I recently hosted a private baking lesson for Cathy and Bob, the winners of the "Winner Bakes the Cake!" PARADE magazine sweepstakes, in my hometown of Nashville, TN. We baked three cakes--a Cinnamon Breakfast Bundt Cake which we drizzled with a simple glaze, a Lemon Lover’s Layer Cake with Lemon Cream Cheese Frosting garnished with fresh blueberries and thin lemon slices, and a Chocolate Chip Layer Cake covered with a Bittersweet Chocolate Ganache.

Cathy was kind enough to write about her experience on the Workman Publishing blog. Click here to read Cathy's blog entry.

Visit my Facebook page for whole album-full of photos from our baking session.

For even more about the trip, read this blog post from a member of the Workman publicity team.

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Summer is naturally a more relaxing time of the year, so it’s perfect for mixing and matching cakes and frostings. That’s how the strawberry cake recipe I shared in this month's newsletter was born, and it is also how one reader turned an apricot cake into a moist banana cake scented with rum.

Reader Ana Lucas of Portland, OR, writes that recently she had a bunch of ripe bananas on hand and a need for dessert to serve to family in town. So she looked over my Apricot Cake with Lemon Cream Cheese Filling from the

“I started thinking…how about a banana cake with rum cream cheese filling? I substituted a heaping cup of mashed bananas for the apricot nectar in the cake. I also added a bit of cinnamon (1/2 teaspoon). For the filling, I left out the lemon zest and coconut and substituted 2 tablespoons Myer’s dark rum and 2 tablespoons milk in place of the apricot nectar.” The result, said Ana, was “wonderfully moist banana cake with a rich rum cheesecake filling. My family loved it!”

For even more updates from Anne, follow her on Twitter or her brand new Facebook fan page.

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These cakes are some of my favorites for baking in summertime. And there are so many more…think Tres Leches, icebox cakes, ice cream cakes, etc…

1. Almond Pound Cake – You really doctor up a butter recipe golden cake mix in this recipe, adding six eggs, flour, butter, and almond and vanilla extracts. Bake the day ahead and keep at room temperature then serve with sliced fresh peaches. The Cake Mix Doctor Returns

2. Orange Marmalade Cake – Fresh orange juice and zest are in the cake, orange marmalade is spread between the layers, and a whipped cream frosting is slathered over the top and sides of the cake. Served chilled, right from the fridge, this is cool comfort in the heat. What Can I Bring?

3. Tiramisu Cake – Called a dinner party cake in my newest book, this chocolate layer confection with coffee in the cake and frosting is filled with a mix of mascarpone cheese, marsala, and a little sugar. Garnish as you would tiramisu, with a dusting of cocoa or cinnamon. The Cake Mix Doctor Returns.

For even more updates from Anne, follow her on Twitter or her brand new Facebook fan page.

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Don't miss Anne on QVC this Tuesday, June 29th at 7 p.m. ET with The Cake Mix Doctor Returns! Anne's appearances on QVC are always a wonderful success and paired with tables full of her mouthwatering, beautifully and simply decorated cakes, so don't miss it!

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Oxford. In Mississippi, that is. If you’ve made it as far as Memphis you can drive a little more than an hour south into Mississippi, the land of William Faulkner and all things Southern. Oxford is a gem of a town with a beautiful historic square and on that square is an aptly named and well known book store called Square Books. Browse, relax, reflect, chat, maybe meet a visiting author there to sign books. I stopped by and Lyn Roberts of the store baked my  Chocolate Buttermilk and Bake Sale Caramel Cupcakes. www.squarebooks.com

Houston. October has to be the best month to travel, especially to humid cities like Houston where the air is often so sticky you wonder if the cream cheese frosting will stay on the cake! Becky Stewart, my media escort, whizzed me around the city, from TV to Central Market cooking classes, to Sam’s Club on the southern side of town near NASA, and back to the Houstonian Hotel, a lovely and quiet oasis. They have the best Caesar salad on earth - their legendary Southwestern Caesar. If you want to create one at home, make your favorite Caesar, then add roasted corn, black beans, toasted pumpkin seeds, and on top grated Mexican Cojita cheese. Or go to www.recipezaar.com for the recipe.

Lexington and Louisville. Kentucky is full of so many great cooks, and one is Jennifer Degler of Lexington, whose recipe for the Pumpkin Cranberry Cake is in my new book. Jennifer sent me that recipe several years ago, I tested it and loved the cake, and then I met Jennifer and her friends at my book signing at Joseph-Beth in Lexington. A little more than an hour down the road but seemingly a world apart, Louisville offered up flavors of its own. The quirky and wonderful Lynn’s Paradise Café (www.lynnsparadisecafe.com) is where to head for breakfast, Southern vegetables, monster salads, meatloaf, and legendary fried green tomatoes. In honor of my appearance, the kitchen whipped up chocolate chip pancakes with a cake mix and served them with a creamy Bourbon sauce. These unbelievable pancakes had me wishing I had run all the way from Lexington! Fortunately I saved a little room for dinner at Proof on Main (www.proofonmain.com) in the 21c Museum Hotel downtown.  Look for handmade pastas, Brussels sprouts cooked with cranberries and andouille sausage, and vanilla pudding cake topped with Bourbon-soaked cherries. What did you expect? It’s Kentucky!

Pittsburgh. My first trip to Pittsburgh will definitely not be my last. I cannot want to get back to Penn Mac, the historic Italian cheese-and-so-much-more store along the Strip. I cannot wait to get back and see the cheese lady and get another sample of Prima Donna cheese and buy enough pasta to fill my suitcase. And I’ll get that fish sandwich at Wholey’s across the street. No matter how long the line, I’ll wait. I was in town to take part in Great Taste Pittsburgh, a massive food show in the suburb of Monroeville. I loved meeting fellow food writer Katie Lee and seeing my cousin Margaret after all these years. I loved staying downtown in the Omni William Penn Hotel, and when I go back will order another Aveline salad, greens wrapped in long strips of cucumber then drizzled with a brown sugar vinaigrette, Amish blue cheese and toasted pine nuts.

For more of Anne's bits & bytes from the road, check back on Tuesday!

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Anne is going on tour! Check to see if she'll be in your town.
Dates will be updated as more details come in, so be sure to check back!

Follow Anne on Twitter for tour updates, recipes, and thoughts from the road!

February
13th: Columbia, SC, Books-A-Million, 164 Forum Drive, 1 pm

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We’re covered in a rare Nashville snow, so it came as little surprise that the furry prognosticator, Punxsutawney Phil, saw his shadow this morning.

We’ve got six more weeks of winter, or so the legend goes. Plenty of time to keep on simmering soups and stews, braising brisket, roasting chicken and potatoes, and baking cakes.

One of the best recipes to bake today in honor of Phil is my Groundhog Day Cupcakes (Cupcakes from the Cake Mix Doctor). They begin with a German chocolate cake mix, and you make a quick frosting, cover the cupcake with chocolate sprinkles, and then place mini chocolate chips, brown M&Ms, and slivered almonds on the cupcakes to give them the distinctive groundhog look. Almost too cute to eat!

Click here for the Groundhog Day Cupcakes recipe.

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The recent tragedy in Haiti has us all scrambling for ways to help. School coin drives, gathering medical supplies, blankets made for the children, these acts of kindness may not make a dent in the dire situation but they make us feel a little less helpless. My friend Mell Perling at Workman was brainstorming with friends about baked goods that would be easy to whip up on a weeknight, tote on the New York subway (not an easy feat) and individually wrap for an office bake sale to raise money for the earthquake relief. If your office or school would like to host a bake sale for Haiti, here are some suggestions for making the sale a success as well as a favorite bake sale recipe to try.

Five Big Bake Sale Tips
1. Think whole cakes and pies. Think a pan of brownies someone can stash in the freezer. With less time to bake at home, people love bake sales for stocking up on dinner party cakes they can freeze and for whole pies and batches of brownies and cookies they can take to a neighbor or to the office.
2. When it comes to cakes, go with the mainstream favorites—chocolate layer cakes, cozy pound cakes, and nostalgic carrot cakes.
3. Also think small. A simple cupcake needs no wrapping or several cookies can be tucked into a plastic bag for nibbling on the way home.
4. The best cookies for selling are such classics as oatmeal-raisin and chocolate chip or cookies that are a specialty of one of the bake sale bakers. Write the name of the baker on the tag, such as “Judy’s Snickerdoodles.”
5. You’ve got to have pies—fudge, lemon meringue, chess, apple, or pecan. A cake may woo a woman, but pie is the way to a man’s heart.

Click here for a recipe for Bake Sale Caramel Cupcakes from The Cake Mix Doctor Returns—the quick caramel frosting makes it perfect for bake sales because it isn’t affected by heat or humidity and it travels well without smudging.

Thanksgiving is but a few weeks away, and I am sure many of you have already planned your menus, made travel arrangements, and thought about your table setting. Why not think, too, about people who don’t have turkey and the trimmings and the staggering numbers of kids in food insecure homes who don’t know where the next meal will come from.

This year I’m giving to my local food bank, the Second Harvest Food Bank of Middle Tennessee. And I’m helping to arrange a food drive for Second Harvest through my son’s school. It’s easy to give canned goods for emergency food boxes. And it’s simple to organize a food drive at your local school, church, or place of business. The most needed items are canned meat, beans, fruits, vegetables, and peanut butter.

To give to Second Harvest, click here, or visit FeedingAmerica.org to find a food bank near you.

For those of you in the Lexington, KY, area, Joseph-Beth Booksellers is arranging a food drive for God’s Pantry, a local food bank, in conjunction with my book signing there at 7 p.m. Tuesday Nov. 3.

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Anne kicked off her Cake Mix Doctor Returns tour with a visit to QVC last weekend, and she'll be back on this Friday, September 4th at noon to talk about the brand-new recipes and share stories of reader inspiration.

From left: Wedding Cake, Double Chocolate Kahlua Cake, Apricot Cake with Lemon Cream Cheese Filling, Chocolate Chip Cappuccino Coffee Cake, Nancy's Cinnamon Swirl Coffee Cake, a platter of Whoopie Pies, Houdini Bars, and Music to my Mouth Brownies, Strawberry Covered Chocolate Cake (the book cover cake), Blueberry Muffin Crumble Cake, Smith Island Cake, Red Velvet Cake, and the Margarita Cake.

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Dinner Doctor Summer Strategies:

1. Cook with what’s on hand – corn, tomatoes, zucchini, blueberries, etc. I cannot get enough of summer food. So dinnertime for me is never a chore – it is a thrill.

2. Remember deviled eggs. Top with chopped fresh herbs like tarragon or chives.

3. Change up your typical marinades for chicken or flank steak by adding lime juice instead of vinegar, chopped cilantro for fresh Mexican flavor, and garnish the grilled meat with chopped tomatoes and avocado.

4. We grill burgers – of beef or turkey – over charcoal. If you’re serving a crowd, offer up buns and also big leaves of iceberg lettuce for those who are going bun-less to save calories. Offer your own or a good bottled pesto sauce along with the standard condiments.

5. Add a pinch of good curry powder to your favorite rice salad for an Indian flavor. Marinate chicken breasts in plain yogurt and crushed garlic. Drizzle with olive oil, then grill, and serve the chicken with fresh cilantro sprigs and sliced mango, alongside the rice salad.

6. In a pinch, bake brownies using a mix, but be sure to underbake them and chill before cutting. Cut into small squares or triangles, then dust with confectioners’ sugar before toting them to the picnic.  Place strawberries and raspberries on the platter, too, for color and good health.

Q. Help! My grocery stores all stock extra-moist cake mix. No plain ones anymore. What can I do? – Donna Nelson

A. Duncan Hines cake mix says "moist deluxe" on the package, but it is plain cake mix. Hope this helps!
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Q. I have a recipe for a banana chocolate chip Bundt cake made with yellow cake mix and banana pudding. The cake is very light and moist but it has a cloying artificial banana flavor to it due to the pudding. Do you have any suggestions as to how to make a similar cake to this but with real bananas rather than pudding? Any help will be greatly appreciated. This is my husband’s favorite cake, but it’s just too fake tasting for me to serve to guests. – Annie Hesser
(Annie’s recipe calls for 1 package yellow cake mix, 1 package instant banana pudding mix, 1 cup oil, 4 large eggs, 1 cup milk, 1 cup whole chocolate chips and 1 cup chopped chocolate chips).

A. Annie, use vanilla instant pudding mix instead of the banana. Then substitute mashed fresh bananas for some of the oil and milk. Use 1 cup mashed bananas, which is about 2 large ripe bananas, then use just ½ cup oil and ½ cup milk. Keep the chocolate chips the same.

Annie followed my instructions and reports great results. She turned the batter into cupcakes, 24 of them, baked at 350 degrees for 22 minutes. She suggests a chocolate frosting, and I am thinking cream cheese frosting would also be yummy!

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Put on your red dress and bake a red velvet cake for Valentine’s. Just as that dress gets everyone’s attention so this cake turns a few heads, too. And when the batter is turned into cupcakes, there is more to go around, perfect for sharing with sweethearts large and small. Take these to the office, to school, to the weekend basketball game.

My favorite way to make this batter is to begin with a German chocolate cake mix and add buttermilk and a few other add-ins. These cupcakes are a fun twist in that the cream cheese frosting is flavored with a little peppermint extract and then topped with crushed peppermint candy. They are moist and memorable, a sweet token of your affection.

Red Velvet Cupcakes With White Chocolate Peppermint Cream Cheese Frosting from Cupcakes! From the Cake Mix Doctor

Try these other great Valentine's Day recipes:
Warm Chocolate Cupcakes with Molten Centers
Triple-Decker Raspberry Chocolate Cake
Love Cake with Rose and Pomegranate Buttercream Frosting
Lemon Lovers' White Chocolate Cake

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It’s inexpensive, retro, a party mainstay. Sure, it’s gotten its share of jokes, but not as many as the fruitcake! I say it’s time for a cheese ball comeback, perfectly time with our ailing economy. How about a pimento cheese ball rolled in chopped parsley alongside a blue cheese ball rolled in bright red pomegranate seeds? Here is a recipe that has been in our family for many years. It makes two small cheese balls rolled in chopped pecans.

Cheddar Cheese Ball

Makes 2 cheese balls
Prep: 15 minutes

16 ounces cream cheese, at room temperature
8 ounces sharp Cheddar cheese, shredded (2 cups)
2 tablespoons chopped green onion
2 teaspoons Worcestershire sauce, or to taste
Cayenne pepper to taste
1 cup chopped pecans (preferably toasted)

1. Place the cream cheese and Cheddar cheese in a large bowl. Blend with an electric mixer until the mixture just comes together. Add the onion, Worcestershire sauce, and the cayenne pepper to taste. Continue blending until the mixture is smooth.
2. Shape the mixture into two small balls. Roll each ball in the pecans. Wrap in plastic wrap and chill until time to serve with crackers and fruit.

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Baking your own holiday gifts is a special and delicious way to show friends and family that you care. The Snowman Cupcakes (page 213) and Holiday Gift Cupcakes (page 216) recipes from Cupcakes! From the Cake Mix Doctor look as great as they taste, and their unique appearance makes the gift all the more special. Both recipes are also great choices for a special dessert at an office or classroom holiday party.

Snowman Cupcakes recipe from Cupcakes! From The Cake Mix Doctor

Five Easy Desserts
With the dessert baked you can breathe easier when entertaining guests at home this month. Here are five fast and festive desserts we bake and love:

Thank goodness Halloween is just days away. It might cheer us up from all the dire economic news. I walked into a grocery store last week just to wander the aisles while my teenage daughter was shopping next door for a Halloween costume. I was overcome by the pleasant sights – big piles of pumpkins and apples, cinnamon wafting through the air from the bakery, gallons of apple cider in the cooler. For 10 minutes I felt as if I had been transported out of my real world and to the mountains of New England. Food – the sight, smell, and taste of it – has a way of comforting you. It might be the vision of fresh apples or the smell of your mother’s apple pie or the taste of a pie, cake, or muffin you only savor once a year.

We tend to bake with pumpkin just in the fall, and mostly around Halloween. I will roast wedges of small fresh pumpkins, drizzling them with olive oil and sprinkling with garlic slices before baking. With any leftovers, I’ll make pumpkin soup, pureeing the cooked pumpkin, stirring it into sautéed onions, adding chicken stock, then a splash of cream at the end. We stock up on canned pumpkin, too, because it’s tough to find in the stores after Christmas. Then I bake pumpkin muffins. All these thoughts danced through my head as I walked through that store. My daughter found her costume, I was refreshed and renewed, we turned the radio to music, not news, and smiled on the drive home. Here is a simple five-ingredient muffin recipe to bake with your family this weekend.

Pumpkin Muffins from Cupcakes! from the Cake Mix Doctor

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It’s Monday, the stock market has dipped to new lows, we hear of bank failures and mergers, politics and debates and you wonder what I do in troubling times? I cook. This afternoon I am making oatmeal cookies with my 10-year-old son because he thinks I make the best oatmeal cookies in the world. These may be trying times, but when my son tells me how wonderful my cookies are things just don’t seem so bad.

My husband and I are not old enough to be children of the Depression (our parents were) but we have survived the financial ups and downs of family life by simplifying. Baking cookies is just one way to step back and savor the downturn. The kitchen smells wonderful, the ingredients are so basic you probably have them on hand, and your family will love you for it.

Other ways of cutting costs? Shop less, take catalogs immediately to recycling, drive less, eat out less, and pare down your schedule so you and your children do fewer activities. When you are at home more, your children are generally happier and more rested. You have more time to plan meals ahead, thus saving money. I won’t go so far as to say there is a silver lining to this economic mess we are in, but some of my favorite meals are pasta, beans, and a nicely roasted chicken. And oatmeal cookies.

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This week's winner for best advice for saving money on food goes to Elvia Montanez of San Dimas, CA. Elvia knows how to cook from her pantry, thus reducing trips to the supermarket and being creative with what she has on hand. She shared her recipe for a tuna sauce, which her mom used to make on Fridays during Lent.

File this money-saving advice away for fall when your children or grandchildren head back to school or use it now to pack lunches for work and camp. Carol O'Shea of St. Louis is the latest winner in our Cheap Eats contest for creating what she calls lunches from leftovers.

According to Carol, school lunches have not only risen in price but they are often not filling enough for her sons who will be in 8th and 10th grades this fall. In addition they are not always as healthy as a home-packed meal . . .

Thanks for all your terrific ideas for saving money the supermarket. This week's winner for the best idea is Sandra Alexander of Burbank, CA. She will receive a copy of Cheap. Fast. Good. from Workman Publishing. Sandra cooks in quantity so "there is always something in the freezer for dinner and I spend less time at the grocery store, which means I'm also using less gas!" Sandra's favorite cook in bulk recipe is chicken enchiladas.

Thanks to all the readers who have sent their creative and heartfelt ideas on how they save money on the high cost of food. I will be sharing these ideas with you in the next few weeks. . . . And this week's winning idea (drumroll, please) comes from Carol Williams of Bedford, NH, for her "3-Fer from one inexpensive chicken." Although this would only feed a small family and not with those of you who have hungry teens in the house, this is great advice and something we all can do. You could double this for larger families. Carol begins with a whole chicken, bought on sale.

My heart goes out to the victims after tornadoes belted through Tennessee Tuesday night. More than 30 people died and hundreds were injured. Tornadoes are something we've gotten used to, living in this part of the country, but unlike the flat Midwest our middle Tennessee terrain is of rolling hills. When tornadoes come through they hop, skip, and jump around, and the path is tough to determine no matter how sophisticated the weather-tracking equipment.

Anne has been busily criss-crossing the nation, sharing wonderful recipes from her new book, the What Can I Bring? Cookbook. Click Read More to see photos from the events.

Anne's new book, What Can I Bring? Cookbook is in stores, and you all know what that means. Anne is traveling the nation, visiting bookstores, meeting readers, and showing off delicious creations from the new book. See if she'll be coming to a location near you.

Anne's 3rd appearance on QVC with What Can I Bring? will be this Friday, November 16th from 3:00 to 4:00 pm. Don't miss this chance for more recipes from the new book and Anne's answers to your questions!

Plus, she'll be on tour this fall, and she might be coming to a city near you. Check her schedule here to find out.

A friend stopped me today and asked if I had a great recipe in one of my books for a Halloween potluck lunch. Hmm, I hadn't thought about Halloween lunches but we always do a potluck dinner with neighbors on Halloween night, after the trick-or-treating has ended.

Sorry for the confusion about ordering a copy of the Christmas cookbook/magazine I wrote last year for Oxmoor House. The toll-free number in the recent newsletter is correct, but honestly, the operators don't always know about my book. The reason, as it was explained to me, is that the publication is more of a special release magazine, not a hard cover book. So the Oxmoor people are advising you order copies online—there'll be no confusion. Go to www.oxmoorhouse.com. Just to make sure this worked, I went to the site, typed "Christmas Cake Mix Doctor" in the search box and there the book was! Hopefully (fingers crossed) this will work for you, too.

It was a crazy summer at my house, but on top of my usual three children out of school, my reminding them of their summer reading, fun out-of-town guests, a trip to the beach, and a new yellow Labrador puppy named Cooper, I've been working hard on a new book and a newsletter coming to you soon. If you're not already on my newsletter list, I hope you'll take a minute to sign up, because I've got so many exciting things to share with you all this fall.

I love the convenience of a brownie mix, but I adore the flavor and texture of the cakey brownies my mother used to make. So in trying to recreate them in a fast version, I poured a package (Ghirardelli) of brownie mix into a mixing bowl, added a stick of very soft, almost melted, butter, and 2 eggs.

Don't let winter fly by without baking a gingerbread cake. This gorgeous cake was baked by Danielle from New Jersey (danibakes) just before Christmas.

Give me your input on my new cake mix line!

I adore holiday dinners because I enjoy getting together with family and friends. And I love to sample everyone else's cooking for a nice change.

I've been getting a lot of questions about my Christmas Cookbook, so I decided to answer them all here on the blog so that everyone can see them.

In the carpool line again. I figure I spend 40 minutes each afternoon just sitting in the car, waiting. And since we're not allowed to talk on cell phones in the carpool line I read the newspaper, open mail, jot notes, but mostly think about what's for dinner.