The first round of voting goes through December 7 and then you'll be able to vote for one of the 10 finalists as the Best Book Cover of 2009. Please vote today!

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Thursday, November 19, 12:15 to 12:45 Signing Books at Kitchen Arts and Letters (If you can't make it in person, you can call 212-876-5550 and ask to have your book personalized. They ship!)

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

The German Chocolate Cake

The Ice Cream Sandwich Cake

The Designer Cupcakes

The Deep Chocolate Passion Wedding Cake

Preparing the Cake Pan for the Batter

The exceptionally liquid batter fills the pan only 1/4 to 1/3 full.

But, the batter rises to the top of the pan when baked.

Coating the sides of the pan with Baker's Joy (oil and flour) gives the smoothest sides but shrinks in slightly at the top.

Not coating the sides of the pan results in a rougher crumb but perfectly straight sides. If coating with butter cream this is the best choice but if using a non-stick pan and care the sides will look fine uncoated as well

If at all possible, make the recipe the way it is indicated. Don’t substitute ingredients before making it at least once to see the way it’s supposed to come out.

When preparing ingredients ahead, cover them with plastic wrap so that they don’t dry out or evaporate.

When a recipe calls for softened butter it means the butter should still feel cool but be easy to press down. This usually takes about 30 minutes at room temperature but slicing it in smaller pieces speeds up the process.

Unless a cake recipe indicates otherwise, it is important to use bleached flour for the best texture.

Cocoa should be sifted to remove lumps and make it easier to measure accurately.

If measuring flour rather than weighing it avoid tapping or shaking the cup. This would pack in much more flour and the cake would be heavy and dry.

To combine flour, salt, and leavening such as baking powder or baking soda evenly use a whisk.

Eggs vary greatly in size and also in proportion of yolk to white. Either use weight or volume especially when a recipe calls for all yolks. A recipe requiring 4 yolks may need as many as 7 if the yolks are very small.

To break eggs the most evenly without shattering the shell, set a paper towel on the counter top to absorb any white that will spill out and rap the side of the egg sharply on top of the towel. It will break more neatly than if rapping it against the edge of a bowl.

When separating eggs, pour each white into a smaller bowl before adding it to the larger amount of whites. If even a trace of yolk or grease gets into the white it will be impossible to beat stiffly. If a small amount of yolk should get into the white, use the eggshell to fish it out.

If the bowl in which you are beating the whites is not totally grease free, wet a paper towel, add a little vinegar to it and wipe out the bowl. Then rinse it and dry it well.

http://www.cookstr.com/users/rose-beranbaum/profile

I’ve been wanting to see my friend Jean François Bonnet’s chocolate factory for a few years now but the perfect opportunity finally presented itself when Woody was here in October for the Food Network’s Sweet Night. JF, who made the chocolate ingots (financiers)--the recipe that he contributed to Rose’s Heavenly Cakes, insisted that I bring Woody out to Brooklyn for a visit. And what a visit it was: We tasted many things and were sent home with two shopping bags filled with more!

When I first met JF he was a very young pastry chef from Provence France, working at The Monkey Bar in New York City. I was blown away by his chocolate financiers aka ingots served at the end of the meal—innocent looking little rectangles of dense chocolate cake that exploded with flavor in my mouth. They inspired me to write an article for Food Arts Magazine on the different varieties of financiers and when I interviewed JF about his I was stunned by his technical knowledge. He also confided in me that he was newly arrived in the country and that it was very difficult for people under 30 years of age to get immigration status. I immediately did everything I could to ensure he would stay in this country, including writing to the White House that we must not lose this culinary treasure. Stay he did and went on to become pastry chef, first at the wonderful restaurant Cello under chef Laurent Tourondel and then at one of the country’s top restaurants Daniel (chef/owner Daniel Boulud).

Forgot to mention on the Montréal posting that the cake strips are carried by Ares:
http://www.arescuisine.com

i love the title of this new cookbook and I love the author, Beth Lipton, even though we haven’t yet met except through this delightful book. At last, an author who has written her first cookbook, and even though it’s geared toward the beginning baker, is on the same page as I am concerning weights!

This bodes very well indeed for the increased trend toward weighing ingredients for baking rather than the far less efficient and potentially inaccurate measuring method. Not to worry, she also lists the traditional volume.

This is one of the most delicious chocolate cakes in the book but I found it a bit too tender so I have gone back to my original way of mixing layer cake batter (please see below). I also thought it would be of interest to know that the acidity of the brown sugar, crème fraîche, and unsweetened chocolate fully activates the baking soda leaving no characteristic slightly soapy taste.

Colette and I met over 21 years ago on a culinary trip to Japan. As a result of this trip Colette wrote a book on Japanese/French fusion cuisine and I wrote my first article for the New York Times on eating desserts in Tokyo. What a great treat to be acquainted with her daughter through the internet.

http://superchefblog.com/2009/10/28/rose-levy-beranbaum-roses-heavenly-cakes/

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

From Hector:

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

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

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

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

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

Happy Thanksgiving month everyone!

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