The Cake Mix Doctor (Paperback)

~ (Author)
Key Phrases: red velvet cake, marshmallow frosting, penuche frosting, Toasting Nuts, Betty Crocker, Fresh Orange Cream Cheese Frosting (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Cake mixes are undoubtedly convenient, but do they produce good cakes? They can, says Anne Byrn, author of The Cake Mix Doctor, if you know how to tweak them. Doing this involves the addition of ingredients to enrich the mixes and flavorings to enhance and, in some cases, conceal questionable tastes. To prove her point, Byrn offers more than 175 recipes for mix-based cakes and other desserts, including formulas for frostings that, Byrn maintains, must be made from scratch. The results are convincing; readers interested in satisfying, dependable desserts prepared quickly and with little fuss should welcome the book.

Beginning with a useful discussion of cake mixes, their history and composition, and an outline of the mix-transformation battle plan, the book then presents the recipes in chapters such as "Chocolate Cakes," "Cake-Mix Classics," "Special Occasion Cakes," and "Incredible Bars and Comforting Cookies." Among the most successful offerings are Deeply Chocolate Almond Cake with Chocolate Cream Cheese Frosting, Banana Cake with Quick Caramel Frosting, and Lemon Buttermilk Poppy Seed Cake. A chapter devoted to crumbles, crisps, cobblers, trifles, and even a dessert pizza shows how to use the mixes in innovative ways, and "Lighter Cakes" presents "healthier" offerings, such as Pear and Toasted Pecan Buttermilk Cake. With sidebars such as The Legendary Pillsbury Bake-Off and tips for success throughout ("Cinnamon is one of the great tools to use when doctoring up cake mixes," begins one), the book explores every aspect of cake-mix fixing while revealing the unexpected richness that the process can yield. --Arthur Boehm

Product Description

The Cake Mix Doctor is in! And the prescription is simple: By doctoring up packaged cake mix with just the right extras--a touch of sweet butter here, cocoa powder there, or poppy seeds, vanilla yogurt, sherry, eggs, and grated lemon zest for the Charleston Poppy Seed Cake--even the least experienced baker can turn out luscious signature desserts, time after time. The proof is in the taste, and the taste never stops--from Toasted Coconut Sour Cream Cake to Devilishly Good Chocolate Cake; from a to-die-for Caramel Cake and a Holiday Yule Log to cheesecakes, coffee cakes, sheet cakes, pound cakes, bars, brownies, and those all-important frostings, here are 175 fast, foolproof recipes that will transform the art of home baking in America.

Who could believe these cakes came out of a box? Moist, tender, rich, deep, and complexly flavored, without a hint of artificiality, each cake stand up and delivers. But without any of the fuss of baking from scratch. Anne Byrn, an award-wining food writer and self-described purist, creates recipes that employ a cake mix's strengths---convenience, ease-of-use, dependability, and almost imperviousness to overbeating, underbeating, overbaking, and underbaking.

In addition to the recipes are the Cake Mix Doctor's Q&A's, extensive "Doctor Says" tips, lists--15 Beautiful Birthday Cakes, 15 Cakes That Will Cash in at a Bake Sale--and more, all illustrated in a full-color photographic insert.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 464 pages
• Publisher: Workman Publishing Company (November 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0761117199
• ISBN-13: 978-0761117193
• Product Dimensions: 7.9 x 6.9 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.7 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (277 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #11,580 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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  #23 in	Books > Cooking, Food & Wine > Baking > Cakes
  #58 in	Books > Cooking, Food & Wine > Baking > Desserts

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

213 of 218 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Must for The Cake Baker!, December 11, 1999

By	R. Gordon "reneeg" (Baltimore, Maryland) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

As an avid baker as well as cookbook collector, I am always on the lookout for new cookbooks on baking. I was, however, somewhat skeptical about a cake baking cookbook that relies primarily on boxed mixes. What a surprise! I love this book so much I can't stop trying new recipes and have been giving the finished goods away just so I can try a new recipe! The introductory comments are extremely helpful, especially in explaining why one would choose to use a cake mix, rather than bake from scratch. Each recipe's ingredient list is typically short and the prep time is next to nothing, so you can really turn out baked goods on a moment's notice. I have now tried a number of the recipes all of which have turned out fabulous. The only drawback is that this cookbook focuses on basic cakes and doesn't include any fancy type ingredients or frostings that one might find in other baking cookbooks.

146 of 151 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Must-Have Cookbook for Every Mom!, April 28, 2000

By A Customer

As cook with a major cookbook collection and a "foodie," I must say that I avoid ANYTHING processed and am one who avoided the chemical like taste of cake mixes. However, this book made me change my mind about using cake mixes! When you're a working mom with a 3-year-old, cake mix birthday cakes are a massive time saver! And last year after making a gourmet from scratch cake that the adults loved, my then 2-year-old took one bite and delcared, "I don't like it!" This year I made two cakes from Anne's book to feed 30 at my 3-year old's birthday. One of the the other moms said, "I never eat boxed cakes, but since this is homemade, I'll eat it." And declared it was delicious. She never knew... Thank you Anne for this wonderful resource--especially for busy moms of young kids! The recipes of note for me are the ones with buttermilk (I confess that the chocolate ones don't taste as good as my from-scratch cake from Richard Sax's Classic Home Desserts, but nevertheless much better than just plain old cake mix). This does not inspire me to use any other processed products to cook with, but this is big discovery. And let's get real...do toddlers really care and know the difference if their birthday cake is some major gourmet creation? I also agree with Anne--use her homemade frosting. It's easy to make the frosting, and I also used it to pipe on the cake decorations as well. I really like the cream cheese based frostings. Every mom out there should get this book. The cakes are quick, easy, and taste homemade. You need to add this book to your cookbook collection. It is one you'll go back to time and time again. Bravo Anne! You deserve an award for this book!

73 of 74 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars From a Die-Hard Baker, August 28, 2004

By	Grace Doll (Fanwood, NJ USA) - See all my reviews

I used to pride myself on my baked goods and for years made all my cakes and cookies from scratch - in fact, I turned up my nose at cake mixes. But now, with an 11-month old baby, cake mix cakes are all that I make! You'll find many delicious recipes in this book, and most can be whipped up and in the oven in under 30 minutes. I find it easiest and quickest to bake the cakes in a tube pan, and make a simple glaze to drizzle on top. Most also freeze well, so sometimes I'll bake a cake in two loaf pans and store one in the freezer to have available later. I probably bake several cakes a month - to give as thank-you's, to welcome new neighbors, to bring to dinners at friends', for my husband to take to work.

You'll also find that once you get the hang of making these cakes, you'll come up with your own combinations. Don't be afraid to deviate from the cake mix and pudding flavors suggested in the recipes. My favorite combination, one that I use in many of the recipes, involves Duncan Hines Golden Butter Recipe and Butterscotch pudding mix.

One recipe that took me by surprise was the biscotti - so easy, and so delicious!

My only complaint about the book is that Anne offers helpful hints (e.g., substituting pan sizes, add-ins for cakes, loaf pan ideas) that are sprinkled rather haphazardly throughout the book. I find myself marking these pages with little stickies so that I can find them easily.

These are the top ten recipes that I've had the greatest success with, received many compliments on, and that I make over and over again:
1 Kathy's Cinnamon Breakfast Cake (try the DH Golden Butter / Butterscotch pudding combo here - it's fantastic!)
2 Orange Dreamsicle Cake
3 Chocolate Praline Cake
4 Biscotti (try DH Golden Butter with mini chocolate chips)
5 Orange-Cinnamon Poppyseed Cake
6 Lemon Buttermilk Poppyseed Cake
7 Banana Cake
8 Favorite Apricot Nectar Cake (try coming up with your own flavor combinations, such as Pineapple cake mix, Orange Jello, and Guava nectar)
9 Pineapple Inside-Out Cake
10 Amaretto Cake

And some recipes I didn't like so much:
Triple-Decker Strawberry Cake (tasted like Crunchberry cereal)
Toasted Coconut Sour Cream Cake (just okay, not impressed)
Incredible Melted Ice-Cream Cake (haven't had great success finding an ice-cream flavor that works well in this recipe)
Chocolate Better Than ? Cake (dry, not that good)
Chocolate Pistachio Cake (flavor was strange)
Double-Chocolate Chewies (didn't taste that great)
Penuche Frosting (too difficult to work with, sets up too quickly)

Have fun!