Anne Byrn - The Cake Mix Doctor Bakes Gluten-Free

BY ANNE BYRN

Photography by Ben Fink

WORKMAN PUBLISHING NEW YORK

Copyright 2010 by Anne Byrn

The Cake Mix Doctor is a registered trademark of Anne Byrn.

All rights reserved. No portion of this book may be reproducedmechanically, electronically, or by any other means, including photocopyingwithout written permission of the publisher. Published simultaneously in Canada by Thomas Allen & Son Limited.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Byrn, Anne.
The cake mix doctor bakes gluten-free / by Anne Byrn.
p. cm.
ISBN 978-0-7611-6098-4 (pb) -- ISBN 978-0-7611-6107-3 (hc)
1. Gluten-free diet--Recipes. 2. Baking. I. Title.
RM237.86.B97 2010
641.5638--dc22 2010032802

Cover design: David Matt
Interior design: Lisa Hollander
Author photograph: Gabrielle Revere
Interior photographs: Ben Fink
Cover cake styled by Sara Neumeier
Interior cakes styled by Cynthia Garcia-Vegas

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Workman Publishing Company, Inc.
225 Varick Street
New York, NY 10014-4381
www.workman.com
www.cakemixdoctor.com

Printed in the United States of America
First printing November 2010
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

Cover cake: If youd like to bake the cover cake, see page 16.

Dedication

For everyone who lives without glutenthese cakes are for you.

Acknowledgments

Thanks to all my readers, especially Cinde Shields, Lisa Bradley, and Hartley Steiner. I appreciate your recipe testing, dairy-free ideas, high-altitude advice, and the window into your gluten-free baking world. And thanks to my friends, especially Martha Bowden, and family who put aside wheat and embraced gluten-free cakes with enthusiasm.

First things first: just what is gluten? Then, tips to help you go gluten-free with ease. How to bake gluten-free in a gluten-filled kitchen. Choosing the right equipment. And Gluten-Free Baking Dos and Donts.

Universally loved, these elegant, dramatic cakes are no longer off-limits. For your next celebration, bake up a Snickerdoodle Cake, Chocolate Almond Torte, or Fresh Strawberry Cake with Strawberry Cream Cheese Frosting.

Bride's Cake (Page 18)

A wedding cake for allbride, groom, and guests. This towering confection is a match made in heaven: a rich, moist vanilla cake dazzles with a hint of almond and a divine cream cheese frosting. Cheers!

Comforting and easy classics, Bundts provide the perfect gluten-free ending to any meal. Serve up a slice of Almond Cream Cheese Pound Cake, Caramel Melted Ice Cream Cake, or Applesauce Cake with Apple Cider Glaze.

Nostalgic and unfussy, scrumptious sheet cakes go straight from pan to plate with minimal prep and loads of taste. Try the Kitchen Sink Gingerbread, Chocolate Espresso Buttermilk Cake, Honey Bun Cake, or Orange Cheesecake Squares.

Chocolate Sweet Cake (Page 190)

Whether for breakfast, dessert, or a midday snack, these decadent little confections take the cake. Satisfy your sweet tooth with Georgia Peach Cupcakes, Chocolate Sour Cream Cupcakes, Maple Corn Muffins, and more.

These are the bake sale standbys that will put a smile on everyones face. No denying yourself at the next fund-raiser. Indulge without worry in Gluten-Free Magic Brownie Bars, Marbled Cream Cheese Brownies, Peanut Butter Cookies, and Chocolate Cloud Cookies.

No cake is complete without a luscious frosting, icing, or glaze on top. Spread a little love: Vanilla Buttercream Frosting. Cream Cheese Frosting, Fluffy Marshmallow Frosting. And Julies Lemon Curd.

An unexpected part of writing cookbooks is the dialogue I share with readers. The e-mails, letters, and comments I have received as the Cake Mix Doctor have opened my eyes to what goes on in everyday kitchens across the country. You have offered personal stories and predicaments, baking questions, and wonderful suggestions.

Apricot Cake with White Chocolate Cream Cheese Frosting (page 39)

I first received an e-mail about gluten-free cake baking about six years ago. Requests for gluten-free recipes trickled in up until about a year ago. Then readers became more vocal, more committed to encouraging me to write a gluten-free Cake Mix Doctor book. Their situations varied, from an older woman who needed to make gluten-free baked goods for her husband, to a young mom who had a daughter recently diagnosed with gluten intolerance, to a teenager who just wanted to be able to bake gluten-free cakes to feel normal. What they craved were the classic American desserts most of us take for granted: chocolate cupcakes, carrot cake, ginger-bread, brownies, a yellow birthday cake. And what they neededto bring cake baking into their homeswas a request I could not ignore.

It is estimated that 1 in 133 people in the United States and Canada suffers from celiac disease, an inability of their bodies to metabolize gluten, or the protein found in wheat, barley, and rye. Many more people are gluten-sensitive and need to avoid it in their diets. More still avoid gluten because they say they feel better without it. After these requests, I opened my eyes to the baking aisle and noticed, for the first time, the plethora of gluten-free cake mixes on the market. Then Betty Crocker unveiled a line of gluten-free cake mixes in the summer of 2009.

I began reading about celiac disease. I talked about it with my friends and family and I learned that my children had classmates who followed gluten-free diets, that the daughter of my sisters neighbor was gluten-free, as was my literary agents niece in Denver, and a friend I had been playing tennis with for more than two years was living gluten-free but she had never mentioned it. In Atlanta, two women were disappointed at having to pass up my samples of cinnamon cake at a Costco book signing and begged me to write a gluten-free cake book. In Memphis while recording a spot on local radio, I mentioned gluten-free baking and the hosts face lit up. It turned out that seven of the twenty-two members of her Sunday school class have celiac disease and follow gluten-free diets. The list goes on, as if a web were being drawn and connecting us all. If we do not need to live gluten-free then someone in our close personal world does.

Across the country in Washington State, a reader named Cinde Shields was the most vocal and persistent about my writing this book. Cinde said she had had a personal goal of baking every Cake Mix Doctor recipe until her daughter was diagnosed with celiac disease two years ago. Cinde described the feeling of not being able to bake for her family and friends as upsetting and said she longed for quick, consistent, delicious cake mix recipes that started with a gluten-free mix.