2009.10.12
Cookbook Giveaway!!
All the bakers in the house, say "Mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm!!"
That's what I said when I opened the box this morning and pulled out "Rose's Heavenly Cakes" by Rose Levy Beranbaum, author of "The Cake Bible." The image on the front is enough to drive a sweet tooth wild, but just wait until you crack it open and see the glorious, glossy photos and recipes contained within. Chocolate Feather Bed Cake with four layers of chocolate ganache, anyone? How about Individual Pineapple Upside Down cakes? Lemon Meringue Cake? Chocolate Genoise with Peanut Butter Whipped Ganache? Are you saying, "Mmmmmmmmmmmm" yet?
This is a cookbook for the serious dessert bakers among us -- most of the recipes are pages long. But every element that goes into each recipe, from the Chocolate Snowball Hot Fudge Sauce to the Coconut Cookie Crust to the Vanilla Cognac Syrup, are done from scratch and explained in great detail. I'll share a recipe from the book if I can find one that won't take me all day to type up.
Interested in winning this $40 hardcover book for your collection? Leave a comment on this post before 5 p.m. Wednesday and I'll choose a name at random. Good luck!
Chocolate Streusel Coffee Cake
Makes one small Bundt-style cake and two cupcakes
Chocolate Streusel Filling:
3 Tbsp. firmly packed light brown sugar
2 Tbsp. plus 1 1/2 tsp. (sifted before measuring) unsweetened cocoa powder
1/4 tsp. cinnamon
In a small bowl, stir together the brown sugar, cocoa and cinnamon. Use a fork or your fingers to break up the sugar, if necessary.
Batter:
1 3/4 cups (sifted into the cup and leveled off) bleached all-purpose flour
1 1/2 tsp. baking powder
1/4 plus 1/8 tsp. baking soda
1/4 tsp. salt
8 Tbsp. (one stick) unsalted butter, softened
1 cup superfine sugar
1 large egg, at room temperature
1 large egg white at room temperature
Pure vanilla extract
1 cup sour cream
Special equipment: One 6-cup fluted metal tube pan, coated with baking spray and lightly floured. Also, 2 cupcake liners set in ramekin or custard cups.
Preheat oven 20 minutes or more before baking. Set an oven rack in the lower third of the oven and preheat oven to 350 degrees (325 degrees if using a dark pan).
In a medium bowl, whisk the flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt just until lightly combined.
In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the flat beater, cream the butter on medium-high speed for one minute. Beat in the sugar slowly, taking about 2 minutes to beat it in, then beat for another 2 minutes. With the mixer off, pour in the egg, egg white and vanilla and scrape down the sides of the bowl. Beat on medium speed for 1 minute, scraping down the sides of the bowl as needed.
With the mixer off between additions, add the flour mixture together with the sour cream in three parts. Beat each addition starting on low speed until the dry ingredients are moistened, then raise the speed to medium and beat for 15 seconds. Scrape down the sides of the bowl after each addition.
Spoon batter into the cupcake liners to fill halfway. Sprinkle each with 1 tsp. of the streusel filling and drop a spoonful of batter on top. Use a small offset spatula or the back of a spoon to smooth the batter. The batter should fill the liner almost to the top.
Using a silicone spatula or spoon, scrape about half of the remaining batter into the tube pan and smooth the surface evenly. Sprinkle the remaining streusel filling evenly over the batter, making a ring around the center of the batter to keep most of the streusel away from the outside and inside edges. Drop the remaining batter in large blobs over the filling and spread evenly.
Bake for 40 to 50 minutes (20 to 25 for the cupcakes) or until the cake just begins to come away from the sides of the pan. In the cupcake liners, the cakes should spring back when pressed lightly in the center.
Let the cakes cool on wire racks in their pan and liners for 10 minutes. With a small metal spatula, loosen the top edges of the large cake and invert it onto a wire rack that has been coated lightly with nonstick cooking spray. Cool completely.
ohh me!
Comment by Amanda — October 12, 2009 @ 11:05 am
Marvelous cover. Are the recipes as good as the photo?
Comment by Tamara — October 12, 2009 @ 11:30 am
Anything chocolate is mmarvelous!!!
Comment by Carolyn Csorba — October 12, 2009 @ 11:35 am
I love chocolate anything/everything. If the picture on the cover is just a preview of what is inside .... then "heavenly" must be the correct book title.
Comment by Pat — October 12, 2009 @ 11:51 am
mmmmm I love cake!!!
Comment by Julie F — October 12, 2009 @ 12:18 pm
Thanks for the recipe and the chance to win the book! You are too precious and I so enjoy reading your columns and blog.
Comment by Sandi Saunders — October 12, 2009 @ 12:51 pm
mmmmmmme too!
Comment by ginny — October 12, 2009 @ 12:59 pm
Oooh, me!!! My coworkers would both hate and love me!!!
Comment by cynthia — October 12, 2009 @ 1:17 pm
oh, man, rose levy beranbaum is my hero. i'm throwing my hat in the ring.
Comment by seth — October 12, 2009 @ 1:48 pm
What a great addition to anyone's shelf AND just in time for the holidays!
Comment by Candice — October 12, 2009 @ 2:28 pm
Thanks for sharing a recipe.
I've occasionally checked your blog but this is my first time posting. (Gotta admit, the cookbook giveaway is what got me here this time.)
Good luck, everybody!
Comment by Anna — October 12, 2009 @ 2:31 pm
Welcome, Anna!
Comment by Lindsey Nair — October 12, 2009 @ 2:41 pm
I really like the names of recipes - Chocolate Feather Bed Cake - love it! I got a new stove a few weeks ago and have been baking a lot now that the thermostat works correctly. Thanks so much for posting a new recipe to try!
Comment by Angela — October 12, 2009 @ 2:42 pm
Oh, Rose Levy Beranbaum is phenomenal! If this book is anything like her bread book, it'll be totally worth spending all afternoon in the kitchen for.
Comment by Emma — October 12, 2009 @ 3:04 pm
Yummy--who doesn't love cakes??!! Thanks for picking the receipe for the chocolate streusel coffee cake. Chocolate cake is definitely the best!!!!
Comment by Julie — October 12, 2009 @ 3:44 pm
Comment by Amy Nicely — October 12, 2009 @ 4:33 pm
Omg I loved her cake bible and the thought of this one being added to the other one makes me drool!!
Comment by Christy — October 12, 2009 @ 4:48 pm
That sounds like a good cookbook! And a perfect BD present for wifey!
Comment by Dennis — October 12, 2009 @ 6:18 pm
Would love to add Heavenly Cakes to my cookbook shelf, anything chocolate and sweet is heavenly! Love your blog Lindsey!
Comment by David — October 12, 2009 @ 6:30 pm
Sounds interesting. Diabetics need to eat too.
Comment by Roy Lindamood — October 12, 2009 @ 7:38 pm
What a lovely cover!
Comment by Diana — October 12, 2009 @ 8:28 pm
Ooooh! I'm random, pick me! Love your blog Lindsey
Comment by Laura — October 12, 2009 @ 8:59 pm
Thanks for sharing the recipe!
Comment by Michelle — October 12, 2009 @ 9:29 pm
As a first time visitor to your site, it is great to have a chance to win a nice book by such a noted author. I will be visiting Roanoke for the first time in a few weeks. Was looking at your paper to check out things to do and see while there.
Comment by Liba — October 12, 2009 @ 10:34 pm
Ohh that sounds so yummy!!
I'd love to win this cookbook, thanks for the chance!
Comment by SiSi — October 12, 2009 @ 11:03 pm
Great post, I'd love to create any of the recipes you mentioned. Thanks for the opportunity to win........
Comment by Kimberly — October 12, 2009 @ 11:30 pm
Wow the cake on the cover looks so good. I would love to make the recipes in the book.
Comment by Eve — October 13, 2009 @ 1:11 am
just putting my name in the drawing. would love to learn to perfect probably the hardest job in the kitchen... baking.
Comment by Jason — October 13, 2009 @ 2:24 am
I saw the streusel filling ingredients, read them too quickly, and thought - hell yeah, I'd eat that cake. Too early in the morning to think clearly.
Comment by Amy — October 13, 2009 @ 6:06 am
Sounds like one I would like to cook my way through from front to back!
Comment by Lynda — October 13, 2009 @ 7:09 am
I love "Cake Bible" -- had no idea she had another book coming out. Thanks for posting!
Comment by Colleen — October 13, 2009 @ 7:10 am
That looks heavenly!
Comment by Jessica Alley — October 13, 2009 @ 7:50 am
OMG, now I am craving chocolate.
Comment by Melissa — October 13, 2009 @ 7:52 am
This would be a neat cookbook to add...I love baking cakes from scratch.
Comment by Jackie P — October 13, 2009 @ 7:57 am
This looks fabulous! Thanks for the chance to win!
Comment by Stacey D. — October 13, 2009 @ 8:31 am
Yummy.... Beautiful cover for the book. Can't wait to try this receipe.
Comment by Lori M. — October 13, 2009 @ 8:43 am
I love to make cakes,can't wait to try a recipe. : )
Comment by Faith — October 13, 2009 @ 8:58 am
I'm such a huge fan of Rose Birenbaum. Her "Bread Bible" rocks!
Comment by Lisa — October 13, 2009 @ 9:01 am
So early in the day and my mouth is watering at all of the good sounding receipes you mentioned in your article about this cookbook.
And whose mouth wouldn't after reading "Chocolate Snowball Hot Fudge Sauce to the Coconut Cookie Crust to the Vanilla Cognac Syrup"? Yummy!
Comment by Flo — October 13, 2009 @ 9:28 am
Those recipes sound heavenly and just in time for holiday baking.
Comment by Carolyn Nelson — October 13, 2009 @ 9:32 am
Chocolate is my favorite!!! So the cover looks divine!
Comment by Lisa — October 13, 2009 @ 10:20 am
I want to know more about the Coconut cookie crust, maybe my husband will make it for me if we win the book!!
Comment by Becky — October 13, 2009 @ 10:26 am
This looks like a lovely book. And anything with chocolate will be even better. I am sure that my four little boys will love the recipes.
Comment by Carter's mom — October 13, 2009 @ 10:34 am
I LOVE TO BAKE AND SHARE.
Comment by Sharon — October 13, 2009 @ 11:13 am
Don't judge a book by its cover? Who wouldn't want that book?
Comment by Celia Brown — October 13, 2009 @ 11:23 am
i will be making this chocolate streusel cake soon! yum!!
Comment by angie — October 13, 2009 @ 12:54 pm
would love this book for the holidays!
Comment by Rocc — October 14, 2009 @ 11:07 am