The Cake Mix Doctor

 

Can you actually bake a great tasting cake with ingredients from a box? Well, you can, but you might just have to work it a little. So says Anne Byrn in her cakebook The Cake Mix Doctor. A lot of the time, you just need to add a few flavourful wonders such as a pinch of vanilla yogurt here, an egg there, some cocoa powder over here and suddenly you have transformed your powder into a great tasting cake. Byrn has more than 175 recipe enhancers to choose from. With chapters that cover all the basics such as Chocolate Cakes, Special Occasion Cakes, Comforting Cookies and a host of others. This is a much-needed guide for all home bakers who don't have to the time to do it from scratch!

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.

WHO COULD BELIEVE THESE CAKES EVER CAME OUT OF A BOX? By enhancing packaged cake mix with just the right additions, even the least confident baker can turn out signature desserts. From Devilishly Good Chocolate Cake to a to-die-for Caramel Cake to coffee cakes, sheet cakes, bars, brownies, and frostings, here are 175 fast, foolproof recipes that marry the convenience, ease, and dependability of commercial cake mixes with a dash of creativity, a spoonful of richness, and a cup of pure inspiration. From the Doctor''s Pantry FLAVOR BOOSTERS -- Lemon zest, nuts, coffee, poppy seeds, grated coconut, unsweetened cocoa powder, peppermint schnapps, fresh strawberries MAKING IT RICHER -- Buttermilk, whipping cream, sour cream, eggs, yogurt, butter, peach puree OFFSETTING THE CAKE MIX TASTE -- Dry sherry, lime zest, pure almond extract

Anne Byrn is known to millions of fans through her Cake Mix Doctor and Dinner Doctor cookbooks, which she''s promoted in over 200 television appearances on Good Morning America, Roker on the Road, QVC, and local stations. Her books are also favorite subjects for lifestyle editors in newspapers across the country. Anne lives in Nashville, Tennessee, with her husband and three children.