Rose Levy Beranbaum was at General Mills today to talk about Heavenly Cakes, her new book coming out next fall. If you're a baker, you're familiar with her name. For those who don't know, she’s also written The Cake Bible, The Bread Bible and The Pie and Pastry Bible and Rose’s Christmas Cookies, just to name a few. She’s a fellow blogger and get this: Her master's thesis was on flour sifting.
Obviously this woman knows a thing or two about baking.
We got a sneak preview (“sneak taste”?) of two recipes in her upcoming book. One was Devil’s Food Cake with Midnight Ganache and the other was Hearth Bread. I sampled the cake and it definitely fit in the category of “heavenly.”
Truth be told, I like to bake more than I like to cook, but the thought of baking bread terrifies me. I spoke with her after her presentation and she suggested I start with the bread recipe on the back of the Gold Medal Better for Bread package. (FYI: We--as in General Mills--make the flour; she created the recipe.) Me? Bake bread? Hmmmmmm....you never know.