Call it strange but in all my years of baking I'm pretty sure this is the first recipe I've ever made from Maida Heatter. Who is Maida Heatter? She's sometimes referred to as the "Queen of Desserts" and is the author of countless baking and dessert cookbooks. This specific recipe, one of her most famous, caught my attention recently when it was published in the New York Times.
It was the cake's name that really intrigued me. It was Maida's daughter who had originally found the recipe and sent it to her mother. In homage, Maida named the cake after the Upper East Side street where her daughter lived. Kind of cool, huh?
What I love about this recipe is that it calls for some really basic ingredients that everyone has in their kitchen at any given time. No fuss, no muss. The finished cake is really delicious with a tender and moist crumb.
If you're going to use an intricate bundt pan I highly recommend greasing it liberally to ensure the cake releases completely. I tend to use a lot of butter-flavored Crisco followed by a list dusting of flour. My cake came out of the pan like a dream with the beautiful pattern completely intact.
