental school (23 years ago) and they were quite ugly, the elastic on the fitted sheet was stretched out and they had certainly lived a fruitful and productive life. We kept them because after years of washing, they were very very soft...but they are now, alas, down the trash compactor.

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Im from Portugal and have just found this lady...What can l say, wonderfull, wonderfull, wonderfull..I love Rose´s cakes. Sice l have net, l havent bought a book in years but...l will positivly buy Rose´s book. Thank you ohh soo much Rose you are a wonderfull person and teacher. I wish l would get an autografed recipe book!!

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Sorry Rose...that was me...Bill I was at a strange computer and hadn't signed in. What can you expect from someone who can go to bed with cake batter on his feet?

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Hi Rose!
Can't wait for the new book...I'm like a 5 year old who was promised a toy!. Just a quick comment on the Sour Cream Coffee cake. This was the first of your recipies that I tried. I think it is my favorite of everything that I've made (and I've pretty much baked my way through most of the cake bible). I was invited to two friends homes for the past holiday weekend...and much baking was to be done. (On friday night I made a blueberry pie, the sourcream coffee cake, and two dozen cupcakes (12 yellow, 12 chocolate) and they were iced with vanilla mousseline, chocolate mousseline and lemon mousseline buttercreams. (I worked until 5 am...I was so tired that I didn't realize when I got into bed that I had chocolate cake batter on my feet - I gave someone a shock in the morning when the bed was made...but that's another story and the sheets are in the trash). I came down the staris at my friends beach house at about 9:30 AM on Sunday morning and my Friend Jim looked like the cat who swallowed the canary. Then another friend Eli said "I told you to wait until everyone was up!". Jim had gotten into the coffee cake at about 6 AM. He exclaimed : I HAVE NEVER IN MY LIFE TASTED ANYTHING LIKE THAT! Thanks for your amazing recipe!

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