sorry, I meant I normally use the red velvet recipe from Rose's heavenly cakes and it works well for me. Can I just use this for cupcakes as well? Do you think I will need to reduce the baking powder?

If I let the cupcakes sit for a bit before baking how will this affect them?

Thanks!

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Hi Holly,
Since there is not a red velvet cake recipe in The Cake Bible, are you simply coloring the white velvet batter? In Rose's Heavenly Cakes the batters for the White Velvet cake and cupcakes use the same amount of leavening, with the cupcake's introduction section recommending to let the cupcakes sit out for 20 minutes if you want more rounded tops.
For the red velvet cakes, we simply have use Mc Cormicks or any standard liquid food coloring you can buy a supermarket.

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Hi Shi Hao,
Please review Rose's Highlights to Success on sponge cakes. Angel food cakes when baked thoroughly should shrink very little. You may be overbeating as well.
We are assuming that you are also suspending the pan several inches on cooling.

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I wanted to make red velvet cupcakes and was thinkingbof just using the cake recipe from THCB. I know I need to experiment but do you think this will work? Do you think I will need to make any baking powder changes? Or maybe let the batter sit for a bit before baking? What does that do anyways?

Also, I find the cake doesn't tuen out red when using the liquid food coloring. Is there a brand you suggest?

Your help is appreciated!

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Hi Rose,

I have some queries regarding Angel Food Cake again

I was just wondering how come the cake shrinks while baking in the oven sometimes. I mean I've tried baking it a couple of times but sometimes the cake shrinks tremendously in the oven until it turns out like a giant donut

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1970's I had wedding cake business in Los Angeles. Purchased a paper back book (5X8), black and white check covers. In it you had a buttercreme icing with liquore...exquisite. My cake business is "momentarily" packed since I moved to Houston thus, your book is amongst the 300 or so boxes. WHAT is the name of that icing, and where can I find the recipe. And...L'Shana Tova!

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Thank you so much, Rose! I am very excited to try the Lemon Mousseline. I already made your lemon curd from TCB and it turned out great. Tonight I will try my hand at the Mousseline for tomorrow's party. Can't wait!

Woody - your previous advice on the carrot cakes and frosting was helpful as well. I ended up using a little LorAnn cheesecake oil in place of cream cheese in the buttercream, giving me a stable frosting to use for the "iPAD" carrot cake while retaining a traditional carrot cake taste. It came out beautifully; the customer said guests were impressed with the design and the taste got rave reviews :-)

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Sorry, I meant 3/4 cup lemon curd, not 1/4 cup. Thanks!

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Hi Rose/Woody,

I understand that Mousseline buttercream is stable for 2 days at room temp. Is this still the case if 1/4 cup lemon curd is added? I am trying to figure out how to make a lemon filling or frosting that will stay fresh beneath a fondant covered cake for 2 days.

Thank you,

Jennifer

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Hi Alexis,
If you can not find it at a grocery store it is readily available on line. You can substitute canola or safflower oil for the walnut oil, which you will lose some of the taste that the walnut oil contributes to the cake.

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Hello Rose,

I want to bake your Pumpkin cake but I cannot find a walnut oil anywhere.
What can I substitute the walnut oil with?

Thank you,

Alecis

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Thanks so much Woody, you have been very helpful :)

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Hi Diane,
We first suggest to check with the author if possible. The bread falling indicates a need for more structure which can be achieved by adding more non-self rising flour or extra egg. When filling multiple pans, we also recommend to spoon the batter alternately amongst the pans to avoid heavier batter at the bottom of the bowl from going into the last couple of pans.

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No Woody, I am using a recipe that a friend of mine sent to me. Here is the recipe, maybe you can help me figure out why it fell. The recipe is fabulous, even when it fell, but it didn't look good.

2 cups of zucchini peeled and shredded 1 cup of oil 2 1⁄2 cups of sugar 2 teaspoons of vanilla
3 eggs 3 cups of self rising flour 3 teaspoons of cinnamon 1 1⁄2 to 2 cups of walnuts or pecans 1 tablespoon of apple spice mix 1 handful of brown sugar
Mix well. Pour into to two (2) loaf pans. Bake at 325 for 1 hour or until tooth pick comes out clean. Wrap in heavy foil to freeze.

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Hi Becky,
The important part of the recipe is the salt rising yeast which is the tricky part about salt rising bread. You can also purchase salt rising yeast on line. Try the following link.

http://risingcreekbakery.com/order_online.html

Please check this link for a possible recipe http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/salt-rising-bread/detail.aspx

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Hi Diane,
Are you making Rose's Zucchini Bread variation of her Carrot Bread on page 105 of The Bread Bible?

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Hi Jojo,
Please check the forums as there has been discussion on freezing the zest. Wrapped properly it should keep for several months without losing any flavor.

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very good job asking. but FYI, white chocolate is mostly milk! so not sure why u r asking for a non dairy white chocolate ganache?

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Hi Elizabeth,
Where many of Rose's dark chocolate ganaches have 10% less dark chocolate than cream the dark chocolate in the soy milk ganache is 17% less. The White Chocolate Ganache on page 278 in The Cake Bible has much lower percentage of white chocolate to heavy cream. You may want to start with another 7% less white chocolate and work from there. The vanilla is used mainly to mask the soy milk flavor so honey should work too.

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Hi!

I looked up the non-dairy ganache on your site and found a recipe using soy milk. Can you recommend proportions to use for a white chocolate ganache instead of the traditional brown? And again, any chance of adding honey instead of the vanilla for flavour?

Thanks!

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I made some zucchini bread and put it in 5 mini loaf pans. Three of the five loaves fell in the middle. I would like to know if anyone knows why they fell, and why didn't all of them fall? My friend made the same recipe, but she used two larger loaf pans, and hers fell also. Thanks in advance for your suggestions and comments

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thanks woody. actually im planning to make cordon rose banana cake found in the cake bible book using a 9x13 pan. im planning to double the recipe and im wondering if i need to increase the baking powder in this case to avoid doming. many thanks!

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Hi Crystal,
Generally if you have a doming 9 x 13 cake you need to tweak by increasing the baking powder slightly. This amount varies per type of cake as we saw in making the 18 x 12 sheet cakes for the wedding cakes in Rose's Heavenly Cakes.

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hi i would like to ask how can i tweak a recipe for a 9x13 cake bake flat/evenly? many thanks!

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Rose, you had mentioned the King Arthur Flour web site for a recipe for salt rising bread. You stated that you couldn't improve on that recipe so you didn't include it in your book. They are no longer selling the starter and suggested a general web search for a recipe. Could you share a recipe for salt rising bread? It is a family tradition and we can't seem to find any to purchase that is as good as the Van de Kamps that we used to purchase. I would like to try making some myself. I know the starter can be tricky. Thanks for any help you have to offer.

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Elizabeth, a few non-dairy suggestions from Rose's repertoire- you could fill a roulade with a fruit puree or conserve, such as raspberry conserve or strawberry puree, and then use one of Rose's non-dairy ganache recipes (there's a recent article over on the blog) to drizzle, glaze or frost the outside. The fruit puree/conserve would probably need a bit of gelatin to make it firm enough to stand alone as a filling.

Or, you could also fill with lemon curd or lemon illusion, using the non-dairy margarine in the curd, where a smaller amount may not be so noticeable as in the buttercream, which would use a high proportion of margarine.

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Hi Elizabeth,
When it comes to combinations of ingredients and components, we have to let one's tastes and imagination be one's guide to making a memorable experience. Although, a little preview testing can avert an unwanted surprise.
There are many cookbooks, television cooking shows, and websites that specialize or have expertise in gluten free, lactose free, low fats, and other dietary specific baking. Please investigate and try some of their recipes as these are not our genre of baking. Rose has several listed linked sites including: Fran Costigan (vegan cooking), Bitter Sweet Vegan Blog, Chocolate & Zucchini, and Go Dairy Free. Margarine can be substituted for butter in the buttercream, but a small test batch should be made to see if you like the taste.

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Hi Rose!

I am thinking about using your Biscuit Roulade (from your Cake Bible) recipe and rolling it with your honey buttercream for Rosh Hashanah. What do you think of this combination? Also, I need it to be non-dairy. I know it is sacrilegious but can I replace the butter in the butter cream with a non-dairy margarine? And what would you recommend I use to cover or drizzle over the cake once it is rolled?

Thanks!

Elizabeth

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Hi Annette,
At the present, we have no suggestions or suppliers that have UV activated and edible frostings, food colorings, or icings. A suggestion might be something stuck into the cake like a "parasol" that is UV activated. But that would not be as cool as biting into a glowing cupcake.

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Hi Kathy,
Feel no worries about buying any of Rose's books. None are currently being updated in the near future, unless you are looking to buy The Cake Bible in Spanish from Spain.

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Hi hannahk,
We do not have a buttercream actually named Magic Mousseline Buttercream.
Rose's original Mousseline Buttercream is in The Cake Bible page 244 and then her revised version in Rose's Heavenly Cakes page 147, along with a few variations in other recipes.
There is not a recipe currently posted on the blog.

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Hi Rasha,
We are sorry about your difficulty in ordering books into your country. All we can suggest is seeing if one of your bookstores can order the books for you or you or someone obtaining them when visiting a country where the books are available. We do not have a list of where the books are available to each country in the world other knowing that they are readily available to bookstores in North America and many other countries as well as the dozens of cookbook websites that ship worldwide.

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Hi Doris,
Both of us and we know of dozens of readers who have used silicone pans for baking as they are the suggested equipment pans for several recipes in Rose's Heavenly Cakes. We have been given or seen any information to consider them unsafe. They are also widely used in the commercial baking industry. You may want to check with the FDA or other health agencies to see if they have posted any warnings or findings.

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Hi Sudha,
We unfortunately cannot help you as we only work with "from scratch recipes". We suggest checking the Cakemix Doctor's website.

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Shi Hao, my tests say that will work on a 1" deep only and filled to the brim.  a tart pan or a sheet pan works.  anything deeper will be too tall for the cooling cake to not collapse.

it will be DENSER but I loved it.  the cake does shrink quite a bit when cooling.

be aware to frost it with something unsweet because angel food is too sweet already.  a 60% cacao dark chocolate ganache blended with cocoa powder is my choice.

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querida Stella.  acabo de terminar de leer la traduccion ejecutada en Madrid!  me gusta mucho porque es una traduccion verbal palabra por palabra sin cambios en ingredientes o metodos.  en vez, se ha agregado un pequeño espacio sugiriendo como adaptarse en España.  muy intersante, creo se es util para todo pais en el mundo de habla hispana!

no tengo fecha exacta de publicacion, sigue en el proceso de imprenta.  de siesta en siesta estamos avanzando :)

un abrazo madrileño /h

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Doris, I m not a scientist but for what I know, silicone is safe. it is a naturally occurring material in dirt. bakeries have been using silicone for decades and just now is available for home users.

try use the ones that are 100% silicone, some are % with fiber glass or pbc. you can easilly determine this, when u twist or stretch a 100% pan, u won't see it turning white.

silicone is uses everywhere, medical tools, engine parts, space shuttle, etc. i think it is more durable and safer than rubber or plastic.

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Hi Anamika,
The Red Velvet Cake in Rose's Heavenly Cakes uses a cream cheese frosting which is the most popular frosting. We did use a dark chocolate frosting for the wedding cake we made last year. How you adorn your cake is really up to your creativity and what your son would like.

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Hi, I want to bake your red velvet cake for my son's birthday party. Does it have a deep chocolate flavour or mild? I want deeper flavour. Have been reading that cream cheese frosting is the best with it. What's your opinion? I also want to add hazelnuts to the frosting in between layers. Hope that will not hamper the taste? And would the cake be good for fondant cover or frosting is best for it?

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My daughter is looking for an original idea for her sweet 16 in December. We are looking for a glow in the dark (by black light) icing for cupcakes. We heard of using tonic water and guinine but it doesn't work well. Suggestions? Sites? Suppliers?

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Buenos días Hector
que bueno tener este espacio de comunicación en español, me gustaría adquirir el libro la biblia del pastel, lo puedo conseguir en español y donde lo puedo comprar estoy en Colombia
gracias

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Thanks Julie, you have been a great help :)

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I have prepared pineapple cake using Duncan Hanes cake mixture!!The cake was like pudding inside...I have followed instructions carefully..But My cake was not gud...
Can you please help me?

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Shi Hao, I think Hector may have shown an angel food cake baked in a round, non-tube pan on his blog. He is a featured blogger, you can click directly on the yellow button at the top left of this blog, "Hector's Take".

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Eva, Rose is traveling until the 26th. Two thoughts come to mind regarding your brownie recipe. First, a half sheet pan has a capacity that is more than double the 8x8 pan, provided they are both 2" high, so 75% may not be enough for your larger pan.

More importantly, though, is that a cake (or brownie), needs more structure to span a larger distance between the sides of the pan. Kind of like a bridge needs more strength to span a wider distance. So when you increase the pan dimensions, the batter needs more structure/strength to keep from falling. You can try reducing leavening or using a stronger flour, but several test runs may be necessary to find the solution.

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Doris, Rose is traveling until the 26th, perhaps this will help. Here's a link to an early post from Rose, shortly after silicone pans came on the market: http://www.realbakingwithrose.com/2006/02/silicone_baking_pans.html Also, if you search the site for "lekue" you will find more information.

She has a full discussion of the merits and drawbacks of baking with silicone pans in the equipment section of Rose's Heavenly Cakes. Perhaps the most important point is that not all silicone is created equal.

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Hello!

Hope this email finds you well! I have recently gotten into baking and have stumbled onto your site. I have been in a desparate search for a micro mini cupcake baking tray in order to make tiny, tiny cupcakes like "Baked by Melissa': http://www.bakedbymelissa.com/#/flavorsandsizes/.

Since you guys are the experts I thought I would send a quick email to ask if you knew of where I could find such a tray or had any other tips for me. All of the trays I find are "mini" but these cupcakes are even smaller than "mini" since they are only the size of a quarter and can be eaten in literally one bite.

Let me know if you have any thoughts!

Thanks in advance and look forward to hearing from you!

Best,
Raquel

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Hi Rose

I have a query regarding the appropriate type of pan to be used for an Angel Food Cake. I do have a tube pan but was wondering if it's possible to bake it using a normal round cake tin instead of a tube pan.

I do understand the science behind using a tube but I would really love to make a layer cake using Angel Food cake as the cake base without the hole in the middle.

Would love to know what is the appropriate size of a normal round cake tin to use if it's possible

Thanks & Regards
Shi Hao

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Hi Rose, I have been searching for this answer for days. I have a recipe for Chocolate Caramel Filled Brownies and the orginal recipe fits an 8x8 pan. I upped the recipe by 75% and tried to make it in an 11x17 half sheet pan. I made it twice and both times the brownies rose then fell and they were dense and greasy. The bronwies are a bit complex, you bake one layer, spread caramel on it and then spread a second layer and bake again. Thoughts?

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I have a question about the silicone baking 'pans'. Have you or any readers ever used them and do you consider baking in them safe? It just sort of worries me to bake in something that feels like that. If anyone has any answers please help me. Thanks

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Hi Rose,

What a wonderful creations you have. I cook and bake for my family a lot, and i would like to purchase your books, so where in Dubai can i get them? Cause the online orders; seemingly doesnt get all the way to the United Arab Emirates.

Wish you all the best and more recipes to pour..

Many thanks,
Rasha

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Lina, Rose's red velvet cake and the shiny chocolate glaze are in her latest book, Rose's Heavenly Cakes. She doesn't specify which white chocolate buttercream she used for that cake, but you could use white chocolate mousseline from the Cake Bible (it's also in RHC, though that book doesn't list the quantity of melted white chocolate to add to the mousseline base).

Good luck!

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Believe it or not Julie, I actually found it:
http://heavenlycakeplace.blogspot.com/2010/05/wedding-and-cake.html

Obviously not at all like I described, apart from the family aspect. ;-)

But where can I find the recipe?

Thank you!
Lina

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Thanks Julie - I'd found that one, but I don't think it's the one...
The one I remember is from the blog, it's a single layer, and there is a picture of Rose at the actual wedding standing next to the cake.

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mary, Rose has a beautiiful white chocolate mousseline recipe in the Cake Bible, it is a buttercream, not a mousse, but it will hold up well in a wedding cake.

You may want to try a small test cake of your filling studded with raspberries to see how long the fruit lasts in the filling before bleeding/watering out. Good luck!

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hannahk, the recipe for mousseline buttercream is in the Cake Bible, and also updated in Rose's Heavenly Cakes.

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Lena, the only one I could think of is this one: http://www.realbakingwithrose.com/2010/05/chocolate_red_velvet_passion.html

Could that be it?

Hope that helps.

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I am trying to get pictures of how my wedding cakes look but I don't want to wait for an order. I have ordered the styrofoam dummy cakes, I am just wondering if I can reuse them after I decorate them? So my question is how many uses can I get out of the styrofoam dummy cakes?

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Hi Rose,
I have to make a tiered cake and am looking for a white chocolate mousse recipe that will hold up well in a cake, that also has alot of body, I am making a white chocolate mousse studded with raspberries, Also what white chocolate would you recommend?

Mary

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I'm brand new to this site and can't seem to find my way around it. I'm desperately seeking the Magic Mousseline buttercream recipe and not having any luck. Thanks so much!

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Dear Rose, This is how I mentioned you and your wonderful book in my FB page:
https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=219823361406386&set=a.187512344637488.54899.187405284648194&type=1&theater

Hope you like it.
Best regards,
Ckay

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Rose, I remember reading a blog entry ages ago, over a year, where you talked about a single layer heart shaped (I think) cake that you made for a wedding, possibly your daughter's? It was bright red inside and I remember you commenting that you'd sworn off spectacular cakes or some such and this was the last you would do. I've serached for it in any way I can but cant find the entry - could you please point me to it.... I'm hoping to surprise a friend.

Many many thanks,
Lina

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Do you have any near future plans to update your books, in particular The Pie and Pastry Bible? I was going to purchase it but would wait if there is an updated version soon?

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Thanks so much!! The tempature is around 80's and they will be inside the room for about 6 hours o may be more.
I think I will be fine!
Thank you again!!!

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Martha, Rose does not have a recipe for mousseline made without butter.

Many people have used mousseline buttercream successfully in warm, humid weather, it is the most heat-resistant of Rose's buttercreams.

However, it is made of real butter and is not completely indestructible. I don't know what sort of temperatures are expected at the time of the wedding, or how long the cupcakes will be out on display, but if you are able to take reasonable care with refrigeration, keeping them in the shade, etc., you may be able to use mousseline without any trouble.

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Juliet, Rose is travelling for the next few weeks, but I can tell you that she has not developed a gluten-free repertoire, aside from those desserts which are naturally gluten-free (cheesecake, chocolate mousse cake, nut tortes, flan, ice cream).

Bread is particularly challenging because gluten is an important part of the support structure that surrounds the holes in the crumb. Perhaps try a website/cookbook that specializes in gluten-free recipes. Good luck!

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Which recipe in The Cake Bible is most sutiable for carving:

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Hi Rose,
Do you have a recipe for mousseline without butter?, I need to make cupcakes for a wedding in summer time, do you think your mousseline buttercream will hold fine with the heat? any suggestions??
I live in Argentina and is very humid, please help!!!
Thanks!

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Greetings Rose, There is no Rose more beautiful than the one that wrote the Cake Bible. You are so open others learning and your caring spirit shows in your recipes. In short you write so people can be successful! Thank you, thank you, thank you for that! Now to my question (smiles), I want to bake gluten free for some people who have requested it. I have some baking and pastry skills, however I have never tried to take traditional recipes and use rice flour or some other kind of flour that is gluten free. The request was for focaccia. Any advice? Thank you,
Juliet

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Thank you so much for helping me. Enjoy your holiday. Looking forward to reading some of your news. Best regards.

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Dear Rose,

First of all I'd like to tell you (as thousand of people have done before me) how great all your cakes are.
I've bought your two books: "Cake Bible + Heavenly Cake" and they are so amazing.
Even if I'll never reach your level, I can at least enjoy the pleasure I get only from looking at the pictures & recipes in your books.

I am writing to you because I have a question about recipe's copy-right and Facebook.
I've opened a page in Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/sweetandthatsit) where I describe the "mess" and "experiments" I make in my kitchen.
I have seen in many other pages a lot of recipes copied from books and wanted to know from you (since you have written some)
if this is legal.
In short words: if I make a cake from your book, am I allowed to mention the ingredients I have used and how I proceeded?
So far I do not have any recipe copied as I don't want to "get in trouble" or indirectly do any harm to the recipe-creators".

I really thank you very much for taking some time and answering me.

Best regards from Switzerland

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Hi Rose

I needed to make some turquoise coloured buttercream for cupcakes. Have tried a few of the buttercream recipes in your book. The texture is great, but I can't seem to get a real turquoise colour, they are all somewhat off-turquoise, should I say more towards the green tone. Infact my daughter commented that they looked "dirty green". Also I can see specks of the turquoise in the buttercream, as if the colour is not well incorporated.

I use Wilton's teal colour. Do you have any suggestions how I can achieve the correct colour?

Thanks!

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Dear Miss. Rose:

Hello. I recently made a lemon pie. Everything seemed okay except when I cut the pie the filling ran a tiny bit. I followed the instructions. I am thinking that I did not add the egg yolks fast enough since the mixture was thick. Was I supposed to let it cooled down before adding the lemon juice? Thank you.

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Hi Rose:

I just made your brownie puddle with caramel this weekend and absolutely love it! I didn't have pecans handy and couldn't run out to the store, so I used a cup of chocolate chips instead. I thought the brownie tasted even better the next day. Your creativity never fails to amaze me. Thank you for making my life more delicious!

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Hi Sherwanda,
We do not run a bakery or sell cakes to clients as a business. Rose's recipes in her books are generally for 1-1/2 to 2 inch pans except for bundt,large sponge cake, or specialty pans. You may want to check with other cake and bakery businesses in your area or talk to your supplier for recommendations. Hopefully some bloggers who sell cakes as a business may answer?

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I cant decide whether customers would want 9x3 or 9x2. I am ordering supplies for my startup business and i would like to know which sized cake pans i should be ordering.

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What sized cake pans should i use for my business?

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Thanks so much, Woody!

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Hi Trish,
This recipe for Carrot Cake produces a very moist cake. We tested this with Gold Medal Unbleached which has a protein range of 9.8-11, so your flour is in the range. What brands of leavenings are you using?
We typically use Rumford baking powder and Argo cornstarch. You may have to tinker a bit if your leavenings are different brands. We have seen the need to adjust slightly between Rumford, Calumet, and Argo baking powders.
The cake should rise to almost 2 inches/5 cm during baking at center with the cake being nearly flat across at 1-1/2 inches/3 cm after cooling.
Rose is using baking soda to compensate for the acidity in the carrots and baking powder for the remainder of the leavening.
We do not have a specific ratio of flour/buttermilk/soda as that would vary depending on the rest of the ingredients. Rose does give some ratios for baking soda and baking powder to milk products as you may have read on page 473 in The Cake Bible and her preference for baking powder with buttermilk cakes.
You had a baking time of 30 minutes where the stated time is 45-55 minutes. I recently made just a one pan recipe and still had a baking time of 43 minutes. Many manufacturers recommend lowering 15 C degrees from the stated temperature for full size convection ovens. We are assuming you have tested your oven and either have calibrated it or are compensating for how it performs to stated baking times. The oiliness maybe if the cake was under baked. The internal temperature should be around 97 C when it is done.

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Hi again
My apologies for the two postings.
I have been walking my dogs on this beautiful spring afternoon and have been thinking about my carrot cake query.(Why does baking take up so my of much thinking!!!)The recipe states a cooking time of 45-55mins but at 30mins my tester did come out clean and the cake had started to shrink.

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Hi, I recently made the Carrot Cake from RHC. I made half the recipe for one 9" CM tin with Wilton cake strip. I weighed all ingredients. The cake rose very well,nice and evenly. Cooked in 30mins at 170°C in fan assisted oven. But the cake was very moist and a little oily and went quite flat. Used unbleached 10% all purpose flour.
Also, in the leavening section in CB Ruth says she prefers baking powder to baking soda. I have a recipe that only uses baking soda as the rising agent(no BP), do you have a formula that I can use. Ratio of flour/buttermilk/soda?
Many thanks.

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Hi Laura,
People have said that most recipes can be converted over, but of course, you may have to experiment to see what texture that you want to achieve. You may want to bake the recipes you mention and the comparable recipes from The Cake Bible or Rose's Heavenly Cakes as Rose's cakes will be your benchmark for her two-stage method.

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Rose or Woody:

For years I baked 1-2-3-4 yellow layer cakes - so often, in fact, that I have the recipe in my head. Now I use the two-stage method to avoid over glutenizing the flour and love the results. I use a white cake recipe from Baking Illustrated (America's Test Kitchen) and a yellow cake recipe from Nancy Baggett's All-American Dessert Book. Can I take any 1-2-3-4 cake or other cake recipe that creams the butter and sugar first, then adds eggs followed by alternating flour and liquid - and just convert it to the two-stage method? In other words, use the ingredients called for but change the method?

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Hi Jennifer,
The White Chocolate Cream Cheese Buttercream is going to need refrigeration after 1 day at room temperature. If refrigerated the fondant's high sugar content and condensation can cause it's surface to become soft and gooey.
I have made frosted the Carrot Cake several times with the Mousseline Buttercream and flavored it with a little lemon oil which will hold up for 2 days without refrigeration if you can frost and cover with fondant the day before the event.

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Thank you so much Woody! I will definitely measure out the cup capacity too. I will agonize over it until the day after the party, but your comments will help me stay calm. No wedding cakes in my future!

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Hi Helen,
Fortunately, this is a moist cake so it will not be as susceptible to becoming dry from over baking. We suggest a couple of things.
1. Measure its volume to make sure it has a 17 cup capacity as that is almost double the volume of two 9 x 2 pans.
2. Since it is light colored pan, you should be able to stay with the same baking temperature.

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Hi Yanamama,
There should not be any danger if the baked cookies have an internal temperature of over 150 F degrees.

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Hi Holly,
Not knowing what baking time you had we would suggest start checking at 30 minutes as that is the low temperature for the 9 x2 round pan version in Rose's Heavenly Cakes. Then use the testing methods for doneness that are in Roses's books to confirm.

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Hi!
I plan to make the classic carrot cake from RHC in a Wonder Woman Wilton pan for a friend's 40th birthday (no pressure). Wilton instructions say that the batter for a 2 layer 9" cake is fine, but I'm worried about the baking time. Should I lower the temperature and bake longer for even baking? Cake strips won't stay on and there is a jutting elbow that worries me. I just want it to stay moist and delicious. I've never used such an odd shaped mold. Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

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I was using the white cake recipe from tcb book for a sheet cake of size 11x13 I found it turned out dry. Any suggestions for recipes or cooking times for thhis size cake?

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Sorry, I meant 30 minutes.

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Hi Rose!
Quick question about meringue cookies. My family seems to like them better when they're slightly under baked. This results in a crispy outer texture, and fudge like center. Are their any dangers to under-baking meringue cookies? For this recipe, I made chocolate, chocolate Chip Meringues and baked for 3 mins at 250 degrees.

Thanks ROSE!

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Hi everyone,

I posted this question in the forum but noticed Rose asking people to post questions here so I'll do that as well.

My question is: is it advisable to use Rose's White Chocolate Cream Cheese Buttercream (The Cake Bible) under fondant? I am making a carrot cake and am in need of a compatible frosting to use beneath the fondant and as a filling. If I can use the WCCC buttercream, would I need to refrigerate the cake? Wouldn't that endanger the fondant's integrity? Many thanks in advance for all advice!

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Hi Carol,
1. In Rose's Christmas cookies book, Rose has a recipe for Praline Truffle Cups on page 161. Essentially, where for a frosting or filling ganache we suggest equal or more cream to chocolate, here the chocolate is twice the weight of the cream.

2. Rose does not have a specific babka in any of her books,but there is blog posting with a recipe. Do a search for "babka recipe". The posting is "Quick: Get this Babka out of the House" . The recipe is on a link to the New York Times and has Rose's notes on how she made it.

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Hi! I have been experimenting with making healthy snacks for my kids to bring to school. I have recently modified a recipe for oatmeal cookies that includes vegetable oil, whole grain spelt flour and agave nectar (also baking powder, salt and, of course, oats.) I also added hemp seeds for protein instead of the walnuts because my daughter is allergic (and some flax seed because I didn't have enough hemp seed.) The batter was a bit dense and they didn't spread in the oven. I had to press the cookies with a fork so they would look more like cookies than balls. The cookies taste delicious so no problem there but they are a bit dry and crumbly. Can you think of anything I can try to make them a bit more moist? There are no eggs in the recipe. Might that help?

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Hi Rose. For making ganache frosting, can I use something called Ghirardelli 60% Bittersweet Baking Chocolate. I don't own a scale yet to weigh Valrhona's chocolate so I find I More convenient using Ghirardelli Baking Bars. Are these bars suitable for making ganache?

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Rose or Woody, I am actually quite a proficient baker and serve to rave reviews but I'm preparing for Rosh Hashannah and I am reminded at how frustrated I am with two baking items in particular:

1. Whenever I try a recipe that says "quick fudge" or "meltaway candy" and the recipe calls for melted chocolate with cream or milk then you put it in the fridge and supposedly you can scoop it out - make balls- and cover with a coating later. but the chocolate always goes runny on me losing the beautiful shapes and often getting soupy again. I've tried many different recipes but they all fail. it could be me although I'd hate to admit that. please help.

2. I cannot find a bobka recipe where the dough actually rises as high as in the bakeries. I'm quite comfortable with yeast and make many successful coffee cakes and breads but bobka doesn't rise the way it should. it's yummy but I'm a perfectionist and want it to work right.

please help. thanks, ccb

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Hi Anand,
Since the King Arthur Cake Flour is unbleached with cornstarch, it will not give the same texture or perform as a bleached cake flour performs. Although we have not tested the flour, you will find our Power of Flour blog article postings shows the results of cake flour vs unbleached and bleached all-purpose flours by themselves or with added corn or potato starch.
We suggest make the same cake in the article with both flours and see the results.

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Hi Elizabeth,
Since Agave Nectar is a liquid, substituting it will effect the texture and results in most cakes and cookies using sugar as the sweetener. You can experiment with guidelines provided by websites that sell or use the nectar.
Rose suggests you read her sugar article that is on this blog. Type in "Sugar Bible" in the search box and you will find her blog posting.
Also, her understanding and ingredient sections in her books will give explanations to the interaction of ingredients.
Generally, if there is a viable substitution, Rose will state it in the recipe either listed as an ingredient in parenthesis or as a variation.

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Hi Rose. I found that King Arthur Flour made a "cake flour" called Unbleached Cake Flour Blend. One of the commenters said she used it with your recipes. While you normally call for bleached cake flour like Queen Guinevere or Swans Down, am I able to use this product while still maintaining fluffy results without any greasiness?

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I am experimenting with Agave Nectar. Can one use it in place of ordinary sugar in cake and cookie recipes and still get the same results?

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Hi Rose. I found that King Arthur Flour made a "cake flour" called Unbleached Cake Flour Blend. One of the commenters said she used it with your recipes. While you normally call for bleached cake flour like Queen Guinevere or Swans Down, am I able to use this product while still maintaining fluffy results without any greasiness?

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Rose or Woody:

For years I baked 1-2-3-4 yellow layer cakes - so often, in fact, that I have the recipe in my head. Now I use the two-stage method to avoid over glutenizing the flour and love the results. I use a white cake recipe from Baking Illustrated (America's Test Kitchen) and a yellow cake recipe from Nancy Baggett's All-American Dessert Book. Can I take any 1-2-3-4 cake or other cake recipe that creams the butter and sugar first, then adds eggs followed by alternating flour and liquid - and just convert it to the two-stage method? In other words, use the ingredients called for but change the method?

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Thanks Woody - will do.

Laura Stokes-Gray

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Hi many thanks for such a prompt reply. I will have a look at your suggestions.

Regards

Janet

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Hi Janet,
All of your questions are answered in detail in both The Cake Bible and Rose's Heavenly Cakes for how to assemble and tier wedding cakes and how many servings per cake pan size. Some base formula butter and genoise cake recipes and frosting recipes are in The Cake Bible and Rose's Heavenly Cakes has complete cake with accompanying frosting recipes. For lemon, Rose's Heavenly Cakes has Woody's Luxury Lemon Cake that could serve for your 9 inch layer.

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I am making a wedding cake for my son & future daughter in law, they want a Sponge, Chocolate and Lemon cake, I have read so much about cakes collapsing when stacked that it has got me very worried as its my first wedding cake. First I want to know what type of sponge I should make, also how many layers ie: do I need 3 or 4 sandwich tins for the height, would like a good chocolate & lemon recipe too, they want the cakes covered in butter cream icing.
Many thanks

Janet

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Hi Woody,
Could lemon & orange zest be made in advance, and kept in the freezer (wrapped in clingwrap first, and then stored in small containers)until ready for use? Will the zest lose its flavour & peel oil if stored this way? And for how long could the zest be kept if frozen?
Thanks very much for your help.
Regards,
Jojo

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thanks, I will look it up. If I wanted to add a filling to this cake recipe what would you recommend?

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hi Holly,
The Red Fruit Shortcake in Rose's Heavenly Cakes page 192-195. It has a genoise cake base and has strawberries, raspberries, and currants for the fruit topping.

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I was looking for a cake recipe where I could add fruit on top such as strawberries, blueberries, raspberries.....could someone direct me to a recipe that Rose may have if this exists?

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Hi Sandra,
There is a discussion on crusting buttercream on the Forums on this blog and on a few other blog and website forums.
We suggest experimenting by replacing some of the sugar with powdered sugar and see if that works for you. Rose does have several buttercream recipes in her books.

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Hi Woody,
Thank you for your prompt replies. Although I read the books cover to cover I made the mistake of presuming our flour was bleached. I will study the work you have done on unbleached flour and using cornstarch/potato starch.

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Hi Rose,

I've been reading your site and I'm a bit overwhelmed at how much you know and do and very grateful at the same time! I'm trying to track down a crusting buttercream recipe that doesn't use shortening and cannot find it anywhere! If you could point me in the right direction I'd be eternally grateful

Sandra

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Hi Laura,
Please read Rose's comments on rye flour in The Bread Bible on page 555. We suggest you first try only replacing 20% and experiment further if you think you replace a higher percentage.
You will find the Orange Glow Chiffon as a single layer cake is heavenly.

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Hi Trish,
You should also check the Forums section on the blog as there are discussions about flour used in New Zealand and Australia.

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Hi Trish,
The .5% difference in the protein can indeed make a significant difference.
Also, is your all purpose flour actually BLEACHED all purpose flour. Most of Rose's recipes use bleached cake or all purpose flour. If yours is not bleached, you should read the Ingredients chapter section on flour, especially the section on "Kate flour". You should also read our blog article on "the Power of Flour" which show results with all three types of flour.
We are happy you like Rose's books and weigh your ingredients.

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Hello Rose, I have recently discovered your books and have since purchased The Cake Bible, The Pie & Pastry Bible and Heavenly Cakes. I just think they are great and am constantly browsing them. Have made a few things with mixed results. I live in New Zealand and am wondering if our flour is quite different to the US. I think is must be a bit drier, as the mixtures always seem to be stiffer. Two brands of our all purpose flour have 10% & 10.5% protein. Do you think .5% makes alot of difference? Also, the first time I made the Coffee Chiffonlets they were great, but second & third times they were very sponge like and deflated. The first time they were much more cake like (although still lovely light texture). The angel moulds are not available in NZ so I used large muffin tins 6x5cm and baked them for less time. I also used the 10.5% flour and carefully weighed all ingredients.
Thank you in advance.

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Rose:

I've been experimenting with some savory Biscotti recipes. I wonder what will happen if I replace 40% of the AP flour in a Biscotti recipe with Rye Flour? The master recipe I've been using requires chilling the dough for at least three hours in the fridge. I'm hoping that this resting time will hydrate the rye flour (autolyse). Nevertheless, I wonder if the Biscotti will not rise much because of the low gluten content of the Rye.

By the way, using a rose nail to craft a chiffon layer cake is a stroke of genius. I've been using your Orange Chiffon cake for years and wanted to try it as a layer cake!

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Thank you, Rose, for your reply (sorry to trouble you, I was expecting and looking for an individual recipe; I've since studied the index and realize my error).

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Thank you so much.......for the info.....I have had your book the Cake Bible for years and L-O-V-E it. I make your homemade waffle every weekend...a super special family tradition.

The torte came out very good....I took it to work and every body loved it. I am going to try it with extracts or liquor next time.

Again, thank you so much Rose.

Warmest regards.

Kimber L. Dodds

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Hello Rose,

I bought your Bread Bible and just started baking this month. I'm doing well--according to my consumers (I'm sure it's because of your book), and I'm having fun.

I'm writing you because the book's index lists a Tangy Corn Bread, on page 322. But I have searched the book, page-by-page, from page 94 to 484 to no avail.

Is my copy of your book missing something, or am I?

Thank you!

Richard

PS: When I first got your book this same thing happened with a different recipe, but at the time I was too engrossed in the book to make a note of it. If there are other known issues, please mention them.

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I was making your chocolate oblivion torte and the directions were to beat the eggs over a simmering pot until they were hot and formed soft peaks (to get the most volume), but no matter how fast I wisked the eggs, in the furthest areas did cook. I think if I use a smaller bowl next time that may help...any words of wisdom...? I am a fairly novice baker. Also I did get some good "volume" while the eggs were over the simmering pan, but when I removed from the heat and continued to beat until cool as directed, they lost most of the volume is this result correct? One more thing, you addressed adding liquors to the chocolate, but can I add pure extracts without it making my chocolate seize?

Sorry for all the questions...I really had no idea that I could actually ask this question and get some answers, what a great resource.

Warm regards-Kimber

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Hi Woody,thanks for your prompt reply. As I do not have a big oven, I may have to bake the 1st layer cake first. Do I have to refrigerate the battter for the 2nd layer while baking the 1st layer, since the baking time for the latter is rather short? Thanks once again.

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Hi Jojo,
We do not recommend freezing sour cream as it alters its texture, which in many cases gives it a cottage cheese consistency.

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Hi Jojo,
The recipes for Rose's Heavenly Cakes have been worked out specifically for the sweetness, moisture level, and quantity of batter to properly bake in the specified pan. We have given variations for likely substitutions.
Rose has always tried to reduce the sugar content to produce a "not to sweet" cake. I am constantly told this when I serve test cakes to my tasters.
Doubling of the batter will likely give you a overbrowned sides and bottom before the cake is baked in its center.
We always welcome the baker to experiment with ingredients after making a recipe per its stated ingredients and amounts, so that the baker has a control recipe before experimenting.

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Hi Louis,
The depth of the batter is critical to the cake baking evenly. Doubling the depth of the batter, which also require a double in height of the recommended pan will likely find the sides and bottom over baking before the center is baked.
We have worked out the amount of the batter to a specific size pan to produce an evenly baked cake.
A good example of this is that The Cake Bible has many recipes written for 1-1/2 inch tall pans as that what was readily available in the 70s and 80s. When we wrote Rose's Heavenly Cakes which has several recipes from The Cake Bible, we had to adapt those recipes to the 2 inch tall pans which are readily available now.

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Hi Shera,
We suggest after they cool to put them in an airtight container. If you are frosting the next day, you can also refrigerate them.
How are you storing them now before you frost them?

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Hi Rose,
Can left-over sour cream and heavy cream be stored in the freezer? If yes, for how long?
I always have a problem keeping the remaining cream after a baking session. The remaining cream tends to be thrown away, which I find wasteful. Really appreciate your advice please. Thanks very much for your time and help.

Regards,
Jojo

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Hi Rose,
I baked your Whipped Cream Cake, which turned out beautifully fine-grained, moist and soft.
However, I find it much too sweet.
How much further can I reduce the sugar without impairing the texture and moistness?
Also, I would like to add citrus juice (either lemon or orange) and zest to this cake. Could you advise me how much juice and zest to add for an orange-flavoured version and a lemon-flavoured version plus any other adjustments, if needed?
In addition, since the quantity given in RHC turn out quite little (I baked it in a bundt pan), could I just double every ingredient in the recipe?
Thanks very much for your time, and help.
Regards,
Jojo

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Hi, I would like to know for recipes that call for 2 sandwich cake pans (a 2-layer cake), can I instead bake the cake using a normal cake pan (with the same diameter but deeper) and then cut the cake into 2 layers after baked? If this possible, do I need to adjust the oven temperature or baking time? Thanks.

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Hi Rose

I have trouble keeping my cupcakes moist on the outside. By the time i come to decorate them, the top is a little hard.

Do you have any tips on how to keep the exterior moist?

Thanks

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Hi rose. For your ice cream recipes. You recommend the Lussino model from Musser from Italy. I also found there was a Cuisinart Supreme Commercial Quality Ice Cream Maker. Can I use this Ice cream maker for your ice cream recipes?

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Hi Walter,
Please look at the Lemon Meringue Pie in Roses's Pastry and Pie Bible pages 178-81 which uses italian Meringue which will not weep and gives an understanding note.

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Rose:
How can I eliminate the 'weeping" in lemon meringue pie. I put the sugar in the blender until it was very fine, but did not seem to help. what am I doing wrong.
tkx.
Walt

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Hi Grace,
You can experiment with canned coconut milk as Rose shows it as a substitution on page 22 of Rose's Heavenly Cakes for cream of coconut. You could experiment with coconut puree.

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Hi Rose. I found out about Whole Foods Pasteurized (not ultra-pasteurized) Heavy Cream. How much butterfat is in Whole Foods Heavy Cream? Do you know about Whole Foods Heavy Cream?

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Hi, I am from Malaysia. Am going to bake your coconut cheesecake with coconut cookie crust, got a little problem to find "cream of coconut", can it be substitute?

Many thanks

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Hi Margarita,
Harold McGee's "On Food and Cooking: the Science and Lore of the Kitchen".
Rose's other books do cover the science and understanding of baking for those topics.

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Hi Linda,
If you are making the Basic Soft White Sandwich Loaf on page 244, we suggest you make first as it is written with your ingredients and then you can experiment as we are not familiar with the two products you stated.
In general, we can only give an educated opinion on products available in the North American markets that we have used or can contact the supplier.

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Hi Rose. I found out about Whole Foods Pasteurized (not ultra-pasteurized) Heavy Cream. How much butterfat is in Whole Foods Heavy Cream? Do you know about Whole Foods Heavy Cream?

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I have a question for you. I just bought your book, "The Bread Bible" and I am enjoying it. In Australia things are a bit different as far as flours are concerned. As a native NY'er it took time to get used to that. There is plain flour, self-rising flour and all kinds of bread flour. I purchase Wallaby Brand Baker's Flour (unbleached) and I also have Lowan Instant Dried Yeast which is very reliable. Would you be able to tell me if I need to make any adjustments in a sponge for a basic white sandwich loaf?
I just purchased a new Kenwood stand mixer and it's begging me to use it! Thank you for your help!

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Can I bake The Bread Bible’s basic sourdough bread as a baguette? If yes, what is the temperature and the time?

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Hi Rose. Remember I said that Organic Valley's Pasteurized Heavy Cream has 40% butterfat and is available to the consumer. How will this information affect other aspiring bakers? Will it help them? How has it helped you?

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I am having a difficult time finding a place that sells Perma-icing in McKinney/Dallas, TX. Any

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Can I bake The Bread Bible's basic sourdough bread as a baguette? If yes, what is the temperature and the time?

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I found your info on the half-sheet pans in the book, just didn't look far enough before writing.

At any rate, I see that you use Rumford baking powder and was wondering what you think of powders that contain acid sodium phyophosphate. I find it produces an incredible rise in everything I have used it for and now use nothing else. Bob's Red Mill here in Oregon makes a baking powder like this and the one I have actually used is called Bakewell Cream from www.newenglandcupboard.com in Maine.

Just wanting your opinion on this chemical.

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Hi Rose,
I am an amateur baker that would really like to understand the science behind baking, the role that each ingredient plays in a recipe etc.,
I love how in the pastry bible you provide an explanation for each recipe. I just wanted to see whether you could recommend any good baking books, ones that cover the fundamentals and science behind baking? Any help would be really appreciated.
Thank you.
Margarita

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Hi - I am a very nervous amateur who is making a 2 tiered wedding cake for a relative. The event is today (Saturday 20th Aug) and I have to finish my cakes. Both are in the fridge right now which is on the lowest setting it can go. Both tiers (6" and 9") are filled with buttercream (100% butter) and either raspberry jam or lemon curd and then frosted with the same buttercream, rather thickly especially as the bottom tier is chocolate. They are also covered at the moment in two layers of ceran wrap. My fondant is handmade (not mm) but a recipe made from gelatin, corn syrup, shortening and powdered sugar. It has been sitting in the fridge overnight to cure.

I am desperately trying to avoid sweating issues. I have tried to research every trick in the book but would really appreciate your insight. This is my proposed timeline, not only to minimize sweating, but also to recognize how long is safe (health wise) to have such a cake out of the fridge, in transport, and then on display before cutting. The party is at 3 pm and I would imagine this cake would be cut around 4 pm.

Proposed timeline, (my a/c will be cranked up by then as it is 8.45am and 77% humidity here)

Remove cakes from fridge but leave wrappings on 10 30 am

Remove fondant same time

Roll fondant 11.30 and cover both cakes.

Let cakes sit in my a/c until we leave at 1.30 p.m. to get to the venue by 2.15 p.m.

Hope you can get to me in time.

Karen

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So there I was going through hundreds of old cooking magazines in my basement as I just sold my house and I find one from 1989 with guess who's picture on the cover! I think Rose was like 18 at the time it looks like! So neat to see her way back when!

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Guess like I found 40% high butterfat heavy cream for the consumer.
How will this affect other aspiring bakers? Do you use Organic Valley Heavy Cream?

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Hi Rose. You didn't respond to my comment concerning heavy cream. The description on the Organic Valley said the Pasteurized (not ultra pasteurized) cream is standardized to 40% butterfat. Did I find 40% heavy cream that is available to the consumer?

Here is the comment I posted previously. It's also somewhere in the Whipped Cream Cake blog entry:

Hi Rose, I think I may have found pasteurized (not ultra-pasteurized) 40% heavy cream that may be available to the consumer. It's Organic Valley Heavy Whipping Cream (Pasteurized).

Here is what the description read on the Organic Valley website:

Pasteurized, 16 oz
Dress up your desserts with the freshest, most heavenly organic whipping cream on earth. You'll be dazzled by its stellar performance in all of your favorite recipes! Our luscious organic cream is standardized to 40% butterfat.

Do you think that when they say, "It's standardized to 40% butterfat," is it really 40% in butterfat?

Please respond! I am waiting for my answer!

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I want to attempt to make the Mousseline Buttercream to ice my wedding cake. However, I want to know if I can crumb coat it and do the final icing and then put on the Fondant.

Will this type of buttercream hold up to Fondant?

Also, does the Mousseline Buttercream taste just like sweet butter?

Thank you for any assistance.

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Hi Walter,
We are assuming the dough is not holding together after you have kneaded it in the plastic bag. If that is true, then add some water. The mixing of the dough in the food processor is just to the point where the particles of dough hold together when pinched.
For a good, flaky crust, the dough should just be holding together when you form it into a disc or discs for a double crust.

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Hi Anne,
The measurement is from the inside top of the pan.
The pans you mentioned will work fine. If they are slightly larger on the inside dimensions the cake will just be slightly thinner.

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Hi Rose, I think I may have found pasteurized (not ultra-pasteurized) 40% heavy cream that may be available to the consumer. It's Organic Valley Heavy Whipping Cream (Pasteurized).

Here is what the description read on the Organic Valley website:

Pasteurized, 16 oz
Dress up your desserts with the freshest, most heavenly organic whipping cream on earth. You'll be dazzled by its stellar performance in all of your favorite recipes! Our luscious organic cream is standardized to 40% butterfat.

Do you think that when they say, "It's standardized to 40% butterfat," is it really 40% in butterfat?

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am trying to make a pie crust shown on page 23, pie and pastry bible. I followed all the steps using a food processor, but even after adding the entire amount of water (7 Tbls.) the dough seems dry, and does not form a solid ball. what did I do wrong?

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I placed an order with New York cake for some pastry tips and thermometer that you mentioned in your book. question: the tips you used were a #6 - (1/2 inch), #8 ( 5/8 inch) and #9 ( (3/4 inch) the tips I received appeared much smaller, were did I go wrong. Also, I ordered An Cordon rose thermometer, and received a Wall-Mart thermometer. They were not very helpful when I called back and asked about it. The tips were for the cream puff recipe on page 530, of your pie and pastry bible

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Rose, I want to make Chocolate Featherbed for a friend who is gluten free. I need to buy the half-sheet cake pans. Not a one that I can find on the web is the measurement you recommend: 17 1/4 by 12 1/4. They are all 18X13 or 17 3/4 X 12 7/8 or some other close but not precise size. Plus, no discription states whether this is a top or bottom measurement. Please help!! this party is coming up in two weeks!! I did check the book and there is no specific pan brand recommended for this particular pan.

Also, I love my air cushioned pans so if there is a brand with that feature, so much the better!

thanks,

Anne
Anne

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Hi Rose, I think I may have found pasteurized (not ultra-pasteurized) 40% heavy cream that may be available to the consumer. It's Organic Valley Heavy Whipping Cream (Pasteurized).

Here is what the description read on the Organic Valley website:

Pasteurized, 16 oz
Dress up your desserts with the freshest, most heavenly organic whipping cream on earth. You'll be dazzled by its stellar performance in all of your favorite recipes! Our luscious organic cream is standardized to 40% butterfat.

Do you think that when they say, "It's standardized to 40% butterfat," is it really 40% in butterfat?

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Hi Anand,
In the Ingredient sections of Rose's books you will find some of your answers. Otherwise, checking some websites or contacting some manufacturers like Organic Valley will give you a specific answer. Because brand availability can vary from region to region, we only give a brand preference if it is nationally or internationally distributed.

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Hi Jolie,
Please look at Rose's The Pie and Pastry Bible's opening chapter,Techniques, and Ingredients where you will find your answers. You can also find some answers here under the Categories' Pie and recipe sections.

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Hi Rose. What types of brands have 40% heavy cream. Is Organic Valley's Heavy Whipping Cream (vat pasteurized) 40% butterfat. What do brands mean when they say "it has been standardized to 40% butterfat?" What good brands have 40% HTST pasteurized heavy cream?

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Hi Jade,
We worked on developing this recipe about a year ago for Madhur and it will be in Rose's next book. Unfortunately, that means you will have to wait a few years.

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Madhur Jaffrey has named The Cake Bible as one of her five favorite cookbooks. She asked for Rose's help in coming up with a mango cheesecake for a special occasion. She said Rose came up with a wonderful mango cheesecake and it was fantastic.

The question is: where is this recipe? I would love to try it myself, and can't find it in Rose's books.

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Hi Rose,
I will be baking your cherry pie today for an event tomorrow. Is there any steps I should take so it seems freshly made, not 1 day old? Also, I'd like to warm it through before serving. How should I do that (how hot, how long in the over?) without ruining the pie?
Thank you!
Jolie

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Hi Edgar,
Your question is really for two different ideas.
Rose has a Golden Hamburger bun recipe if you do a search for hamburger buns.There is also some forum discussions and a recipe in the Ingredients section. Shaping the hamburger bun into a hotdog bun counts as a hotdog bun recipe.
Now a great Latino bolillos or pan de barra.or telera recipe is something I have been in pursuit for months as I in the past would buy them from a Latino bakery to make hot hoagies for my parents.
I have tried several recipes and have liked Diane Kennedy's recipe the best. Rose and I have adapted it over several tries by bumping up the hydration percentage to 68 and adding a couple of teaspoons of oil. It is unusual as it uses a starter to give it a slight sour dough taste.
If you make her's, you can make a half recipe for several buns and then adapt from there.
I have tried to obtain a recipe from a couple of Latino bakeries without any luck even with telling them who I collaborate with. The best answer I have had when walking up to the counter to buy several telera buns and inquiring if I can discuss his recipe, is the owner saying, "I do not speak any English. That will be $3.60 for the rolls."

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Rose, I purchased your book in the hopes of finding a recipe for mexican hotdog buns also knows as "Sonoran hotdogs" in Arizona. Can you help me find the perfect hotdog bread recipe? in Mexico the bread they use is called bolillo or pan de barra, but the bread I tased in Tucson tasted nothing like a bolillo; however, for a hotdog I though it was absolutely delicious. It was soft, sweet, and big enough for all the condiments to fit in it. What do you recommend? I would like to be able to make the best mexican hotdogs ever but I think the bread is the number one player in taste, presentation, and also comfort while you are eating it.

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Rose, I purchased your book "The bread bible" in hopes of finding the perfect recipe for a mexican hotdog bread. But I never realized how extensive the subject on bread is! I'm loving your book so far but as a beginner I'm having trouble categorizing breads and since this is all new to me I'm also a bit confused. To make things short I could not distinguish what category hotdog buns fall into, apparently in mexico they are called bolillos or pan de barra. Can you please help me? I would like to be able to bake my own bread and make mexican hotdogs, if you don't know what a mexican hotdog is you can google sonoran hotdog and you will find a lot of info. I would like your help in order to come up with the tastiest hotdog bread ever!!!

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Hi Anand,
Ingredients that Rose has used in all of her recipes are generally available (season at times dependent) in most North American supermarkets, coops, and specialty stores. Specified ingredients are usually given a source in the Ingredients sections or noted with the recipe. These are specified either for the best taste or performance in a recipe.
We ask what country do you live in as you may have to check with suppliers in your country OR buy certain ingredients from websites.
Pecan halves and gingersnaps (organic too) are readily available in most North American stores.
You can always use your imagination and experimentation to substitute for any given recipe that you cannot find ingredients.

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Hi Rose. In your Great Pumpkin Pie recipe, you ask for pecan halves and gingersnaps to make a bottom crust. Are there organic gingersnaps? Where do they have gingersnaps? What are pecan halves? Do I need or have to have a gingersnap crust for my pumpkin pie?

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Thank you, Woody!

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Hi Michael,
Currently it is only available in English from the publisher. There is a Czech version from another publisher. A Spanish publisher is working on a Spanish version.

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Hi Anand,
Libbys and your Farmers Market Organic unsweetened puree/pumpkin pie filling are fine. Unsweetened as in no sugar or other sweetener added. Other unsweetened purees work fine and become a baker's taste preference.

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Hi Rose = Is your book, "The Cake Bible," available in other languages? I have a friend from Iran and his sister, for whom he would like to get your book, only speaks (and reads) Farsi. Thank you so much, Michael

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Hi Rose, what brands of canned unsweetened pumpkin would you recommend for making your Great Pumpkin Pie? I found a product called Farmer's Market Organic Canned Pumpkin. They said it's 100% pure pumpkin purée. When I checked the ingredients, there was no sugar mentioned. Does canned pumpkin have natural sweetness? Is unsweetened mean that the pumpkin shouldn't have any sweetness?

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Hi Eduardo,
We are happy you are enjoying baking and learning from Rose's books.
If the tart pan has a removable bottom, you should not need to butter and flour.
However, if you do the butter and flour, then prep by a little butter to affix the addition of a parchment round that you then butter and flour. The butter will add some additional buttery flavor. OR prep as written for a 9 x 2 pan using parchment and baking spray with flour.
This is a great way of using egg yolks separated off from using egg whites for some other recipe.

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Hi Rose,
I'm planning to make the Gateau Breton from RHC using the fluted tart pan with removable bottom. My question is, should I butter and flour the pan before using? My pan has a shiny aluminum finish, and I don't think it's non-stick (I've never used a tart pan before).
Also, I wanted to tell you that this past year I took up baking, and pretty much everything I've made has come from 3 of your books (RHC, CB & PPB). I can't tell you how much joy, happiness and good feeling your recipes have brought to my home, family and friends. Thank you, thank you!

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Hi Woody,
For the previous Brioche, if I just made half of the recipe, is that meant that the baking time also decreased by half? Or lesser? Thanks.

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Hi Mary,
Yes, you can fill it with water to calculate the cups.If you have Rose's Cake Bible, you can look at her Rose Factor conversions on page 490 for amounts of batter needed for various sizes of pans and baking powder amounts on the following pages.
You can then convert your recipe if you know the volume of the pan it is made in to scale it up to the 12 by 16 pan for all of the ingredients except adjusting for the baking powder.
Be prepared to experiment with the baking powder as we needed to run a couple of tests when making the sheet cakes for Rose's Heavenly Cakes.

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Hi Rose,
I want to make a rectangular cake but am using a recipe that will only feed 10 people. If I want to make it in a 12x16 pan how do I know how much batter to make? and figure out the baking powder amount?
Do I fill the pan with water and that gives me the total cups of batter?

Thanks,
Mary

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Hi erica,
Unfortunately, the silicone bombe pan made by Lekue is currently not being stocked for sale on Amazon. The glass bowl will work just as well. We recommend to read the Heavenly Cake Bakers' postings on making this cake to see their comments.

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hi David,
Rose's recipes have always used vanilla extract or vanilla bean seeds. Vanilla powder is made from grinding the vanilla beans into a powder. We have used vanilla extract as it is readily available to the home baker.

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Dear Rose/Woody,
Where can I purchase the silicone bombe mold that's mentioned in "Zach's La Bomba" in Heavenly Cakes? I'd like to attempt this recipe for my mom's birthday later this month.
Thanks!
Erica

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Dear Rose/Woody,

When I was a young boy back in Vietnam, I remember seeing my mom used vanilla in powder form for her cakes.

I am just wondering if you have used it in your recipes before, and how pure is it compare to the pure vanilla extract in a bottle that is sold in the US and Canada?

David

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Hi Anand,
We are trying to make this clear. The Cake Bible that was written almost 25 years ago has had only a few corrections and the updates several years ago as we stated previously. Cakes using the 1-1/2 inch pans still state them. If you want several recipes converted to 9 x 2 inch pans, then you should also get a copy of Rose's Heavenly Cakes.
if you are unsure, many libraries have Rose's books or Amazon has many at used book stores.

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Dear Rose,
When you have a chance, would you please have a look at the question about concord grape pie that I left for you under the Book/Corrections/Errata/Pie and Pastry Bible category? I would greatly appreciate your help!
Thanks,
Erica

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Hi Rose. Does your newest edition of the Cake Bible use 9 x 2 inch pans or does it use 9 x 1 1/2 inch pans still? I found a brand called Chicago Metallic Bakeware. There are two links: cmbakeware.com and chicagometallicbakeware.com. The cmbakeware.com has 9 x 1 1/2 pans available. Please check if the cmbakeware.com pans can be used. I also found parrish magic cake line pans have 9 x 1 1/2 pans on amazon.com. What is the link to Parrish Magic line cake pans website? Does the Cake Bible 8th edition use 9 x 2 inch cake pans?

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Hi Waile,
As we said previously, sourness id according to one's taste. The recipe gives a 1-1/2 hour to overnight time frame for the sponge. Also, ingredients vary around the world that can effect taste. You may want to experiment making 4 batches of rolls from making the sponge and dividing it in quarters to make the brioche with 2 hour, 4 hour, 8, hour , and 12 hour matured sponger to see what you like for taste.
Experimenting is the way to learn and discover what you like. I am on my 12th tinkering version of a Latino telera roll and have almost achieved what I want.

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Hi Louella,
The starter Rose used for making the Beer Bread is from a starter she has been refreshing for many years. If you need to make a starter dough, her recipe is in The Bread Bible. There are also many recipes on the internet.
As a general rule, we do not email recipes to individuals as we do not have this as a formatted procedure.

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Hi fayee,
We have not seen or heard of this interesting recipe. You could experiment with some dense lemon curd for the filling.

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Hello Rose,
Please send me your recipe for the Starter you used for your Beer Bread under "Bread in Under Two Minutes". Always enjoy your emails and your cookbooks! Thanks for the recipe. Louella

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Hi Woody,
I'm not very sure on your explanation. Is it that the flavor, if follows strictly to Rose Heavenly Cake, will be a little sour. Then, what I get would be: coloured yellow, a little dry, risen a little if followed instruction of double the original height. Please clarify. Thanks.

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have tried to duplicate and searched the web for a lemon lava cake served by a restaurant called SWEET TOMATO. so far i had no luck. i wonder if you ever heard of it or are savvy enough to come up with a recipe of your own. basically its the same as the hot chocolate lava cake which is cake all around and melted chocolate in the middle except its from lemon if you google it you will see every one raves about it. so if you come up with a recipe or know of one please please pass it on to many of us who are craving it. thanks so much. byw your cake bible is truly my kitchen bible

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Hi April,
The Cake Bible had its last revision done several years ago around its 35th printing when Rose was in between publishers. That revision was just a few pages in the ingredients section and some sources updates. The publisher currently is not doing any revisions with forth coming reprints.
Due to the internet, many authors and publishers update their books by showing corrections and updates on their websites. Rose updates her books on this site in the Book Errata/CORRECTIONS tab under Categories. Click on the tab and scan down to The Cake Bible corrections section to see updates.

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Hi Frank,
Yes you can make them in individual souffle dishes like making rolls. Have fun experimenting.

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Hi Waile,
Sourness is a matter of personal taste to many people. If you are letting the sponge sit overnight to increase its flavor is what you may perceive as sourness.

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I see that the 48th printing of Cake Bible is out......I want to invest in this book but want to be sure I got the latest edition...do you know how I would find out if the latest one is on the shelf at the book store or on line store ?
With all the new modern appliances out, I know some updates were done and want to b sure I purchase the most recent one.

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Dear Rose,

regarding your delicious "Stud Muffin" recipe; Have you ever tried using the same dough in individual souffle dishes - say 6 oz. dishes? I think it should be possible with some adjustments of baking times.

thyanks for the excellent bread book. Your recipes and techniques are a joy to use!

Frank

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Hi Woody,
Last week, I tried the Brioche recipe in the Rose Heavenly Cake again. The taste of the bread turned a little sour as I followed the procedure. May I know, is that most of the European and American bread are sour, as they need longer time for it to ripe? Thanks.

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hi Rosa,
For heavy cream, Rose gives a weight of 232 grams /cup and 14.5 grams / tablespoon. 3 tablespoons would be 43 grams. Thank you for pointing this out, we will check that printing.

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Hi Woody,

After looking at the row of numbers at the bottom my book's copyright page, I believe I have a 6th printing (6 is the lowest number in the series). Page 30 shows two recipe charts (one for a single deep dish 9 or 10 inch pie crust and the other for a two-crust 9-inch pie, which is what I wanted to make today). Both recipe charts include heavy cream. When I measure out 3 tablespoons on my kitchen scale (after taring the scale with an empty container) I get 36 grams instead of the 28 grams listed on the recipe chart for a double crust. I'd appreciate it if you could help me figure out which one is correct. Otherwise, I guess I'll just have to experiment and see what happens.
Thank you!

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Hi Paula,
Rose has a recipe from her dear friend, Lisa Yockelson, in the Recipes / Brownies category. We have two brownie recipes in Rose's Heavenly Cakes and a Brownie Puddle tart in The Pie & Pastry Bible, which is also on a video.

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Hi Rosa,
We are not sure where you are seeing the heavy cream on page 30 as my book is a 3rd printing and lists only ice water for the 2 tablespoons.
Rose has revised the recipe to use heavy cream which is on this blog. Look in the pie recipes or do a search for "flaky cream cheese pie crust". The recipe is for a single deep dish 9 or 10 inch crust.
I have made it several times and the measurements are correct.

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I am looking for a brownie cupcake recipe, ii wonder to know if can you help me? I allready have made 2 recipes but both were a completly mess, so thats why i am asking you if you have one even if you have a video It Will be very helpfull for me.
Thanks,
Paula

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Dear Rose,
This question is regarding the Flaky Cream Cheese Pie Crust for a 2-crust 9-inch pie (page 30) from the "Pie and Pastry Bible." When I measure out 3 tablespoons of heavy cream and double check the weight with my kitchen scale, I get 36 grams instead of 28 grams as given in the recipe chart. Could you please tell me which one is correct (3 tablespoons or 28 grams of heavy cream)?

Thank you very much!

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want to start a small business from home need some advice about recipes and to get started

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Hi Sara,
We are not familiar with Sweet Street pies. Without a recipe we have no suggestions especially since you have tried many attempts, except that the ingredients listing on their package may indicate something. Sometimes the unidentifiable taste from mass produced products is from the preservatives or added ingredients for mass production.

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Hi Holly,
You should not need to use a damn for the buttercream. If a filing or frosting recipe requires a damn, we would indicate it in the Special Equipment listing. Rose's Heavenly Cakes does not have any recipes requiring a damn as stated equipment.

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Rose,firstly ur books r perfection. ok to the point, i dream of a granny apple pie sold by sweet street, day and nite, shortbread crust with a apple custard filling to die for..Rose plz help ..i really need to make this at home..any tips at all..i shall follow..i have made this a 100 times..just not the same.. i have all ur books..so any recipe's in there that u think..i cld come close to this..thanx

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I was wondering if I need to use a damn when filling a red velvet cake with the white chocolate buttercream recipe? Or does it act like the mousseline recipe in texture?

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Hi Anand,
Check the Equipment category for postings regarding scales. Also, all of Rose's books with Equipment sections give manufacturers. We both use My Weigh scales.
In dividing a batter between pans, you can use any method you want to make each pan have the same weight of batter. We recommend that you pour the batter into each pan a little at a time in one then the other so that each pan has batter from the top to the bottom of the mixing bowl.

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If I want to figure how much batter I should put in a cake pan, do I weigh the batter in the mixer bowl on the scale, divide the amount recorded, put a cake pan on the scale, scrape some batter into the pan and measure how much you put into it? What type of scale do I use for such purposes? How much does a scale cost?

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Sorry Ieant to say rhc book

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In thx the red velvet recipe says something like 2 cups flour or another amount. Which amount am I to use in the cake and what differences should I expect when using either amount? Sorry I don't have the book with me right now so I am unsure of the exact amounts it says

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Hi Anand,
The newest edition is the current version of The Cake Bible whether bought through Amazon or a local bookstore, with no current plans of revising. All printings specify 9 x 2 inch pans in the Wedding Cake section. Older editions maybe available at used bookstores which you would have to check with them.
Check the web for 9 x 1-1/2 inch pans or your local restaurant supply store.
You can bake any recipe for from The Cake Bible in a 9 x 2 inch pan, however the cakes may come out slightly shorter and can over brown on top.
As stated previously, you may want to also get Rose's Heavenly Cakes as it uses 9 x2 inch pans and has many additional cakes and frostings and some revised recipes.

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When I checked for seeing where Rose's new Cake Bible edition was, I didn't find it in Rose's Books. Is the new Cake Bible the 8th edition as listed on Amazon.com? Tell me which stores sell the 9 1 1/2 inch pans in the original Cake bible edition. are the wedding cakes in the Cake Bible original edition baked in 9 x 2 inch pans? Will I be able to get the original 1980's edition of the book as well?

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Hi Guen,
I am not the best piper either and I get plenty of suggestions from Rose. Keeping my hands cool has helped. We both need to just practice. If practicing on a surface like parchment paper, you can then scrape up the frosting back into a bowl and freeze it for future use.

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Hi Anand,
The Cake Bible was revised several years ago. Whether you buy it at a retailer or off the web, the current printing is the current revision. You can click on Rose's Cookbooks and see where it is in stock. There are no revisions in the forth coming future. If there is a correction, it will appear in the Book Errata/Corrections category on this blog.
1-1/2 inch pans are still available at some retailers and on the web, but do look for pans with straight up and down sides. If you are looking for recipes using 9 x 2 inch pans, Roses Heavenly Cakes has several versions of The Cake Bible's cakes using 9 x 2 inch pans. Also, The Cake Bible's Wedding Cake section as base formula recipes for butter and genoise cakes using 9 x 2 inch pans.

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Hi Rose, when are you printing a new version of the Cake Bible? If you already printed a new version, tell me where I can find it. And, please tell me where I can find the 9 x 1 1/2 round cake pans that you ask for in your Cake Bible.

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I have tried keeping the buttercream cool but, not by freezing my hands. Next time I'll try that in addition to using only small batches of the Silk Meringue at a time. It always seems to hold its shape nicely in the bowl - even when somewhat warm. I am actually not very good at piping - my marzipan roses are much better! Thanks for your comments.

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thanx for the response, now i really need to get that book. . need two more of ur books the bread and pie n pastry one. . ur books are amazing, tried ur classic carrot cake didnt even last half a day. . thanx again

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hi rose and woody'
im wondering which book can i find the recipe for brownie puddle tart. . browsing your videos earlier and i cannot find it on the book i have. .

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Hi Guen,
How wonderful that you are a legend in your baking that your wedding cakes are a tradition for generations.
We know that many of us have falling out pages Cake Bibles. I frankly moved the Chocolate Oblivion pages to be the first pages of my book.
Are you insulating the piping bag from the warmth of your hands or occasionally dipping your hands in a ice water bath to prevent the Silk Meringue from warming up and going soft?
Doing small batches is one way. Another way is to have two bags so that you can trade off to help keep the bags and Silk Meringue at room temperature.
We do not think it is your pressure as you have years of experience in piping. You may want to experiment with using a larger tip as you suggested.

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Hi Paula,
Rose's blog has just a brownie recipe from Lisa Yockelson if you click on Brownies under the Categories and a video of making a Brownie Tart on the Pie category.
We do have The Grooms Cake in Rose's Heavenly Cakes which has Rose's favorite brownie recipe as a component for the cake. Also, there is a dense chocolate and walnut cake, the Black Chocolate Party Cake, which is like a soft brownie. There is also another brownie recipe in the book using cream cheese, the Barcelonas.

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Hi Rose I am a baker and I have been looking for in Internet for a brownie cake recipe, but I wasn't looky because there are a lot of brownie recipes but non a brownie cake, so I wonder to know if you have one or you can help me.
Thanks

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Hi Rose,

I have been using your Cake Bible for many years now - it's practically falling apart. I make wedding cakes for friends (and now their children!) as a gift to the wedding couple. I have managed to overcome the issues with heat and altitude but one thing still puzzles me. Why does the buttercream (I use the Silk Meringue recipe - always to rave reviews) hold its shape for the first few seconds of piping and then turn soft and formless? Is it the pressure as it comes out of the bag? Should I pipe in small batches only? Should I use a larger tip? Does anyone else have this problem?? There is no problem when I frost the layers of cake - only when I force the buttercream through a tip.

Thanks Guen

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Hi Rose,

I would like to bake Levy's Jewish Rye from the Bread Bible. My understanding of the directions are that I mix up the sponge and let it sit for 1 to 24 hours before adding the flour mixture on top of it which will sit on top for an additional 1 to 4 hours. Is this correct? Thanks for all of your help.

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Thank you woody, you always come through!

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Hi Jojo,
Plain flour generally is all-putpose flour.
In all of the recipes we state exactly what flour we recommend. For cake baking, BLEACHED all-purpose flour is most frequently used after cake flour (which is a finer grade and lower protein percentage bleached flour).
Hopefully, the plain flour bag will say if it is BLEACHED or un-bleached or check with the manufacturer.

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Hi Jojp,
Was the cake crumbly after you injected the ganache glaze?
The cake as described should be fudgy moist but soft in texture. We suggest you make the Chocolate Layer Cake on page 104 to see if you think it is crumbly. It is the same cake with the addition of some oil and the ganache becomes the frosting.
What we describe in texture as soft in regards to chocolate butter cakes, some from previous cake baking experiences consider crumbly.
Enjoy baking your favorite recipes from RHC. You may want to read what Marie Wolf and the other Heavenly Bakers thoughts were on this cake on the Heavenly Cake Place link.

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Hi Woody,
Is All-purpose Flour the same as Plain Flour? Thanks.

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Dear Rose,
I am a new fan (having extremely late nights going through your video clips & studying your books. yes, studying!). You have given me confidence to stretch myself and baked varieties other than plain cream cakes. I have baked 2 cakes from yr books CB (Cordon Rose Banana Cake with Choc Sour Cream Ganache) & RHC (Double Choc Valentine's Cake. Both were perfect, moist, soft and delicious, but the Double Choc Valentine Cake was crumbly. Everything was followed to a T, including oven temp, measurement of ingredients & baking time. Could you tell me what cause the cake to be crumbly? Thank you very much for your help. Next up is Whipped Cream Cake & Apple upside down cake.

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Do you give baking classes? I am in the northeast this summer, and Los Angeles the rest of the year. Thank you

Mark

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Dear Rose. Thank you so much for sharing your wonderful recipes and tips. Watching your short video about your new book, which I am reading right now, I am able to see your sweet personality and honest enjoyment of your baked goods. I wish we lived close to each other so I could pop over for a cuppa with cake. Many blessings on you.

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Hi Kim,
The Bread Bible does have a section on lecithin on page 567. The ratio is 1 teaspoon lecithin (granular or liquid) per 1 cup flour. Beware that lecithin can quickly become rancid.
No decreasing the liquid unless using oil.
The Bread Bible does not have as many color pictures of the breads as RHC had for almost every cake, but it has hundreds of drawings. Many of the drawings detail steps from how to knead bread to making a "business letter fold".

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Hi Rose,
I have heard that lecithin is a natural preservative.I am planning to use liquid lecithin in bread.Do you know how much I need for cup of flour?
Do I need to decrease the liquid?Will it change the flavor?
I am planning to buy The Bread Bible.Does it have a lot of pictures like RHC does?
Either way I am going to buy it.
I just love your books.
Sorry for all the questions.
Kim

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Hi Charlie,
We do not recommend using ricotta as the cheese will alter the taste and the texture. if you do not have enough cream for the full recipe, you may want to make a smaller version of the recipe. In addition to cream, Rose's recipe in the Pastry Bible uses condensed milk and many other recipes add milk or half & half.
If you have these on hand, you want to use a different recipe.

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Hi Danny,
We have to ask what page are you missing?
Both of our copies show the headnotes on page 198, ingredients on 199, and the recipe on 200 (the back side of page 199.)

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I was looking at the recipe for les pique-nique cookies in your book, A Passion for Chocolate and it appears that there is a missing page. After the list of ingredients, there are no baking instructions. Can you please provide them.

Thanks.

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Hi Rose or Woody:

I wanted to make a panna cotta. The recipe calls for 2 cups of heavy cream which has to be whipped at one point.

I don't have enough and payday isn't until the end of the month.

Could I use ricotta with the cream or do it all with ricotta?

If used together what would be the %'s.

Thank you!

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Hi Dimsa,
We suggest checking with the author of the recipe on shaping and refrigerating or trying some of your thoughts as i suggested. Many times in our testing we will make divide a recipe for a few versions and when possible without making the full recipe to save on ingredients.
Your fellow co-workers must love your bringing fresh croissants. What a treat and labor of love.

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Thank you for your prompt reply. No, I am not using Rose's recipe, mine is a classic French recipe (water, dry yeast, sugar, salt, whole milk, butter, bread flour and butter for the book). Mine is the two day method. Option 1 will not work. My crossiants have a shelf life of 5-6 hours, 8 hours if the weather cooperates. Option 2 will work, but will they taste as fresh as right out of the oven from the original baking or will the reheating cause them to deteriorate in texture (crunch / delicate honeycomb interior) and flavor? If the reheating does not cause a deterioration, this is the best method for me. Option 3 will not work, too much lead time. Can I cut and shape the night before, cover with plastic wrap and put in the frig, then the next morning proof and bake (which would be a three day method)? Thank you.

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Hi Dimsa,
If you are baking Rose's croissiants from The Pie and Pastry Bible pages 477-481 or the Bread Bible pages533-537, she gives you a couple of options.
1. Bake the night before as she gives a storage time of up to one day at room temperature. They will not taste as fresh as out of the oven, but still very good.
2. Freeze the baked croissants and reheat.
3. after the final 4th turn, the dough can be refrigerated overnight. The next morning you can shape, do the rising, and baking, which will take a minimum of 3 hours. Hopefully, that does not put you at the 3am baking time you mentioned.
For alternatives, you may want to try some your ideas with dividing up a recipe for each idea with a couple done to the recipe as controls for comparing them.

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I like making butter crossiants from scratch but given the short shelf life, about 5-6 hours, I have not been able to take them to work without baking at 3:00 a.m.

Is it possible to maintain quality yet partially prepare the crossiants in advance? Can I do the final proof, put in the frig overnight then the next morning take out of the frig. then bake? Can I do the final proof, freeze, then defrost and bake? Can I partially bake except for the last 2-3 minutes, then the next morning finish the baking? If none of these, any other suggestions? Thank you.

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Hi Greg,
We always recommend using cake flour when it is specified. You can make your own "cake flour" as shown on page 443 in the Cake Bible by combining 85 grams of bleached all-purpose flour and 15 grams of cornstarch.

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Hi Vaishnavi,
You can refrigerate the second cake pan until the first on is baked as described on page 24 of the Cake Bible. You will find the Cake Bible's and Rose's Heavenly Cakes understanding, ingredient sections, headnotes, and chapter highlights are very informative and help guarantee successful baking of the recipes. I find myself reviewing these as i always learn something new.
The second layer may take longer to bake than the first from the batter being colder.

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I am curious if you have ever tried to make your own cake flour? Some websites say all you have to do is add cornstarch to the all purpose flour. Is this true or should I just use cake flour. ChaCha!

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Hi Rose,
Hope youre well:)i just bought the cake bible and your latest book,"Rose's heavenly cakes".I've started baking only very recently and i'm absolutely loving it. I have a question that i wanted to ask you,most of the recipes call for the batter to be split into two cake pans.I cant place two cake pans in my oven as it is not very large. What do i do in a situation like this one?Can i leave one pan outside with the batter while the other one is baking?do let me know..thanks

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Hi Gary,
We do not recommend freezing leftover cheesecake as it alters the texture making it less smooth.
Your guests can always be offered some leftovers to take home. That is a requirement for desserts I bring to my parents. You will be a continuing star.

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Hi Rose,
I would like to bake the apricot cheesecake tart from The Pie and Pastry Bible. I don't have enough guests coming to eat it so I am wondering if I could make it with the sweet cookie tart crust and freeze the leftovers. I know it's best eaten within a day or two, but if freezing wouldn't affect it too adversely I would like to freeze leftovers. By the way I recently bought both the Pie and Pastry Bible and the Bread Bible and I love them, because your recipes are great and your directions are clear, accurate, and comprehensive to an extent that I have never seen from another cookbook author. Thank you for all your help with my baking.

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Hi Fatima,
If you have Rose's Heavenly Cakes, make the Mousseline Buttercream from one of its versions. Essentially, we reversed the order of combining the ingredients to adding all of the egg meringue into the whipped butter, which minimizes the chance of curdling. The key is to have both the meringue and butter within a degree or so in temperature.
The liquor is for flavoring and coloring only. If you do not want to use it, we suggest using vanilla, other flavoring extract, chocolate, or fruit puree or curd. But you should add it in increments to flavor to taste. We suggest to not to add water.
The recipe pages should be easily clicked on. Returning to the home page should allow you to return to any recipe page, as I have just tried several times.

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Hello
I am planning to make mousseline buttercream .the recipe in TCB
Calls for 3oz liquor. Can I substitute it with water or any thing else ? Thanks in advance

Also how do we go t the recipes on the website? I have seen a list but can't seem to go back to the same location again
Thanks so much

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Dear Rose,

I was so excited to find this site! I have all your cookbooks and feel connected to you through them.

My question is about croissants. I was at the Hotel Nikko in Mexico City, which has a great bakery with fabulous croissants - they are dark brown, with an almost crisp exterior and very flaky.

When I follow your instructions (and also many others), the croissants I make turn out well, but I don't know how to achieve the crispness and beautiful dark color of the ones I had in Mexico. I assume it has something to do with the baking process (steam ovens?) or maybe the type of flour they use (or both)?

Thanks so much in advance for your help,

Laura Schneck

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Dear Woody,
Wishing to thank you for your thoughtful reply. With my own mobility reliance on mass-trans, I do in fact have multiple copies of Rose's Bread Bible (If I am tired and traveling by bus, I have a proclivity to lose things I carry with me on to the bus ... not at all in an often fashion, but in the same light much too often!).... "Know thy self." .... I will now follow your advice and assign one to KitchenLab designation.
Wishing to thank you for all of your enabling efforts!
Best always, Mark Loveland

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Hi Mark,
The Bread Bible has the recipe/formula for her Bialy on pages 162-166.
At this time a PDF or on-line version of this recipe is not on the blog site.
Over the last years, I have bought a extra copies of each of Rose's books so that I can keep one somewhat pristine while my working copy gets marked up with notes, chocolate stains, and other marks.

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Dr. Dubester,
We can only assume that the additional time caused the overbaking. You might want to try baking another shell, it could be a smaller, at the recipe's given times to see if it is the right texture. Everyone's oven is different, so baking times do vary. I consistently have longer baking times than Rose.

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Dear Rose:
Good evening.
Thank you for all of your research and artistic generosity.
I have recently purchased your text on Breads, and have a love of Bialys, after reading both your as well as Mimi's books, and traveling to the Lower East Side in person to sample (I live locally in CT).
It would be my curiosity, Rose, if you might have the formula for your Bialy -- much like your formula for your Genoise (Thank you(!)) -- also on a PDF format, so as to allow me to leave my copy of your gorgeous text in my library as I enter into the KitchenLab.
Again, Rose, thank you for your research and hard work.
Always,
Mark Loveland

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Hi Roberta,
The 18 x 12 x 2 inch pan is for a tall one layer cake as sheet cake portions for weddings and special occasion cakes are general served this way.
This size pan is readily available at many kitchen genre stores and on line.

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On page 490 of the CAKE BIBLE, is the 18'' x 12'' rectangle for one or two layers? 3 kilo 50 gr per sheet? Do you know where I can find an extender for a 1/2 sheet pan so I make 2" layers?

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After recently purchasing and baking recipes from the Cake Bible, Rose's Heavenly Cakes, and The Pie and Pastry Bible my friends and family have recently gained an inordinate amount of weight. Now they are blaming me. Perhaps you should consider writing Rose's Weight Loss Bible to counteract the deliterious effect of your delicious recipes.

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Hi Amal,
The recipe is not online at this time and recipes are not usually included on the YouTube videos.
The Bread Bible has an entire section on Brioche Breads. A loaf version is also in Rose's Heavenly Cakes. This was the second bread that I made when I finally started baking bread a year ago.

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Hi Rose,

I recently purchased the Pie and Pastry Bible. Last weekend I baked the glazed strawberry pie. My brother and his family came over for dinner and we reminisced about going to Big Boy and ordering that pie years ago when we were kids. Anyway, the pie that I made tasted delicious, but the crust was too crispy. I followed your directions exactly, except during blind baking the crust after taking the beans and parchment out of the pie I baked it an additional 12 minutes (to develop more color) instead of 5 to 10 minutes. Did overbaking the crust cause it too become too hard and crisp?

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Hi Lola,
For butter's flavor.
Do use unsalted butter and either grade A or AA.

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Hi Rose,

I firstly want to thank you for the cake bible and Rose's heavenly cakes. They have both effectively become my go to books for all things cake related. I have a rather basic question to ask. I bake with margarine but have found that although the cakes are more moist and denser than those baked with butter, they tend to turn out greasy. Do you know why this happens and would you recommend butter over margarine?

Many thanks

Lola

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Hi

My name is Amal, I am a professor in University of Jordan. I love cooking it helps me to relax and enjoy time cooking with my boys.

You are so great and so passion about cooking. You make me so interested in making all your receipes the moment I see them on youtube.

Yesterday I was looking for Brioch on youtube. I loved what you did and how you worked it out, unfortunately I couldn't find the receipe. I looked under the bread section in your webs site but I found nothing

I will highly appreciate it if you can give me the receipe for it or post it online

best wishes

amal helu

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Thanks so much for the information.

Regards

Mrs Deva

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Hi Jules,
If you are making the Lemon Roses using lemon peel and coated with sugar syrup, Rose has a video that we made at General Mills on YouTube.
The recipe is not online at this time.
Is it possible for you to purchase and download Rose's Heavenly Cakes as an Amazon Kindle book which will also give you several ingredient and equipment videos?

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I'm making my grandmothers 50th wedding anniversary cake and have been searching everywhere for a company that makes lemon roses out of flourpaste for months. My grandma is a perfectionist, so I was at my wits end trying to find them! I came across a review of your Golden Dream Wedding Cake and the roses made out of lemon peel are absolutely wonderful! However, I cannot seem to find a website that will deliver your book to me in time (their anniversary is on saturday) and was wondering if there are any online copies of this? Unforutnately I will not be baking the cake as I made her a fruit cake months ago, I jus need the recipe and instructions for the roses. Thanks.

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Hi,
I'm half way in classic Brioche. I started making this morning. Just finished till "Let the dough rise". According to the procedure, the dough is needed to chill in fridge for 1 hour. Then it is deflated and chilled for another one hour. I'm not sure whether I can do as follows but I'm going to do so: Wait till 12am then put in the fridge. Deflate it next morning before going to work. Then put back to fridge. Will fold it into 3 turns of twice letter turn after work, around 4pm. Please advise if the idea is wrong! Thanks.

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Hi Mrs Deva,
There are many cookbooks, television cooking shows, and websites that specialize or have expertise in gluten free, lactose free, low fats, and other dietary specific baking. Please investigate and try some of their recipes as this is not our genre of baking. Rose has several listed linked sites including: Go Dairy Free and Fran Costigan.

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Hi Maureen,
Did you prepare the Nordicware pan with Bakers Joy baking spray with flour and brushing the coating into the crevices?
The cakes will likely stick if this is not done.

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Hello Rose

Your cake books are great! Would you be writing
a book on "Eggless Cakes" please ?

Thanks and Regards

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Hi,
I love all of Rose's cookbooks. The recipes always yield great results until...
I've made the deep chocolate rosebuds from Rose's Heavenly Cakes three times. I followed the directions the first time, and tried to be extra careful after that, but the cakes stuck to the Nordic War Sweetheart Rose pans each time. I sent an email to Nordic Ware and didn't hear back. It's been disappointing and frustrating. Help! Should I toss the pan or try a different recipe?

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Hi Mariya,
The only time a book has been published in a foreign language is "The Bread Bible", which was sold to Czech publisher through the publisher's foreign rights dept.

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Hi Mariya,
Currently Rose's books are only printed in English by the various publishers.

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Hi Rose,
My Mom really likes your books but she was wondering if they print your books in Russian.
Thank you

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Hi Sigrid,
We suggest baking it 10 minutes longer and see if that is enough time. You can also make this in a 9 inch springform which due to it being shorter should work with the 45 minutes baking and 1 hour cooling in the oven times.
There are so wonderful variations on the Cordon Rose Cream Cheesecake and some exciting new ones in Rose's Heavenly Cakes.

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I have been a fan of The Cake Bible for many years and have always had enormous success. I finally got around to making your 'Cordon Rose Cream Cheesecake',with not so graet results. I followed the recipe to the 'T', as always(even bought the proper cake pan), made a biscuit roulade for the bottom and used the 6 egg yolks instead of the 3 whole eggs. However when finally slicing into the cake it was still very soft and the centre had not set. Should I have baked it longer or left it in the oven longer after it was turned off? I would like to try it again, it tasted exquisite.
Thank you, looking forward to your answer
Sigrid

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Hi Shiny,
If you have either Rose's Heavenly Cakes or The Cake Bible, please read the equipment, baking tips, and understanding sections on the need to lower the temperature for both convection ovens and dark pans.
Especially for round pans, you may want to try using lighter colored pans as they are the standard in the industry. Cake strips are also recommended in many recipes for round pans.

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Hi Rose,

I am a new baker and I use a convection oven for my baking experiments. I normally use dark metal bundt pan or a round cake pan and set the oven in the convection mode while i bake cakes. whenever, i bake yellow cakes, i find that they brown on the top but are still pale yellow at the bottom, even when the skewer test comes out really clean. the other day, i baked a yellow cake, left it in the oven for bit more longer so that the bottom could also cook. alas... i was greeted by a cake that was really brown, had a hard crust and virtually dry. i cant figure out the problem myself. i would be glad if you could give your valuable suggestion.

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Hi, Rose ~
I was only recently introduced to the No-Knead Bread phenomenon (yes, I'm a late bloomer!), and I've noticed how diverse the opinions are regarding the "ideal" baking vessel for crispy-crusted artisan loaves . . . but it was only after reading extensively on the subject that I came across the Sassafras "La Cloche" Brick Oven. Since I'm aware that you have a preference for cast-iron pots, I'm wondering what your thoughts are on the "La Cloche" alternative. Thank you so much for such an informative blog and for your ever-amazing books!

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Hi John,
Although Rose does not have a Dobos Torte recipe,you can easily find the components in The Cake Bible and Rose's Heavenly Cakes as the Dobos is thin layers of sponge cake and chocolate buttercream with a caramel topping.
For ease in assembly, we would suggest the Biscuit Roulade which is baked as a thin cake in a 18 x 12 pan,which you can cut each sheet cake in half.

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hi Rose,

Could you please help me with where I can find a good recipe for the Dobos Torte? Do you have one in your books?

Also, when making Dobos, do you "Have to" bake the layers separately or you can cut them out form a single sponge cake? I don't see how someone could notice the difference.

Finally, could any of your cakes be used to make the sponge layers?

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Rose, thank you very much for your nice reply, and I'll look up your knife recommendation tonight. Love your books -- I have had great success and a lot of fun. Vivian

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Rose, Welcome back! Woody did a splendid job of answering posts, and did so quickly, to boot. He was more polite than I to poor Nancy who implied she was known to go to the library and copy your cookbooks rather than buy them. I have little patience for this- besides it's illegal. Now what on earth do you make your dear dad for his birthday cake or dessert? Today I have a surfeit of apples in my fruit bowl, so a tart was requested.

I know you needed your holiday, nonetheless, we missed you.

http://adventuresingoodfood.wordpress.com/

Bon appétit,
Kyle

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Hi Rose:
Thanks so much for your added gluten suggestion to improve my 100 % whole wheat bread made from the flour I mill. I took the whole wheat Walnut bread recipe under your Epiphany bread. On the next baking go-around I will implement your suggestions.
If you dont mind my commenting... I am suprised you did not include a whole wheat recipe in your Bread Bible which I have, or maybe I missed something.
Thanks again !
Jack

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Hi Rose - I just wanted to let you know that the cake turned out beautifully. There wasn't even excessive doming in the 6" layers. The tiering aspect turned out to be not nearly as stressful as I imagined either, and the girls were gratifyingly awed (one them asked what kind of cake it was before I had cut it, and she whispered "I've dreamed of this" :0).

The only real snafu was that I turned it over to my daughter to decorate and she decided on fondant polka dots. Who knew that when fondant comes in contact with white chocolate/cream cheese frosting, it synthesizes it's own special, ultra-slippery lubricant, so that any fondant pieces on a vertical plane slide right off? I tried chilling, and then finally pinning them on, removing the pins at the last minute, but those dots had become even more slippery and determined to slide. I decided in the end to call it a "design feature" (animated cake decor - you mean you haven't heard of that? It's the latest thing!).

Anyway, the cake was enjoyed by all (and I have to admit I was a little sceptical about the red velvet concept - but I should have known you'd never publish a recipe for anything that wasn't sublime.) I've lost count of the number of Rose cakes over the years that have accompanied our family celebrations - thank you for making them so special once again! xoxo

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I'm just learning how to bake, and I'd like to buy a knife for splitting cake layers. What do you recommend in terms of size/length and style (slicer, serrated, etc.)? So far the largest size pan I've used is a 9" round. Sorry if this has been asked before -- no luck so far searching the archives. Thank you very much!

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Hi Roberta,
Please refer to the Cake Bible's Large Wedding & Special Occasion Cakes section. Page 483 gives a listing of servings per pan size.

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I have a question. I'm making a wedding cake for 300 (white cake with ganache and coffee buttercream interior; white buttercream exterior). I'd like to make three tiers, 14", 10" and 6" and the balance can be 1/2 sheets that will be in the kitchen. My question is, how many dessert servings will a 2 layer 1/2 sheet serve?

Thanks!

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Hi Beth,
There are many cookbooks, television cooking shows, and websites that specialize or have expertise in gluten free, lactose free, low fats, and other dietary specific baking. Please investigate and try some of their recipes as this is not our genre of baking. Rose has several listed linked sites including: Bread-Bakers.com, Fran Costigan, Bread Cetera.

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Hi Rose-
I have recently had to control carbohydrates due to blood sugar problems, which makes home made bread difficult to work into a daily allotment of carbs. Do you know of a lower carb bread recipe that I could try, short of slicing bread the width of one-ply toilet paper??
thanks
Beth

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I have been milling my own spelt grain and trying to make whole wheat bread with it with no real success in either taste or rise, except when I added some white flour (ugh). Can you tell me what is/are the major change(s) I need to make to succeed without adding white flour ?
Summary record of 2 past experiments.
1. Soaking the milled grain flour for 24 hrs first.
2. After milling separated the flour from the bran
and then soaking the two separately for 24 hrs
before mixing.
After either of these 2 approache starts....
I use red star yeast, some salt and sugar or honey, and olive oil which I add to the soaked product. After about 1 hr around 80 F I knead and then put into baking pans for the final rise followed by 30 mins @ 350 F bake.
Except when I have added the white flour all my experiments have been failures! I would very much appreciate any advise.
Thank you very much !
Jack

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Hello,

I was wondering if you accept guest post for your blog. If you do, I would like to submit a few. I'm a recent college graduate, with an English major, looking to build out my portfolio. I can write on a wide variety of topics and am sure you would be happy with the quality. Please email me back if you are interested. Thank you for your time.

- Kathleen Hubert
http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100002374243662

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Hi Woody just an extra note of thanks for keeping me on track. I got the liquid food colouring (only available here in teeny tiny 1/4 oz bottles) and my layers are an awesomely lurid shade of red. Daughter is highly pleased :0)

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Hi Brigham,
The pate sucree (sweet cookie tart crusts) on pages 56 to 58 states that they can be frozen unbaked for almost 1 year.
Is this the recipe in question?

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Freezing pate sucree crusts.

Hi Rose,

I am thinking about making and shaping a few sweet tart shells for fresh berry tarts, freezing them unbaked in their pans, and storing them for some weeks. My reasoning is that it is much easier to make these on a cool dry day, and this often isn't the case when fresh berries are available. Your P&P Bible says to store a frozen unbaked pate sucree shell for no more than 24 hours. Is there a reason for this?

Thanks,
Brigham Taylor
Scotia, NY

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Thanks Woody for saving me from disaster! :0)

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Hi Felicity,
Red Gel should not be substituted for liquid Red Food Coloring as it has other ingredients in it that will taint the color of the cake. You will need almost half a cup of red food coloring. We were fortunate that I could buy it through a distributor to reduce the cost of buying those little 1 ounce bottles.
I did a test with the gel and we ruled it out.

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Hi Rose, I'm getting all set to bake that tiered red velvet cake. I'm wondering if Wilton's No Taste Red food colouring gel can be substituted for the entire bottle of liquid food colouring? If so can I substitute by weight? I had the impression that the gel food colours are more concentrated, so perhaps I could get away with less for the same effect? Thanks so much in advance!

Best,
Felicity

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Hi Monica,
We do not have a specific recipe for a pineapple layer cakes as Rose's Pineapple Upside Down in the Cake Bible is served without a frosting.
A few suggestions: some type of pineapple custard filling, cream cheese based frosting, food processor whipped cream flavored with pineapple juice, something with coconut.
Experiment and have fun.

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Hi Rose,

I want to make a layered pine apple cake. I need to make the cake over the weekend.

Please help me with filling and frosting.

Thanks

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Look up Roses Heavenly Cakes. The recipe is there.

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If you dont mind me asking, one of three what? The only things I saw listed under Roses name on Amazon were cookbooks, though I just did a preliminary search. Would you mind linking to what you are referring to.

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Hi Will,
The recipe for the Red Velvet Cake is one of three Rose has offered on Amazon.
You may want to read the article on our making Marie Wolf's daughter's cake for some ideas.

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Just to clarify I am looking for the red velvet wedding cake recipe that Rose said was on her blog. Thanks!

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When Rose posted this in regards to red velvet cake, she makes mention of a red velvet recipe on her blog. I have looked high and low, but for some reason am not able to find this recipe anywhere. A link to it would be greatly appreciated.

http://www.realbakingwithrose.com/2006/01/red_velvet_cake.html

"RETRACTION i was so wrong and those of you who have my newest book Rose's Heavenly Cakes will see that I have created my version of the classic red velvet cake which I now love so much I even made a wedding cake which is also posted on the blog!"

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Hi Cutegal,
two factors on why your cakes were shorter.
1. (2) 6 inch pans do not equal (1) 9 inch pan.
by volume, they are only 86% of the volume 9 inch.
2. they require a slight bit more of baking powder.

You may want to look at the wedding cake chapter where Rose gives the recipe for the chocolate butter cake as a base recipe on page 493 for (1) 6 inch pan.
She then has charts on other pages for making the cake in any standard size pan.

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i made your perfect choc butter cake last weekend and it was absolutely delicious! thank you!

i just have got one issue. i halved the recipe & baked in (2) 6" pan. recipe states that cake height will be 1 1/2 inch, But, mine only rose less than 1 inch? Any idea why?

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I again tried the hearth bread recipe. I doubled everything. Still the rise is only a little more than 3". I tried kneading by hand after the Kitchen Aid step. The dough was so sticky I really couldn't knead it. I am not sure what to do to correct this. Should I not double the amount of whole wheat? Could that be the problem? The dough was very sticky all the way through the process, even when forming loaves. What to do??

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Nancy, I can't suggest strongly enough that Rose's books(all of them) are worth having in your cookbook library. A publisher(or librarian for that matter) might even give you a strong warning about photocopying any material that is copyrighted. Being an author is hard work and in my opinion, cookbook authors are the most exacting and fastidious of them all.

Rose has mentioned on this blog a web site of bookdepository.com which has free shipping and I utilize one called bookfinder4u.com which searches many sites and finds the least expensive prices on the web, listed from least expensive and up. They show Amazon, Alibris, etc. and you can search by title, author or isbn.

Trust me(and lots of us on this site), your cooking will improve with the guidance of Rose and your taste buds and your family will be immensely grateful for your modest investment in the books.

Several of my Rose books are literally 'apart at the seams' from overuse. Besides, the pictures are just beautiful and inspiring.

http://adventuresingoodfood.wordpress.com/

Bon appétit!
kyle

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Hi Nancy,
In the Cake Bible, the recipe is the Orange Glow Chiffon, pg 155 and the Grand Marnier, pg 44. There is also an Orange Chiffon for a layer cake in Rose's Heavenly Cakes, pg 203.
Amazon has some pretty good pricing on both new and used, which could help for future birthdays.

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Rose, tomorrow is my daughter's birthday and she has requested an orange cake. I thought, "No problem. I'll hop over to the library and copy it out of The Cake Bible as I had done 7 or 8 years ago." Trouble is couldn't find it! If I recall, it only made one layer but it was so yummy. I couldn't find anything that matched my memory. I'm sure it was from your book. Does this give you enough information to understand which recipe it could be? Nancy

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Hi Alissa,
If it tears our experience is either not using enough gelatin or not using the glycerine. Are you weighing and using spectrum shortening? Crisco changed their formulation for their shortening which also could be the problem.

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Hello,
I am currently going through your cake bible 1 recipe a day and am having some issues with Fondant. It always seems to tear when I am rolling it out, I have tried letting it set, adding more water, adding more powdered sugar, ensuring that I have greased the pin and surface. I just cant seem to figure out what is going wrong.

I am currently working on the Rose Trellis cake and think it is so lovely.

Thank you for your help,
Alissa

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I made the Coconut Cheesecake and discovered something interesting. While it didn't taste particularly coconutty the first day or two, the cake tasted MUCH MUCH more coconutty about day 4/5 (yes, we were down to 2 pieces by then). Several folks commented on this - how much it intensified, and how much better it was.

Texture of cake overall was divine. Taste really changed dramatically, though, in a good way.

I used the given ingredients and some coconut extract. Any one have this experience, know why I did, and most importantly: How do I get this intense conconutty taste on day 2 and beyond?

Thank you, thank you for your website and your wonderful books.

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Hi Holly,
Using the 4 factor will just give you a slightly taller cake, which is nice if you want to make just one layer. we use the 3.5 factor when making a two layer cake.

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In the cake bible on page 490, when talking about multiplying a recipe for say a 9x13 cake. Why is the factor 3.5-4?
What should I multiply the white cake base recipe by, 3.5 or 4?

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What I meant to say is that I bake it about 28 minutes after the first 10 minutes at the higher temperature.

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My copy of the Bread Bible is well worn and I am doing well, in fact great, with every recipe except the Hearth Bread recipe. I keep trying, but the outcome is always too chewey, has lots of little holes and I cannot achieve a 4.5 inch oven rise. Best rise is 4 inches and usually 3 1/2. I double the recipe and the only deviation is that recently I have been adding a teaspoon of malt powder. I add 2 2/3 cups water, but noted that the "sticky dough" note suggests adding 1 1/4 cups water instead of 1 and 1/2. Should the single loaf recipe be 1 1/3 cup or 1 1/2 cups water? Could it be that I have been using too little water all this time? I bake it for about 28 minutes and use the skewer test to see if done.

Thank you.

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Hi Pam,
The cake Bible has a Chocolate Cherry Almond Pound Cake page 32 and The Bread Bible page 408 as a Dried Cranberry and Walnut Bread which with dried cherries on a direct substitution.

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Dear Rose,
I am a big fan of your bread bible book. I make bread for all my friends and relatives and everyone loves your recipes.
I am looking for a Cherry nut Cake recipe. (My favorite cake) Checked both your cake books on Amazon and did not see a recipe in the index. Can you advise?
Thank You!!
Pam Slomka

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Hi Judy,
If you roll them in your hand, or if the cookie dough is soft enough the sugar will stick.

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Hi Cutegal,
All of your questions are covered in the Cake Bible and Rose's Heavenly Cakes in any given recipe. The ingredients section, chapter introductions, and other sections of the books cover substitutions and pan preparation.

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would like to ask regarding your perfect choc butter cake recipe:

1. cocoa powder - is it ok to use dutch-processed?
2. sugar - castor sugar or granulated?
3. butter - melted or softed?
4. pan - can i use (4) 6" pan? how to adjust baking time?
5. preparing pan - how to flour the pan? cocoa powder ok?

Thank you very much. am baking this for the 1st time, would appreciate if you can offer additional tips. thanks.

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I will be making sugar cookies and will be topping with coarse sugar before baking - what is your recommendation to keep the sugar on the cookie? I have done before and just sprinkled it directly on, but end up losing quite a bit after they bake.

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Hi Christina,
We recommend Paula Wolfert's recipe which you see is one of the first listings if you Google Canele de Bordeaux. Along with the recipe, she gives some history and her experiences with researching and making it. Rose always trusts anything that comes from Paula Wolfert!

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Rose,
Ever since the "Cake Bible" was first published and I followed the first of many of its recipes I have "enjoyed" the simple to follow instructions but most of all the RESULTS. I love to cook and learned to bake many cakes & breads following your "bibles". From time to time I come across to something "different" and normally can find a recipe -sooner or later. This time seems that I have stumbled and have not been able to find a recipe for the "canelé de Bordeaux". I just saw your post about the caramel pot and thought that you might be able to point me in the right direction since its sort of a small cake enclosed by a thin caramelized shell!!!

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Hi Holly,
The Cake Bible has several ganache and buttercreams variations incorporating praline, which the index references hazelnuts to praline.
On the Nutella, give it a try. We would love to hear your findings.

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Rose,
Ever since the "Cake Bible" was first published and I followed the first of many of its recipes I have "enjoyed" the simple to follow instructions but most of all the RESULTS. I love to cook and learned to bake many cakes & breads following your "bibles". From time to time I come across to something "different" and normally can find a recipe -sooner or later. This time seems that I have stumbled and have not been able to find a recipe for the "canelé de Bordeaux". I just saw your post about the caramel pot and thought that you might be able to point me in the right direction since its sort of a small cake enclosed by a thin caramelized shell!!!

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I am looking for a hazelnut type of filling. Does anyone know of any from the cake bible?

I was thinking of using the mousseline recipe and adding nutella but not sure how the buttercream will react?

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Natalie, there are 2 ways: there is a box to un-0check @ the bottom of the page, just under the box 'remember me next time' . Also, my email shows a link under the 'view the entire entry' link to 'cancel the subscription.'
Does that make sense?

http://adventuresingoodfood.wordpress.com/

kyle

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Help! I am getting notified by email of every comment and question posted here. How do I modify my personal settings to make it stop? If I could go back to my original comment I'd uncheck the box, but I can't. Thanks!

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hi, your basil pesto recipe says 200 grams of fresh basil but in terms of cup measurement it says 14 cups. Im confused? !4 cups of basil cant be 200 grams? Other ingredients in the recipe are also not clear measurement wise.(grams and cups) Please clarify or update recipe.

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Greetings.
Every now and then I wander away from _The Cake Bible_ and try a different cake recipe, usually from a 50+ year-old cookbook. What I can't quite come to terms with, however, is whether to convert a shortening to butter measurement by volume (as written) or by weight (for as I learned from Rose, shortening weighs less than butter).
I look forward to learning from you.

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Hello Rose,

I have all of your books and I am a huge fan. I am contacting you from Calgary, Alberta Canada.
I am in the middle of making your croissants. I was wondering (because I have started my turning so late in the day) if it is possible to rest the dough after the final turn over night or if it is best to shape and then freeze if that is possible? I will be doing croissants until the wee hours of the morning!!
Thank you

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Hi ZL,
The stated recipe uses 30 grams / 30 ml of sour cream, but notes you can add more for a moister cake. Have you made it before using this amount?
Another variable here for a more liquidy batter are the ripeness of the bananas, especially if you are using defrosted frozen bananas which will have more water.
You may need to cut back on the sour cream if the bananas have a lot of liquid.

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Oh ya! Forgot to add that my cake batter appeared alot more watery than yours..

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Hi Rose, I recently tried making your cordon rose banana cake, but the texture came out very gummy and wet! I used about 80ml sour cream.. Any ideas what might have gone wrong?? It definitely wasn't underbaked as i baked it for a rather long period of time... Thanks!

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Rose-

After my last attempt at a from-scratch cake recipe, I think I'm giving up! I simply cannot find a recipe that is as light and moist as the boxed version.

I truly appreciate all things from-scratch; not only do I believe they are better for us, but I also feel a sense of pride when serving them.

If you were going to suggest one cake from your Cake Bible that would renew my faith in from-scratch cakes, which one would it be?

I would really like a simple yellow, lemon or white cake recipe.

Sincerely,

Lori

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Hi .. I always bake the All occasion yellow cake for my children's birthday. Have not had a problem with converting to a recatangular pan (9x13) as per the instructions given. However this time I need to bake in an 8x8 inch square pan which is 3inches deep. Any idea on how to convert?

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Hi Rose,
I have a question and hope you can help me. I try to educate myself about baking and i have tried almost 11 recipes for vanilla cupcake. I feel like I can not find the right recipe. I want a recipe which comes out like one of the favorite cupcake place in NY. Do you think that they use cake flour instead of all purpose?They always say vanilla is the easy one but I am not sure any more :( Help. thank you

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Hi Rose,

On Sony ebook store site, there is your book "Rose's Heavenly Cakes", and also an "Enhanced Version" of the book which costs less.

Even though I already have the printed book, having a digital version of it would come in handy when I go out of town visiting friends to show off my talent, thanks to you.

I tried to contact Sony to find out the difference between the two versions, but they don't have a clue. Do you have any idea what the enhanced version has that the regular version doesn't?

David

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I think I am going to use your "Party-Perfect Pound Cake" instead.

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I want to make the zucchini muffins from the Cake Bible. But instead of the cake flour (6 ounces) used in the original recipe, I would like to use all whole wheat pastry flour (or even just regular whole wheat flour if that would be possible). Will this work, and if so, should I make any other adjustments to the recipe?

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Hi Gary,
We used the 6 cup bundt because we could not achieve an acceptable cake in that it overbrowns in the more common 10 cup bundt.

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Hi Rose,
I would like to bake the chocolate streusel cake from Rose's Heavenly Cakes. I have the Nordicware anniversary bundt pan that is 10 to 15 cups capacity. Will it come out alright if I increase the capacity of the batter by 50%? Should I also increase the capacity of the chocolate streusel filling by 50% or will the filling come out undesireably thick?

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Hi Holly,
When we say "if using a hand mixer", we mean with the hand mixer's regular beaters. However, you will also need to beat at high speed. Please read Rose's Heavenly Cakes page 7 for increased mixing times.

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Help! My kitchen aid stand mixer hasn't returned from repairs and I have to make the velvet marble cake today x2

can anyone suggest appropriate beaters to use as my hand mixer doesn't have a paddle attachment.

Any help is appreciated!

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Dear Rose,

In reference to bleached cake flour - have you tried King Arthur's unbleached cake flour? I find it works beautifully with your recipes. I really don't like the smell of bleached flours. Thoughts? Kind regards, Mary

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Dear Rose:
I am going to bake enough cake for 100 servings of Strawberry Shortcake. I was going to use your recipe "Nancy Blitzer's Classic American Sponge Cake" and make it 10 times. Each person would receive a slice of cake (laid on its side) with some whipped cream and strawberries on top. Would it be possible to make this cake in a 9 x 13 pan? The only reason I would want to do this is because I only have one angel food pan and would like to bake two cakes at a time in my oven (gas). I am not a commercial baker but am donating my time to baking the dessert for a volunteer appreciation dinner. The dinner is Saturday, 18Jun. I was going to start baking these cakes on Monday, 13Jun. I can't bake on Friday because I am also making 200 dinner buns and will need my oven that day for the buns. Any guidance would be appreciated. Thank you. (PS I have had your "Cake Bible" since 1988 and have made almost all the cakes in it. Each one has been a complete success with lots of hmmmms from friends and family. My book is so well used that the binding has split in a number of places but that's OK because I still use it again and again!)
Crystal

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Ok... forget this question. My tired brain was getting caught up in the note and interpreting too literally. You obviously meant 100% a/p flour in place of the cake flour/ a/p flour combo. Silly me. Shouldn't start baking so late at night!

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Deep Chocolate Passion Wedding Cake, RHC

The recipe calls for bleached a/p flour with a note. The note says that 100% bleached a/p flour can be used, but... Is there something other than 100%? The way it is written sounds as if the recipe should either be unbleached a/p flour or specify a certain percentage.

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PS. I have kept whipped cream in the fridge for several days and had it be as together as the day it was whipped or seperate a little bit. Right now, I have about a cup of whipped cream that has about 1/2 tsp. of separation. It was whipped on Sunday and it is now Tuesday. I am sure with more precise proportions you could hit on the perfect balance that would probably keep it together for a few days at least.

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Hi Rose, I have been an avid fan of yours for many years and have learned a lot from your writings. As a writer of technical (midwifery in my case) books myself, I can appreciate so much your detailed step by step style.

I have been wanting to let you know for some time that Corsiban, the stuff to keep whipped cream from separating, works just great in ultrapasturized cream, in fact in any kind of cream I have ever used. I have used it for years like this, ever since I first learned about it from the Cake Bible. I just add a lot more than the amount you recommend. Nothing too specific, I just squirt it in in a stream, probably to the count of 3 or 4 slowly. That is usually enough for a pint of cream (you will probably want to experiment and get more precise for your books). Then sometimes I add a little more for good measure. It never has failed me. I thought you would want to know, as the fact that it works so well vastly simplifies dealing with stabilizing whipped cream (I noted all those ways to do so in Heavenly Cakes) as it is undetectable in the cream.

Thanks for all your work in the kitchen, from which I have benefited so much. I am glad to learn of the blog (just bought Heavenly Cakes and have been reading it).

Sincerely,

Anne Frye

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I am baking cookies, ginger in particular for wedding favours but they keep spreading in the oven and loosing their shape. Any suggestions how i can get them to keep their shape?

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Thanks so much Rose for the quick reply! So to make sure I have my math right, I'm looking at 1 X the recipe for every 8-8 2/3 cups capacity of pan, measuring my total volume of all the pans?

I'm much more comfortable with cake levelling than I am with adjusting baking powder - so I'm relieved to hear that won't need fiddling with.

Thanks again - Orly will be thrilled!

Best,
Felicity

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Great, thanks. It's a white cake with ganache and coffee buttercream in the inside with a mousseline icing. I may make white chocolate roses... If I make a 6" layer, 10" layer and a 14" layer then a 1/2" sheet of the same cake for the kitchen, would this be enough for 225 guests?

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I'm making a wedding cake for my niece this summer and would like to decorate it with real flowers, are there some that are not recommended to use? Should I seek out an organic grower?

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PS Just realized it might not be obvious that I hope to use the lovely-looking Red Velvet Cake recipe from Heavenly Cakes.

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Hi Rose,

It seems I've been baking a Rose cake for my daughter every year since birth, and this year with her 12th and her bat mitzvah we have the need for a very special cake. She has her heart set on a tiered red velvet cake. Before I embark on this (this will be my first tiered cake - eeeeeeeeeeeee wondering if I need my head examined!) I wanted to check a few things. As the particular party this cake is destined for is not going to involve a huge number a people (probably 30 max), I am thinking about an 8" bottom layer and a 5" top layer. (If there's a different combination that would look more elegant, I'm all ears).

First, I see I'm going to need tapered bottom round pans as there isn't enough batter for my straight sided Chicago Metallics - just confirming that one!

Second, I see from the wedding section of my tattered copy of the Cake Bible that the baking powder needs to be adjusted for each pan (mind is starting to boggle here :0). Will this definitely be true for the Red Velvet cake in Heavenly Cakes and is it an easy fix?

Thank you profusely in advance!

All the best,
Felicity

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Thanks you very much Rose.I will try to make the carrot cake.And thanks for a wonderful book.This is the best book!I love the coconut and white chocolate cake recipes,they are perfect.
Kim

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I have The Cake Bible and Rose's Heavenly Cakes and have found the recipes excellent as well as the detailed instruction and insight into baking. The Pie and Pastry Bible will be my next purchase. I was wondering when you plan on coming out with your next book and what will it be about?

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I watched your video's on bread baking at You Tube. A pop up appeared and said to order the video to send $10.00 to myyellowkitchen@gmail.com through Paypal. I checked your site to order the video and nothing comes up when I click on Videos. So I went back and ordered. The confirmation came back from a Hector Wong. So, did I get duped?

Lillian

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Hi Rose:
I have your book RHC.I would like to make the classic carrot cake in a 11x15 sheet pan.I don't know if that is possible.Do I need to just doble all ingredients.

Thanks!
Kim

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Dear Rose, I have made a cooked version of a candy coconut ice which turned out quite brittle I would like to know how to achieve a more softer version. Thank you

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Please advice me, I have made some cooked version of coconut ice how can I make it softer as mine was quite brittle?

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Spicy cake with peanut butter frosting is DELICIOUS. I made one yesterday while searching in frustration for the chocolate cake recipe, but none the less this cake is delicious. I just love the concept of a one layer cake. Thank you Rose for this delicious recipe.

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I'm having a hard time finding a white cake recipe just like the ones you get from the boxes. Does anyone know of a good white cake recipe that doesn't take eggy?

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Hi again,

Thank you for your suggestion. I tried 15cm (almost 6-inch) All-Occasion Downy Yellow Butter Cake today and it worked fine! It was little over baked and shrunk the side but it's on my baking skill. I can bake it better at next time:) Thank you!

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Could someome please tell me what the name of the chocolate cake is that is in the left had side of the home page and also is featured in the video where Ms. Levy takes a bite. I also would like to know which book it came from as I only have the bread bible at the moment. thank you and thank you Ms. Levy

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Your bread bible is an essential ingredient in baking bread, full of information and written like a novel. Congratulations. You website is an even greater treasure.
A comment on the bible, though. The Pumpernickel featured is in fact dunkles Bauernbrot, not Pumpernickel at all. Pumpernickel, made only in Westphalia, is a dark, fine ground rye, pan, very slow baked bread without a crust. And you hear-spelled what dad told you: it actually is "altes Brot", not "altus brat". You may want to correct that in the next edition of your otherwise fabulous Bread Bible.

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Dear Rose,

Since years I am looking for the receipe of a special pastry called CAROLINA. It is the most favourite pastry in the Basque Country but I could not find anywhere its receipe, just as it would be a secret! Did you ever had the pleasure to taste them? Here you can see how it looks like (first photo): http://tequedasacenar.com/pasteles-de-bilbao/
You should imagine it like a merengue, but very creamy and without bubbles inside. It is also very stiff, because it must stay on the rice-pastry on the bottom... I really do not know if the trick is the kind of sugar or the cooking in the hoven...Do you have any suggestion?
I could also say that the consistence and flavour of CAROLINAS is very close to the filling of the chocolate-coated marshmallows treats...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chocolate-coated_marshmallow_treats

Thanks for your advice!

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Hi Rose,

I'm live in Tokyo and I'm enjoying the baking cakes and pies with The Cake Bible and The Pie and Pastry Bible. But I have a only small electric oven (22L size) because of my small kitchen space.
My oven can complete 21cm size (8 ~9 inch) sponge cakes within 30minutes at 180℃. (My oven is available only 160℃ or 180℃)These cakes have nice and smooth texture and rise evenly without center sinking.
But I can't bake the butter cakes and the pies without some problems. The bottom of pies are always slightly dissolved and the butter cakes in a large cake pan require more than 70minutes to be completed always have damp heavy bottoms. I can make very good cupcakes with your butter cake recipe. They are really fine! I'm dreaming to bake your hall cake with velvety texture at home.
Then I found your answer for the soggy bottom pie crust here.
So I tried KARMEL CAKE from RHC , to put the cake pan on the bottom of the oven for first 20 minutes at this time.The result is, the center top of the cake cram was slightly damp instead of bottom in 65 minutes baking time. It was better than before but still not good... I don't know what to do, so any help would be appreciated. And I say sorry for my bad English. Thank you.

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Rose, Just had to tell you how much we enjoyed Elliott's Favorite 3 Bean & Corn Salad for lunch today! It is so great and the combination of beans was just marvelous. I had to slap r's hand's throughout the afternoon bc every time I turned my head, he was sneaking another taste(I left the spoons in the bowl for tossing as it macerated). I see why Elliott loved it so much. I will be making it several times this summer. Thanks for the "Celebration" of summer!

http://adventuresingoodfood.wordpress.com/

k

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Hi Rose,
I'm not sure about this: ROSE's Heavenly Cake, page 357, about Deep Chocolate Rosebuds, under 'Fill the molds', stated that 'dab 1 tsp/5g of the ganache onto the center of each...'. Isn't it that the ganache is filling inside the cake. Sorry that I couldn't imagine. Thanks.

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