Customer Reviews

Betty Crocker's Ultimate Cake Mix Cookbook

5 star:		(12)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This cookbook comes in a handy spiral-bound edition, so there is no propping pages open with bags of flour or pounds of butter (as I have been caught doing in the past). The book is also completely printed in full-color, so the pictures are bright and glossy. About 80% of the recipes include a picture of the finished product.

There is an intriguing introduction where the authors take you on a journey through the mystical world of cake mixes. They begin in 1943 in the Betty Crocker labs and kitchens, and move from there through the trends of the 1960's and into the future of cake mixes in the 21st century. The pictures and magazine ads they reproduce in this book are historical and fun. Before the recipes begin, there is a how-to section on preparing your pans, servings per cake, how to cool and split (torte) a cake, frosting and glazing cakes, and even high-altitude baking. Page 15 features a "Customer Q&A" about the SuperMoist cake mixes.

The recipes are divided into chapters: Bake-and-Take, Wonderfully Indulgent, Special Celebrations, Heavenly Holidays, Come for Brunch, Scrumptious Desserts, Easy Cookies and Bars, and Fabulous frostings and Glazes. The cookbook also adds sections on Helpful Nutrition and Cooking Information, and an alphabetical Index.

The Heavenly Holidays sections features cakes for beginning cake decorators. These cakes require no previous cake decorating experience, and look beautiful. There are chocolate heart cakes for Valentine's Day (no heart pan needed!), an adorable Easter Bunny, a Flag Day cake made with fresh fruit, a Jack O' Lantern cake (no 3-D cake pan needed), and even Rudolph Cupcakes which can be made with children.

My favorite recipe from this cookbook is on page 18, Chocolate Turtle Cake. If you like the combination of nuts with chocolate, this recipe is for you! The recipe has a full-color picture, a tip for serving, and nutritional information. All of the recipes in this cookbook feature nutritional information. The turtle cake recipe calls for a devil's food cake mix, water, oil, eggs, caramels, evaporated milk, pecans, and chocolate chips. The recipe requires a bit of planning as caramels are not a staple item that I keep on hand. The final product, however, is well worth the planning. The cake is moist, gooey, and a favorite for entertaining, especially when served warm.

The Chocolate Graham Streusel Cake on page 20 is a classic recipe from the 1970's. The recipe features an advertisement that was used in the 1970's, a tip for glazing the cake, nutritional information, and a yellow graham variation. The recipe calls for graham cracker crumbs, nuts, brown sugar, cinnamon, butter, devil's food cake mix, water, oil, eggs, and a recipe of glaze (provided on page 242). This recipe was a heavier, denser cake than normal, and as such, it was a little dry. It's a good recipe for a morning brunch or family coffee-style cake.

Even without a picture for every single recipe, this cookbook is an excellent value. The recipes are tried-and-true winners, and are family-friendly. The nutritional information for each recipe and the dietary guidelines in the back are an added bonus, it is a feature that most cake mix cookbooks prefer to gloss over. The full-color printing, alphabetical index, and spiral binding make this cookbook easy to use. A winner!

I love baking cakes & making sweets. But being a mother of two little ones I don't have enough time (or energy) to make cakes from scratch. This book is a treat for me, because I don't need a lot of planning ahead nor to spend too much time in the kitchen!!

A few days ago I made the Peanut Butter Cake & it looked impressive and was delicious!! I felt like a million dollars presenting it.

The book is full of appetizing pictures for nearly all the recipes, easy to use & follow directions, and has lots of tips & ideas. It also tells you how many calories are in a slice (for all you gals who want to know, although my advise is to skip that particular line).

In the book you will find all kinds of recipes for cakes, trifles, cupcakes, cookies & more.
Indulge yourself & your family.

Every recipe in this outstanding cookbook is easy to make and delicious to eat! This book is in colour with lots of pictures, so you can decide what to bake based on how the cake looks as well as how the recipe sounds.

From quick "bake-and-take" cakes for church potlucks, to elaborately designed masterpieces for parties and weddings, to brunch cakes, this book has it all! Why no try the decadent Tres Leches Cake, or the fun Chocolate-Chip Cookie Surprise Cake, or maybe you want a cake in the shape of a train. This book has it all!

In my circle of friends, I'm known as a Master Chef. I can whip up delightful lemon curds, Sky High Meringue Pies, and shortbread that floats off the plate. BUT....I had NEVER baked a cake, never wanted to BAKE a cake, and didn't even LIKE cake...thanks to the miserable examples that I grew up trying to swallow in the 1960's! Dry, chemical tasting; they were featureless and a sure sign, in my myoptic view, of "Lazy Cooks", especially where Box Cake Mixes were concerned.

Enter 2005: I am asked to cater a British Tea Party...and one of the projects was to bake and decorate a CAKE! I expected to 'job it out' (having a bakery make it) but decided to tackle the Beast Formerly Known as Cake, instead.

I signed up for Wilton Cake Decorating Class. The instructor, who runs a famous bakery in Michigan, SWORE by cake mixes and insisted that they "had improved since my childhood". With her 30+ years of experience, she recommended ONLY Betty Crocker Cake Mixes and also recommended THIS BOOK, as a way to personalize the taste of cakes.

Well, in for a penny, in for a pound of butter, I say. I started the classes, I ordered the Betty Crocker Ultimate Cake Mix Cookbook, and four weeks later, I've baked over 12 examples from the book, pulled off the British Tea to accolades, AND...learned that CAKE.IS.GOOD!

This book is incredible! It has a history of HOW cake mixes have changed throughout the years; it explains what the ingredients "do" in a recipe, and it offers ways to make crisps, cookies, bars and other goodies with a mix.

Out of my 500+ cookbooks, THIS cookbook has been the MOST used one in the past month! And I've brought it to class, where the other 5 students also ordered it!!!

When professional bakers, who are making their mortgage payments and sending their kids through school via cakes, tell me that they use mixes 80% of the time, it's time to listen! You'll LOVE this book!!!

I am not a baker nor a cook for that matter and was quite nervous when my sister asked me if i could host my nephew's playgroup last saturday at my house. Rather than just buy cupcakes from my local bakery I decided to be daring and try to make something...so glad to have found this book...I made the cookies & cream torte and no one could believe it came from a box mix...it was incredible and not only the kids loved it but the parents did too!! (I can't wait to make this again just for me!!)

I love cookbooks and this one, a gift from my sister-in-law, is my favorite. These easy cakes are unique and delicious! Impress your friends and family and save time too. I cannot recommend it enough.

I bought this book for a friend of mine but ended up keeping it for myself. The recipes are so easy to use and the results are delicious. My husband just loves the lemon squares and my kids are great at helping me decorate the endless cakes we've tried from this book.

I LOVE this recipe book. It has so many fast and fabulous recipes - all starting from a cake mix. I have used it for great dishes for family gatherings, to treats for church choir, to tasty desserts for work parties. Everyone loves the things I've made, they taste like they're made from scratch. My daughter liked it so well I got her one for her birthday!!!

The book, for what it was, is okay. I was looking for ways to make mixes 'kicked up'. I know there is a lady who has exactly that, but I thought I would try from the maker of the mixes. Service from Amazon was great as usual.

I rated Betty Crocker Cake Mix Cookbook with five stars. Beautiful pictures makes one hungry and so many different ideas using cake mix, such as cookies, etc.