'Rose's Heavenly Cakes' Is the Best Cookbook for the Dedicated Baker

Welcome to “Cookbook of the Week.” This is a series where I highlight cookbooks that are unique, easy to use, or just special to me. While finding a particular recipe online serves a quick purpose, flipping through a truly excellent cookbook has a magic all its own. 

It’s been a rough week. Some folks do yoga to shed anxiety, others go shopping, maybe donate to helpful organizations, or talk to friends. When I can’t hold it together, I usually step into the kitchen to bake. For an extra layer of support, I turned away from new cookbooks and ran for my old favorites. This week’s pick is Rose's Heavenly Cakes, an astounding collection of cake recipes from the one and only Rose Levy Beranbaum.

As you may or may not know, most of my professional career has been dominated by cake decorating. I always go savory for breakfast, but I’m a dessert girl through and through. Cakes have always been an edible form of creative expression for me. I love making a dessert that can satisfy the belly, but I think it’s equally important for it to look truly irresistible whether it’s for a wedding or for yourself. Cakes symbolize something special and I needed something especially comforting—a good cake should practically transport you into a Miyazaki film. So I flipped open Rose’s Heavenly Cakes, a book I bought at my very first job in New York City back when Barack Obama was president, and the future felt fresh. 

Rose's Heavenly Cakes at a glance

Rose Levy Beranbaum is legendary when it comes to practical cake baking and design. She’s one of the first (if not the first) to widely use the reverse creaming method—an alternative technique for making cake batter, where the fat is mixed into the flour before any liquid ingredients are added. Although her recipes are a mixed bag when it comes to the difficulty level, each and every one is a solid winner. In my experience using cookbooks, this is a rare quality indeed.

Beranbaum is no freshman when it comes to cookbook writing. Although Rose’s Heavenly Cakes was first published in 2009, she had already written six others. The first one being The Cake Bible which won Cookbook of the Year. Her first cookbook won Cookbook of the freakin’ Year. Rose’s Heavenly Cakes came 20 years later, with new bakes and upgrades to some of the staple recipes in her Cake Bible. Suffice to say, you can trust her recipes.

A great cookbook for the earnest cake baker

There is one very special aspect of this cookbook that I find invaluable, and it’s that she writes from the standpoint of a working professional writing for other professionals. That does not mean this book is only for you if you own a bakery. Rather, it’s for earnest cake bakers that aren’t screwin’ around. If you have questions like, “How many pounds or ounces is the finished batter so I can decide if I need to double the recipe?”—it’s in there. Most cake recipes tell you to split the batter evenly among two nine-inch pans. Have you tried eyeballing that? It stinks. Rose gives you how many ounces go in each pan. 

Furthermore, each recipe is written out in a clear, easy to read chart. The chart includes the ingredient, measurement by volume, and the measurement conversion to weight by ounces and grams (when applicable). For once the entire world of both measuring cup slingers and kitchen scalers can be happy.

If you prefer simple cake recipes with single sentence steps and loads of colorful photos, this cookbook will either bore you or overwhelm you. However, if you let it, it will also impress you.

The recipes you can expect 

Rose’s Heavenly Cakes provides a pleasant variety of cakes, like sponge cakes, cheesecakes, and individual-serving cakes. I wouldn’t call it an exhaustive list of all the classics (something like The Complete America’s Test Kitchen Cookbook can help you there), but a mix and match. It feels like Beranbaum hand-selected some of her favorite classics, like Tiramisù, German Chocolate Cake, and Yellow Butter Cupcakes, and tossed them in with her favorite twists and newer developments, like Rose Red Velvet Cake, Sticky Toffee “Pudding,” and Southern (Manhattan) Coconut Cake with Silk Meringue Buttercream. 

Though the recipes’ steps are nicely organized with bold sentence starters, be sure to read them completely. Most of the recipes are rather lengthy because they include the cake batter steps, followed by the icing, syrups, or fillings involved as a separate recipe with its own steps. Then she’ll tell you how she composed it. 

The dish I made this week

As I mentioned earlier, comfort food was in order. For once, I was baking with only myself in mind so I chose a cake just for me: the Southern (Manhattan) Coconut Cake with Silk Meringue Buttercream. Beranbaum writes in the headnote that typical Southern seven-minute frosting is too sweet for her, so she changed up the recipe to fit her Northern tastes. I fully subscribe to the elegant lightness of all meringue buttercreams. Though I’d never made this particular Silk Buttercream, I was on board with this cake. 

The first ingredient is six egg whites. Whenever I see that, I think, “Ugh, I guess I’m whipping and folding in egg whites.” Well I’m glad I read the first few steps before turning the page because, to my great surprise, that wasn’t the case. The egg whites get whisked into the coconut milk with no special treatment. It actually required fewer special steps than most cake batters I’ve grown used to. After the final spin in my stand mixer, I had a luscious, billowing coconut cake batter.

Beranbaum’s recipe indicates baking the batter in two nine-inch pans for a rather proper looking layer cake. I split it among three six-inch pans, and reserved two of the baked layers for another time (wrapped and frozen). One was for me. I didn’t trim the rounded top to make it flat like I would for a gift or an event. I simply split it in half and filled it with the glossy, yolk-fortified coconut frosting. A thicker layer than usual. I covered the domed upper layer with more, and used a star tip to add a special decorative touch along the edges. I left the sides bare, and finished it off with a crown of coconut ribbons. The cake was complete. It was (and continues to be) perfect. The reverse creaming method resulted in an even and dense crumb texture that effortlessly dissolves on my tongue. The coconut flavor is rich and subtle rather than cloying or sunscreen-y. It was exactly what I needed—to lose myself for a slice of time. A small reminder that I’m still capable of achieving and worthy of good things. 

How to buy it

One of the best things about older books is that you can buy them used for a very reasonable price. Considering it’s a hardcover and absolutely loaded with cake recipes from a living cake legend, $18 is well worth it. If it’s a gift or used isn’t your thing, get a brand new one here. For more books by Beranbaum, I suggest The Cake Bible which has just been updated and reprinted for its 35th anniversary.