Curse of the Rosh Hashanah cake?

The synagogue I attended growing up publishes a Jewish cookbook and the book includes a tasty, honey cake that is easy to make. Yet, for the last couple years, I've decide to make fancier, more sophisticated cakes.

As you may remember, the Dorie Greenspan apple cake that I made in 2008 was a flop. The entire top of the cake stuck to the pan. You can see pictures and my open letter to Dorie Greenspan by clicking here.

For Rosh Hashanah this year, I decided to make a honey cake called the "Majestic and Moist New Year's Honey Cake." I found the recipe here on Epicurious. The recipe was published originally in Marcy Goldman's book, The Treasury of Jewish Holiday Baking.

Perhaps lulled by the title of the cake, I expected great results. When I opened the oven for the moment of truth, this is what I saw:

Check out the giant valley in the cake. Was my Rosh Hashanah cake baking cursed? Is this like a variation of the book of life? The book of competent bakers?

Luckily, when I flipped the cake over, it looked much better.

Hope you have a sweet new year and all your cakes turn out.

Open Letter to Dorie Greenspan

Dear Dorie,

I love your Midnight Crackle cookies.  When you met my friend, Leora, in Paris, you couldn't have been nicer.  You're friends with my culinary hero, Ina Garten.

So, when you wrote on p. 184 of Baking that I'd be "struck by the urge to pin a big blue ribbon" on your Double Apple Bundt Cake because it "looks, smells and tastes as though it would take first prize in a county fair," I knew that this cake was the one that would transform my Rosh Hashanah dinner from good to great.

Dorie, I regret to say that I feel completely bamboozled!  The cake might be delicious.  My guests will never know.  I followed your directions: buttering the pan, peeling apples, buying apple butter, making sure the butter was room temperature.  And then, after allowing the pan to cool for 5 minutes (as recommended), I flipped the bundt pan for the moment of truth.  And . . . only half the cake come out of the pan.

Maybe it was me.  Maybe I should have let the cake cool for longer.  Maybe I shouldn't have floured the bundt pan.  Maybe my apples were large, not medium.

After all, this is the season of forgiveness.  I will try to ice the cake and salvage the dessert.  I will head to Whole Foods and buy another dessert.  I will realize it was folly to try to impress a Paris-trained pastry chef.  

And next year, I will make a Barefoot Contessa dessert or maybe something from the Beth El cookbook.

L'shana tova,

SherriLynn