Anne Byrn - The Cake Mix Doctor Returns!

The Cake mix Doctor RETURNS!

Title.
TX771.B9735 2009
641.8'653dc22
2009024901 Cover design: David Matt
Interior design: Lisa Hollander
Author photograph: Deborah Ory
Interior photographs: Ben Fink Workman books are available at special discounts when purchased in bulk
for premiums and sales promotions as well as for
fund-raising or educational use.
Special editions or book excerpts can be created to specification.
For details, contact the Special Sales Director at the address below. Workman Publishing Company, Inc.
225 Varick Street
New York, NY 10014-4381
www.workman.com Printed in the United States of America
First printing August 2009
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 For my readers, Cakes are meant to be shared.Thank you for sharing them with me.

My book couldnt be baked and frosted without the labor of Martha Bowden, Mindy Merrell, and Diane Hooper here in Nashville. You are dear to me. Many thanks go to Marybeth and Kathleen for typing and testing recipes during your summer before college. And in New York, thanks to Barbara Mateer for her expert copy editing and Carol White for her production editing. What are cakes and books without love? Thanks once again to my husband John for his calm as I cooked up another project. And thanks to my children Kathleen, Litton, and John who have shared their mom, the Cake Mix Doctor, all these years with many avid bakers.

Ive told them to look on the bright sidenot every family has all their favorite recipes in print! Cakes need creativity, and books surely do. When I hit an idea-block and need titles, stories, cake mix packaging ideas, a speech, or just want to jazz up my television wardrobe I reach out to the creative minds of Katy Varney, Mindy Merrell, R.B. Quinn, Susan Puckett, my agent Nancy Crossman, friends Beth Meador and Judy Wright, sister Susan Anderson, and Jenny Mandel of Workman Publishing. Thank you. Many thanks, too, go to Lisa Hollander at Workman for her new design of this book and David Matt for the cover. And thanks to photographer Ben Fink and food stylist Susan Sugarman for making my cakes look great on camera.

Plus, the many appearances Ive made on QVC would not have been doable without Lucille Osborn because she makes the humblest cake look ready for the runway. And thanks to the many media escorts Ive come to know and trust on book tour. So many of you have been dedicated to my cake mix books. Youve bought them all, youve given them as gifts, and youve hounded book store clerks when you couldnt find them on the shelves. I am fortunate to have so many cheerleaders, but Ill name just a fewMary Jo, Elizabeth, Ginger and Susan, Joe, Cindy, Mary, Becky, Flowerree and Flowerree, and Janet. Thanks to Rusty Bowden for his enthusiasm and feedback.

Thanks to the Regions Bank employees who always beg for cake. And hugs to the students at Harpeth Hall here in Nashville who have been eager recipients of cake brought to advisory by one of my girls. What I have learned about baking and writing books is that with practice you do get better. That is why I say cooking and baking are things that improve as you age! They benefit from trial and error. I know this book and all my books would never have been possible without the wisdom of Peter Workman, who understood the cake mix idea from the moment he saw it. Thanks also go to Suzanne Rafer, my editor, from whom I have learned much.

And thanks to Nancy Crossman, who is wise not only about books and publishing but about cooking and being a mom. When you combine all of the above and bake, you have a book and a cake truly worth savoring. And you have friendships that last a lifetime. Thank you! Anne Byrn

Then shed slather them with her signature from-scratch, easy Chocolate Pan Frosting! Her casual approach would transform how my on-the-go family made birthday cakes, and later it gave me the idea to write a newspaper story about doctoring up a box of cake mix to make it taste better than if you just followed the package directions. I received so much feedback from that one story that I decided to take my moms approach to another level. The result was The Cake Mix Doctor, a book that gave busy cooks everywhere hundreds of yummy baking solutions. That was ten years ago. Since the first book, Ive gone on to write four more cookbooksChocolate from the Cake Mix Doctor, The Dinner Doctor, Cupcakes! from the Cake Mix Doctor, and the What Can I Bring? Cookbook. And as a result, a wonderful cooking community has formed. Through the books, my website (www.cakemixdoctor.com), and my personal appearances, people have connected with each other in and out of the kitchen.

Their recipes have been shared endeavors via my websites online community board. Whether it involves shipping a cake to a son in the military, staging a bake sale at school, baking for the local soup kitchen, or baking a daughters wedding cake, these cooks have embraced one another. Im really overwhelmed that our familys simple approach has turned into a way of baking cakes for so many. Its staggering and joyous at the same time to think that millions of you have celebrated birthdays and anniversaries with cakes youve discovered in my books, and have taught your children and grandchildren how to cook using my recipes. You have baked these cakes for aging parents. You have baked them to celebrate the birth of a baby.

Here in Nashville, I have baked right along with you, and this new book is the result. Ive answered many of your requests with the recipes on these pages, specifically a wedding cake, and your desire for a photo, once again, for every recipe. Over the years, my recipes have evolved, the changes indicative of how we bake today. For example, these days I add half as much cream cheese to a frosting as I used to, not only to save calories and fat but also to make the cake taste lighter. I might omit the added sugar in a recipe because the glaze makes the final cake sweet enough. Or I might reduce the oil or replace some of it with applesauce.