This grapefruit cake with grapefruit buttercream is calling to me

The recipe is very different though...and the buttercream too. I never got to the Brown Derby smileys/frown.gif

 
I miss the Brown Derby. I never understood how they could tear it down. It was so LA.

And because of this post, the interwebz did it's magic. It led me to a post about Blum's Coffee Crunch Cake. Which reminded me of my childhood. Which led me to a search. Which led me to a blog about the cake. Which the baker's daughter responded to in the comments section. Which made me discover the baker who invented the famous crunch cake, also owned local fav Fantasia Confections Bakery. Which led me to find out he wrote a now out of print cookbook of his most requested recipes from the bakery. Which led me to find they still sell a downloaded copy version - for the price of a donation to a local children's charity.

Now how cool it that? The interwebz at work.

 
Coincidentally, there's a picture of my Bar Mitzvah cake in that book 'cause Ernie Weil would make

birthday, wedding and bar mitzvah cakes for all his oldest friends, four of which were my parents, my brother and I. "Uncle" Ernie gifted us with that Bar Mitzvah cake and my wedding cake. I spent several holidays working for him at Fantasia confections, his daughters were like my cousins and they were part of some of my fondest memories.

I have a copy of that book so if there are any recipes you'd like, I'd be happy to scan and pass them along or, I could contact the girls to see if there are any more available for sale. (I have 4 of Ernie's last florentine cookies in the freezer, waiting for a special occasion.)

 
Is it one of these? >>>>

I'd love to have a copy of the actual book, that place had such fond childhood memories, but I see it's long out of print, so planned to send them a check so I could download a copy.

It's really cool your cake is in the book, and we now have this whole six degrees of Ernie food thing, also my rambling interwebz post made you recall fond childhood memories too PLUS, sigh...you have cookies. How wonderful!!!!

http://www.lovetobakecookbook.com/

 
Here's the picture from the book, mine is on the bottom.

I remember those goodies now, so well. While it's been literally decades since I last had any of those cakes and pastries, they were unforgettable. Not only delicious and unusual but beautifully made and presented. Ernie used to send us these huge "care" packages when my family lived in AZ back in the 50's and the arrival of his goods was always a high point in otherwise ordinary Southwestern living. Good times.

http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7089/7001307473_a3a5a35592_z.jpg

 
deb, if you mean my "actual" Bar Mitzvah, there's nothing to see but a cave painting. Cameras had

not quite been invented back in the 60's. Or at least that's what my parents told me when I asked for pictures. What the . . . !?

 
While I don't read Hebrew, I suspect the calligraphy on the right says:

"No!! I'm not going to ruin a perfectly good pair of sandals walking across mud littered with dead fish! Moses said this whole "parting of the sea" thing was Steve's fault.

Next thing you know, we'll have frogs raining down on us, swarms of locust and Pay-Per-View."

 
Adding to the six degrees of separation on this subject...

I was just telling this story to a friend (who also grew up here locally) and she pipes up "Oh I have the recipe for the Blum's crunch cake" and said oh but is it the real one? And she says yes, because a friend of her mom owned the Carmel store and her brother worked there for a summer. She claims to have several recipes "somewhere" (including a toffee pie?) which I've sent her in search of.

Now I MUST have a copy of the book! It was meant to be! Tomorrow I'll try to figure out how to buy a downloaded version.

Did you see (if you follow the links in the LAtimes story) that someone in LA is selling both the Blum's and Brown Derby cakes?

http://www.valerieconfections.com/main.php?cPath=29

 
The LA Times has Valerie's recipe (of the Valerie in the website you posted, Maria) for this...

The photo looks different from the photo on the Valerie Confections site, but I am definitely intrigued. What other recipes is your friend sitting on?! smileys/smile.gif

Martha has a recipe, but I have my doubts as to whether it's authentic... Plus, Martha's cake looks a little sloppy. (Insert cackle of glee.)
http://www.marthastewart.com/338326/blums-coffee-crunch-cake

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/dailydish/2011/03/from-the-culinary-sos-archive-blums-coffee-crunch-cake.html

 
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