101 Things to Do with a Cake Mix (Spiral-bound)

by Stephanie Dircks Ashcraft (Author) "Preheat oven to 350 degrees..." (more)
Key Phrases: small box vanilla instant pudding, yellow cake mix, white cake mix, French Vanilla (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Review
"For those times you need to fix something fast "from scratch," turn to 101 Things to Do With a Cake Mix by Stephanie Ashcraft (Gibbs Smith, 2002). From Hawaiian Pineapple to luscious Lemonade Cake, the recipes are foolproof ways of faking homemade by using cake mix and on-hand ingredients. (First for Women )

#9 on The New York Times Best-seller List -- The New York Times, October 20, 2002

101 Things to do With a Cake Mix received Gourmet Fare's "Editor's Pick" award. -- Gourmet Fare Magazine, February 2003

The recipes are foolproof ways of faking homemade by using cake mix and on-hand ingredients. -- First for Women magazine, February 2003

These recipes take the cake. -- Salt Lake Tribune, October 23, 2002

Product Description
Move over Betty Crocker--101 Things to Do With a Cake Mix will amaze your friends and leave them Jell-O green with envy! From Snickers Surprise Cookies to Christmas Rainbow Poke Cake, it's the best thing to happen in the kitchen since your last romantic rendezvous! So what are you waiting for? Grab a cake mix, whip up some goodies, and throw some flour on your face so it looks like you spent days in the kitchen.

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Product Details

• Spiral-bound: 128 pages
• Publisher: Gibbs Smith (August 1, 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1586852175
• ISBN-13: 978-1586852177
• Product Dimensions: 7.1 x 5.5 x 0.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 6.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars See all reviews (23 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #42,100 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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  #4 in	Books > Cooking, Food & Wine > Regional & International > U.S. Regional > West
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• This item is part of The 101 Things Series.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

67 of 68 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Family-Oriented Fun With A Cake Mix, December 3, 2002

By	C. Bennett (New England) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

'101 Things to do with a Cake Mix' is as unique and fun as it's packaging. The book comes in a 7 1\2' by 5 1\2' size, with spiral binding and a plastic cover. The packaging makes the book extremely useful ' no propping the pages open or worrying about wrecking the cover by dropping cake batter all over it. All cookbooks should be this easy to bake with!

The book is great for a wide range of bakers, but parents will value this book as a treasure chest of family fun. The final chapter of the book is 'Children's Delights.' The recipes include 'Delicious Dirt', which is a recipe for a chocolate pudding cake, covered with 'dirt' (crushed Oreo cookies). There are seasonal recipes for holiday activities, such as 'Valentine Cookies,' 'American Flag Cake,' 'Halloween Spider Cake,' and even a 'Peppermint Cake.' The children's chapter will guarantee fun for cooking with your children during the holidays.

While baking from this book, two recipes in particular stood out: 'Heavenly Brownies' and 'Sweet Delights.' 'Heavenly Brownies' (page 25) is a classic cream-cheese brownie recipe, without the brownie mix. Ashcraft substitutes a chocolate cake mix in place of the traditional brownie mix. These brownies bake wonderfully, they are moist and decadent. The 'heavenly' twist in the name makes them ideal for church bake sales and Sunday school classes. I pack them in tins and give them away as 'care packages.'

The 'Sweet Delights' recipe (page 37) is a sure kid-pleaser. My test audience was my one-year-old nephew. He gobbled these cookies down, leaving behind nothing but a chocolate-covered giggle and fudgy handprints on his highchair. The cookies are moist, chewy, and don't involve measuring a large amount of ingredients. The recipe relies solely on a cake mix (of any flavor, I chose Devil's food), brown sugar, oil, eggs, and chocolate chips. They were almost too easy for how good they tasted. A winning recipe!

For fans of bundt cakes, Ashcraft includes recipes for eight different varieties of bundt cakes. 'Give me a bundt cake and no one gets hurt!' The recipes include classic favorites such as Death-By-Chocolate and Luscious Lemon. For newer favorites, there are Pistachio Pound Cakes and Cream-Cheese Lemon Pound Cakes. There is a variety of bundt cake in this chapter to please every palate.

On the whole, this cookbook relies on readily-accessible ingredients: cake mixes, brown sugar, eggs, oil, chocolate chips, powdered sugar, nuts, and flour. Some recipes, however, require planning as they use ingredients that you may not keep handy. Cherry pie filling, lemon instant pudding, wheat germ, cream cheese, and sour cream are examples of ingredients I did not have stocked as I perused the recipes.

My one difficulty with using this book is that there are no pictures. Not one. There's not even a smiling picture of the author. Not having a reference for colors and textures is aggravating, you have to guess your way along unfamiliar recipes. There is also no guide for decorating ideas. This requires a fair bit of experience and creativity on the part of the reader. However, the cover price makes it a bargain purchase, pictures of no pictures. The Helpful Hints section on page 9 also adds a lot of value to this innovative book.

29 of 29 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Pistachio Cake with Orange Cream Icing, December 5, 2003

By	Rebecca Johnson "SeasonedwithLove.com" (Washington State) - See all my reviews (TOP 10 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)    (COMMUNITY FORUM 04)

Stephanie Ashcraft's mother taught her "that anything could be made with a cake mix." It does seem to be true. This tiny, easy-to-read cookbook has recipes for everything from Chocolate Chip Cookies to Peppermint Cake. Stephanie teaches a cooking class entitled "101 Things to Do with a cake Mix" for Macey's Little Cooking Theatre in Provo and Orem, Utah.

There are a few helpful hints on page 9 that teach you a few tricks about baking cakes, making chewier cookies and keeping fruit fresh. I've never used glass or stoneware baking dishes for cakes, so that is a new idea for me. I've been buying my cake pans from "Jane's Cakes & Chocolates." The results were rather stunning when I used the pans she sells.

What amazes me about this cookbook is the sheer simplicity of the recipes and the absolute beauty of the results. Some of the recipes you might enjoy:

White-Chocolate Fudge Bars
Easy Snicker Doodles
Lemon-Lime Refrigerator Cake
Apple-Spice Cake
Valentine Love Cake (strawberry juice soaks into the cake)
Orange-Pumpkin Cake
Oatmeal-Raisin Muffins
Easy Ice Cream Sandwiches

It was quite by accident that I tried the recipe on "page 101" and took the cake to our Thanksgiving party. The recipe was for Pistachio Pound Cake and it turned out to be "Moist, chocolaty, pistachio, dream cake." My relatives were impressed. It is not every day that I try a new recipe and then bravely take the cake to a party, but this book looked like a winner. The ingredients are little more than a white cake mix and pistachio instant pudding. In fact, I made this so fast, I thought for sure I'd missed a few steps.

Well, there are really only three steps and 8 ingredients. It is the easiest cake I've ever made and the instant pudding and chocolate syrup take vanilla cake to new heights. Already my husband has asked me to make this cake again and I'm planning on making it and shipping it to friends and relatives.

While the cake is a pound cake, there is no reason why you can't make a orange cream icing by mixing two cups of confectioners' sugar with a little orange juice and cream until it is a smooth consistency. Then, pour over the top of the cake. A few sprinkles of orange zest and off to the party you go. I think this cake will ship very well and plan to try to ship it out to my homemade-cake-deprived friends. No, I'm not telling them this is made from a box mix!

All I have left to say is, you will get requests for the cakes in this book. I look forward to trying more of the recipes as soon as I can get to the store to buy more cake mixes and instant puddings.

~The Rebecca Review

25 of 25 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Easy, June 16, 2003

By	Linda (MA) - See all my reviews

I just loved this book. So often we get cook books that say easy as 1 2 3 and they end up being as hard as 98 99 100!! One of the best things about the book is most of the ingredients you will have in you cabinets, no running around to speciality shops to find items you never heard of. I get more compliments when I make one of the cakes, I have more people ask me for the recipe, and when I bring a cake to a party there is never any left over. I would rather cook than bake but with this book I am baking more. I cant't say enough about it, just buy it and you will be the hit of the party.
Linda