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The Cake Mix Doctor returns
  
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By Sonya Ellingboe
Chocolate Rum Icebox Cake, Key Lime Pound Cake, Kathy’s Cinnamon Breakfast Cake, Lemon Curd Icebox Cake, Mindy’s Jack Cake with Tennessee Drizzle, Large Wedding Cake, Peanut Butter Cookie Dough Cupcakes, Houdini Bars... are you salivating yet?
Anne Byrn, aka the Cake Mix Doctor, is a cook with imagination who recognized the need many of us have to produce classy cakes for families and friends (and the occasional potluck or bake sale) without spending all day in the kitchen.
Ten years ago, she produced the nation’s best selling cookbook on how to start with a grocery store cake mix and bake something wonderful.
At 7 p.m. Nov. 19, she will appear at Tattered Cover Highlands Ranch to serve cake, advise about high altitude baking, collect food for a local food bank and sign copies of her new, 500 page “The Cake Mix Doctor Returns,” which promises 160 new recipes.
Some, she cautions, will probably not work well in our mile-high ovens— no matter what— but her concise “High Altitude How To” is clear and easy to understand, including: don’t use a cake mix with pudding in it, and/or don’t add pudding; choose cakes with good structure (explained); don’t add ingredients such as peanut butter or marshmallows that tenderize a cake; bundts are a good choice, long rectangular pans are not (how many readers have watched a sheet cake puff up, then sink in the middle?) Layer cakes should be at least 9 inches, etc., etc... And a frosting fix is an option!
She speaks of baking in the kitchen of former Rocky Mountain News food editor Marty Meitus on a previous Colorado visit to learn the mile-high rules, since she lives in the southeast, where cakes behave.
Each recipe has a two-, or in some cases, three-page spread, with a space set aside in the margins for notes. In some cases, a special inset is added, such as instructions for making the best cream cheese frosting on page 271, or “10 Big Bake Sale Secrets” on page 374. Page 204 discusses nuts —toasting them, while on page 198, the cook finds hints for shipping cake across the country or overseas.
Cookbook collectors will understand when I say, it’s just fun to read about combinations you haven’t thought of!
And, it certainly would be a welcome gift for almost anyone who enjoys baking. Excepting the purist who must do everything from scratch.
If you go:
Anne Byrn, the Cake Mix Doctor will appear at 7 p.m. Thursday, Nov. 19 at Tattered Cover Highlands Ranch, 9315 Dorchester, Town Center.
Anne Byrn, aka the Cake Mix Doctor, is a cook with imagination who recognized the need many of us have to produce classy cakes for families and friends (and the occasional potluck or bake sale) without spending all day in the kitchen.
Ten years ago, she produced the nation’s best selling cookbook on how to start with a grocery store cake mix and bake something wonderful.
At 7 p.m. Nov. 19, she will appear at Tattered Cover Highlands Ranch to serve cake, advise about high altitude baking, collect food for a local food bank and sign copies of her new, 500 page “The Cake Mix Doctor Returns,” which promises 160 new recipes.
Some, she cautions, will probably not work well in our mile-high ovens— no matter what— but her concise “High Altitude How To” is clear and easy to understand, including: don’t use a cake mix with pudding in it, and/or don’t add pudding; choose cakes with good structure (explained); don’t add ingredients such as peanut butter or marshmallows that tenderize a cake; bundts are a good choice, long rectangular pans are not (how many readers have watched a sheet cake puff up, then sink in the middle?) Layer cakes should be at least 9 inches, etc., etc... And a frosting fix is an option!
She speaks of baking in the kitchen of former Rocky Mountain News food editor Marty Meitus on a previous Colorado visit to learn the mile-high rules, since she lives in the southeast, where cakes behave.
Each recipe has a two-, or in some cases, three-page spread, with a space set aside in the margins for notes. In some cases, a special inset is added, such as instructions for making the best cream cheese frosting on page 271, or “10 Big Bake Sale Secrets” on page 374. Page 204 discusses nuts —toasting them, while on page 198, the cook finds hints for shipping cake across the country or overseas.
Cookbook collectors will understand when I say, it’s just fun to read about combinations you haven’t thought of!
And, it certainly would be a welcome gift for almost anyone who enjoys baking. Excepting the purist who must do everything from scratch.
If you go:
Anne Byrn, the Cake Mix Doctor will appear at 7 p.m. Thursday, Nov. 19 at Tattered Cover Highlands Ranch, 9315 Dorchester, Town Center.
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