They come for her cakes, they stay for his singing
Cake Recipes from Linda Chernin-Rosenblatt
Triple-Chocolate Mousse Cake
1/2 cup Chocolate Syrup
1 pkg. Chocolate Cake Mix
1 cup Water
1/3 cup Oil
7 Eggs, divided
1/2 cup Sour Cream
1 pkg. (8 oz.) Cream Cheese, softened
1 cup Sugar
1 can (12 oz.) Evaporated milk
4 squares Semi-Sweet Chocolate, melted
Preheat oven to 375ºF.
Spray a 12-cup fluted tube pan with cooking spray; pour in chocolate syrup. Beat cake mix, water, oil and 3 eggs with mixer 2 min. or until well blended; blend in sour cream. Pour over syrup in pan. Beat cream cheese and sugar with mixer until well blended. Add remaining eggs; mix well. Blend in evaporated milk and melted chocolate; gently spoon over cake batter. Cover with foil sprayed with cooking spray, sprayed-side down. Place tube pan in a large pan. Add enough water to larger pan to come at least 2 inches up side of tube pan. Bake 1 hour 30 min. or until toothpick inserted near center comes out clean. Cool completely in pan on wire rack. Refrigerate 2 hours.
How to release the cake
Use a long thin spatula to loosen the cooled cake from side of pan. Place a plate over the cake pan and invert cake onto plate. Gently remove pan. Spoon any chocolate syrup remaining in pan over cake.
SOUR CREAM COFFEE CAKE
1/4 Lb. Butter
1 Cup Sugar
2 Eggs
1 ½ Cups Cake Flour
1 ½ Tsp. Baking Powder
1/4 Tsp. Salt
1 Cup Sour Cream
1 Tsp. Baking Soda
¼ Cup Sugar
1 Tbsp. Cinnamon
Crushed Walnuts Or Pecans
Preheat Oven to 350 Degrees.
Grease a 9"x 9" pan or 10-inch springform pan. Cream together butter, 1 cup sugar and eggs. Sift together cake flour, baking powder, and salt and then add to butter mixture. Mix sour cream and baking soda, and add to batter. Pour ½ the batter into a greased baking pan. Mix cinnamon and ¼ cup sugar together. Sprinkle some over the batter in pan and pour the rest of the batter and sprinkle with remaining cinnamon mixture. Cover with crushed nuts. Bake 35 minutes for 9 x 9 or 30 minutes for 10 inch springform pan.
By Tamarah Feder
The environment of a hospital is dictated in great part by the personalities of the people who comprise its community of patients, staff and volunteers. We all have something to bring. Volunteer Linda Chernin-Rosenblatt has been bringing people together twice a week at the Montreal General and Royal Victoria Hospitals in a unique and cozy environment that is part elegance and part campfire with the Cedar’s CanSupport Tea@2. For the past five years, Chernin-Rosenblatt who is an extraordinarily talented baker with a generous heart has been baking a sumptuous feast of cakes for patients and staff tackling cancer.
Each Tuesday and Thursday, Linda sets up a table with cakes, cookies and squares she has spent days preparing and lays them out with carefully brewed tea and delicate floral china cups.
Chernin-Rosenblatt had been hosting the event with help from a music therapist. But when the therapist was no longer available – and a karaoke machine just didn’t cut it – she called on her husband to provide a more human touch. So it was that rare disease researcher Dr. David Rosenblatt got to spend more time with his wife and patients making this a family event in every sense of the word. And having a great singing voice is absolutely not a prerequisite to join in. Chernin-Rosenblatt likes to recall how Leroy, a friend of an MUHC cancer patient, used to make frequent trips from the Southern United States to visit his friend. Leroy made it a point to attend Tea@2 with his buddy. One day, Leroy not realizing the crooner was her husband, leaned into Chernin-Rosenblatt as the doc was belting out tunes. “I love this guy,” he confided, “Especially cuz he don’t even know he can’t sing!” Who can sing well with a mouthful of Triple Chocolate Mousse Cake, anyway?
Chernin-Rosenblatt and her husband and other volunteers have helped create a space that gives people timeout from dealing the hardships of their battle with cancer. “It feels really nice to be able to do this. To give patients and their families a pleasant distraction from what they are dealing with,” she says, as her eyes well up a bit. “It’s only for a brief period, but it gives them a chance to not think about disease or treatments."
A consummate hostess, Chernin-Rosenblatt keeps an eye out to make sure everyone who comes in is welcomed and offered something to eat and drink. She sits down only briefly to chat about her volunteer work, as fellow volunteer Kathy Beauchamp makes sure everyone’s tea cup is full.
Originally from Newfoundland, Chernin-Rosenblatt has a creative and giving soul. Not only does she bake extravagant cakes for CanSupport, she is a master knitter and former yarn shop proprietor who is keen to share her enthusiasm and expertise. As a teenager, she met and fell in love with David Rosenblatt on a student trip. She noted how different he was from her boyfriend at the time “who treated me like a queen, but David made me feel like a queen”. There is an obvious deep admiration and affection between the two that has carried over to Tea@2. As she talks about her husband and how much this chance to make a difference together means, he is on the other side of the room, caught up with about eight other people singing Elvis Presley’s “Love me Tender”.
Chernin-Rosenblatt’s kindness has been recognized with the Director General’s Award – but you won’t hear it from her. It is her husband who proudly displays his wife’s award on his office shelf at the MGH.
View a CTV news story about Tea@2
Read the profile about Dr. David Rosenblatt.