Amazing!

Oct 01, 2009 | From the kitchen of Rose in Announcements

Wanted to share the great news that after just one week THE BOOK has gone into a second printing!

Thank you all for making it happen.

Evan Kleinman Radio Show

Oct 02, 2009 | From the kitchen of Rose in APPEARANCES

From Rachel Boller

Rose will be featured on KCRW's
Good Food Program this Saturday 10/3, hosted by Evan Kleinman -- you can
listen to it online here: http://www.kcrw.com/etc/programs/gf

KCRW's Good Food airs Saturdays from 11:00am - 12:00pm Pacific Time, and
what's wonderful if you can listen to the show streaming live online from
anywhere as it's happening. After the show you can always return the main
Good Food page to listen to any episode. (They are immediately posted and
archived. Can you tell how much I love their website and the show?)
The detailed description of the 10/3 show that mentions Rose's
appearance is here
http://www.kcrw.com/etc/programs/gf/gf091003pork_rinds_futurist_

Hector's Preview Four from "Rose's Heavenly Cakes"

Oct 03, 2009 | From the kitchen of Rose in Special Stories

The Golden Dream Wedding Cake

This is Hector's "grand finale" from the wedding cake chapter of Heavenly Cakes. I'm delighted d that Hector loved the cake so much as it is Woody and my favorite yellow cake from the new book. It also appears as a Bundt type cake and a mini gift size version.

Hector has done a brilliant job executing these wedding cakes, always adding his own special creative touch. I love the little cubes of candied orange in place of the ribbon which Hector made using the budah's hand (an all zest orange! which he candied using the Cake Bible recipe for candied orange zest). And with this cake Hector has outdone himself in achieving a location that is truly divine.

If you ask me to define this cake in one word, it is taste! The Golden Dream Wedding Cake is delicious, delicious, delicious... I yet have to taste a non-chocolate cake as delicious as this. The cake has a delicious buttery flavor enhanced with turbinado sugar, sour cream, ground almonds, and lemon syrup. This cake is so yummy, it reminds me of a succulent and moist Latin American wedding cake but without the chunks of raisins or candied fruits. This cake, as dreamed, has the melt in the mouth texture characteristic of Rose's butter cakes. To my amazement, this cake doesn't use any liqueurs... now I can agree that you can have a superb cake without a drop of liqueur.

Continue reading "Hector's Preview Four from "Rose's Heavenly Cakes"" »

The Story of Wheat

Oct 06, 2009 | From the kitchen of Rose in Videos

For those of you interested in how wheat is grown, you will enjoy this short charming video that follows wheat from grain to flour.

http://www.howwheatworks.com/?user=cf41bc8f14325ddcbd6fe0193fc51d88

Rose’s Heavenly Cakes DVD Part 9

Oct 07, 2009 | From the kitchen of Rose in Videos

Lacquer Glaze

The shiniest of chocolate glazes

Crystallized Lemon Rose

Making a rose decoration from lemon peel.

Spun Sugar
There is nothing in baking more magical or dramatic so we saved this for the grand finale!

Continue reading "Rose’s Heavenly Cakes DVD Part 9" »

GRANDMA'S BURN'T STRINGBEANS

Oct 10, 2009 | From the kitchen of Rose in Savory Cooking

In honor of the Chinese 10/10 Day I am retelling one of my favorite stories based on an ancient Chinese 'legend."

My grandmother lived with us when I was growing up and did all of the cooking. As a child, I disliked most food and considered eating to be a chore I did to please my anxious mother and grandmother, who, it seemed, would go to any lengths to entice my reluctant appetite.

A typical pre-dinner dialogue would go something like this:

Grandma (with a hopeful expression shining on her face): "Rosie; I made string beans tonight!"

Me (mildly threatening tone): "Did you burn them?"

Grandma (plaintively): "It's so hard to wash the fendle (Yiddish for pot) when they're burned."

Me: (unimpressed and openly threatening): "You know I won't eat them if they're not burned."

How this all got started was, of course, by Grandma's having accidentally burned the string beans one night. It reminds me of Charles Lamb's "Dissertation on Roast Pig." (The story of how roast--read burnt--pig was discovered in ancient China.)

It wasn't until many years later that I discovered Chinese "dry fried string beans," a recipe in which the string beans are intentionally browned (lightly burned). But I will always miss my grandmother's version. You see, the string beans burn to just the right degree only when the cooking water is allowed to evaporate (inadvertently) and the beans start to burn just to the point when suddenly you smell them. I was always reassured that they would be perfect when I heard my grandmother cry out: "Oy! The string beans are burn’s again." God was in his heaven and all was right with the world.

Updated Burnt String Beans on the Grill

Continue reading "GRANDMA'S BURN'T STRINGBEANS" »

The Making of A Recipe Tester/Cookbook Collaborator

Oct 14, 2009 | From the kitchen of Rose in Videos

Introducing Woody Wolston

I never expected to have a true and totally reliable assistant to work with me on developing and perfecting recipes, least of all one who lives several states away. But the universe can offer surprising gifts and thanks to the modern technology of the internet and digital cameras, my newest book has had the great benefit of the presence of Woody Wolston. For those of you who are curious about how such an amazing arrangement came to be, I have asked Woody to come forward and write about it from his perspective.

Continue reading "The Making of A Recipe Tester/Cookbook Collaborator" »

Another Fabulous Maggie Bread

Oct 17, 2009 | From the kitchen of Rose in Bread

I hope by now you've all bought or checked out from the library Maggie's wonderful book Artisan Baking. It's worth it for this recipe alone--The Royal Crown's Tortano, which is one of my very favorite breads. I was enticed to make it by the description that it had holes the size of radishes!

A small amount of potato and honey give the crust a magnificent rustic color and wonderful depth of flavor.

There is the most minute amount of yeast (0.3%) which means that the dough rises long and slow developing still more flavor. If these pictures don't tempt you I don't know what will!

My Demo Tape

Oct 21, 2009 | From the kitchen of Rose in Videos

Now that you've seen so many of my current DVD's I thought it would be fun to post my old demo tape to see what it was like "in the beginning"!

TV shows always ask for a tape of performances to access how well an author is able to perform. Having a compilation of vignettes over the years was very helpful when touring the country with a new book. Now-a-days satellite media tours called SMTs are favored over traveling to different cities as they save everyone time, money, and energy. They're actually pretty grueling as various stations sign up and make appointments with the producer and every 10 minutes or so the author goes live via satellite, doing the same demo but answering varying questions from the host of the specific station. Buy it only lasts for about four hours as opposed to two weeks so well worth doing.

I hope you enjoy viewing this tape just to get an idea of what the shows were like when I did go on location.

How Sweet it Was (10-10 Day)

Oct 24, 2009 | From the kitchen of Rose in Special Stories

and just think: next year it will be 10-10-10!!!

But let me share a few photos and highlights of this year's event. Woody came from MN to help and enjoy the accolades of the newly published book. The highlight of the 10 days (everything seems to be coming up 10) was the Sweet Event and the Satellite Media Tour (more about that in a few weeks on YouTube).

We arrived early at the Sweet Event to set up our table. I was astonished that the contributed chef's jackets from ChefWear fit perfectly. It's so great that Rochelle is designing chef's jackets for women that fit our curves and don't make us look 20 pounds heavier!

When I was invited to participate in this event and I learned I would need to produce about 1000 tastings. I declined until the next day when I remembered that dear Jean François Bonnet of Tumbador chocolate had a wonderful recipe--the chocolate ingots--in the new book and a company that could produce the samples that I in my city apartment could not. He graciously agreed to provide what turned out to be 850 little chocolate ingots. How innocent they looked. Tiny firm brown rectangles that exploded with intense flavor and surprisingly moist texture. I loved watching people'e eyes widen as they experienced them.

Our table cloth was brown, the tasting plates clear plastic, and the brown ingots (financiers) blended right in. Ron Ben Israel saved the day by bringing over these beautiful roses from his display. (Ron is the most brilliant cake decorator and is a long time dear and generous friend.)

Of course we had to go over to his booth and thank him--also to see the spectacular wedding cake on display and taste his two delicious samples--a pumpkin cake and a coconut cake.

Continue reading "How Sweet it Was (10-10 Day)" »

Review of Heavenly Cakes and Gourmet Cookbook

Oct 26, 2009 | From the kitchen of Rose in Web Appearances

Jenifer Lang, who together with her husband George Lang owned the famed New York restaurant Café des Artistes, is now writing a web column for a stylish new blog 212DressingRoom.

The blog describes itself as "...fuses fashion culture, art and commerce from a New York City perspective for the progressively minded fashion and design community."

Jenifer has just posted this review which is so brilliantly written and such a perfect commentary on today's cookbook scene (or should I say situation?!) that I am sharing it here with this link:

http://www.212dressingroom.com/blog_more.php?id=5174

Behind the Scenes Out 'Cakes' of Rose's Heavenly Cakes

Oct 28, 2009 | From the kitchen of Rose in OUT CAKES

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.

Fellow Blogger Luis's Cake

Oct 30, 2009 | From the kitchen of Rose in Photos

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!

Two and a Half Perfect Days in Montréal

Oct 31, 2009 | From the kitchen of Rose in Special Stories

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" »

Welcome to Real Baking with Rose, the personal blog of author Rose Levy Beranbaum.

Spend A Moment with Rose, in this video portrait by Ben Fink.

Heavenly Cake Bake Along

Hector's Take on Rose's Cakes