Cake Mix Doctor

An Ode to Fresh Banana Cake

tamra — Wed, 24 Apr 2013 20:08:10 +0000

When I was a little girl, a chocolate sheet cake or a lemon meringue pie were almost always on the kitchen counter. My mom liked sweets, and she loved to bake. Very rarely she would buy dessert, but one of the rare exceptions was frozen Sara Lee banana cake.

I had pretty much forgotten this bit of my history until about 10 years ago when in New York being interviewed by Alex Witchel of the New York Times. Alex confessed her love of the Sara Lee banana cake, and she wondered if I could bake a banana cake in her kitchen that would rival the Sara Lee version.

We baked my banana cake from the Cake Mix Doctor, and Alex approved. Normally I frost this cake with my mom’s caramel icing, but I chose cream cheese frosting that day because that’s the way Sara Lee did it. And to be honest, it’s the perfect combo. The frosting is smooth, and the cake is moist and smooth, too – no interruptions of chopped nuts or coconut or raisins.

Just this week I baked a banana cake because I had overly ripe bananas I needed to use or toss out. I used my yellow cake mix, but you can use the cake mix of your choice. The cake was as I remembered as a girl – moist and smooth in texture – but even more flavorful than Sara Lee because of the fresh bananas.

We ate our fill, then I wrapped and stashed the cake in the freezer. I know from experience that banana cake freezes well!

The recipe is here.

Easy Mexican Lasagna

tamra — Tue, 26 Feb 2013 20:13:47 +0000

My sweet youngest child is now a ravenous, meat-craving, teenage boy. I remember people warning me that this day would come. And while John isn’t the guy who pours an entire box of cereal into a mixing bowl for breakfast, he could eat steak 24/7.

And hamburgers. And he questions why I would ever put ground turkey or black beans in chili when I could just use beef.

So I have to come up with dinnertime solutions that satisfy John – giving him the protein and flavor he craves – and his health-conscious parents. Enter lean beef – 150 calories for 3 ounces and half the daily requirement for protein.

One of my favorite ways to use a leaner cut of beef is Mexican Lasagna. The ground lean beef (93 percent) is perfect for this recipe because you add seasonings then tomato sauce, salsa, and corn, and let the meat sauce cook down a bit. Layer it in a casserole with corn tortillas and a cottage cheese and Parmesan mixture, bake, then top with shredded Cheddar once it is out of the oven. This lasagna is a full-flavored, fresh, fun change-up of the Italian lasagna we know all too well.

I baked Mexican lasagna last week at a Kansas City fundraiser called Girls’ Night In, benefitting The University of Kansas Hospital Center for Advanced Heart Care. Naturally gluten-free, it is a recipe in my new book, Unbelievably Gluten-Free. I knew John and his peers loved this recipe, but I was a little worried how this well-heeled, healthy crowd of women would accept our home-style ground beef casserole. Well, no worries, because they loved it.

And I came home a little more educated on lean beef after speaking with Audrey Monroe, director of nutrition at the Kansas Beef Council. The 93 percent beef used in this recipe is actually lower in calories, cholesterol, and total fat than ground turkey. But it is slightly higher in saturated fat. Good to know the next time you need to bake something wonderful to satisfy hungry boys… or a group of ladies. For the latter, garnish the lasagna with fresh cilantro and round out the meal with a big green salad topped with avocado and orange slices.

This recipe is from Unbelievably Gluten-Free by Anne Byrn.

My Favorite Flourless Chocolate Cake

tamra — Mon, 11 Feb 2013 15:44:09 +0000

Don’t you love the names of chocolate cake around Valentine’s Day? Chocolate seduction, temptation, ecstasy… As if good dark chocolate, combined with butter, eggs, and sugar needed a provocative title.

The recipe I share today is less tabloid and more French gourmet. I call it simply a Flourless Chocolate Cake, and it has been a favorite in my recipe files for 30 years. A timeless, elegant, velvety-textured cake, this flourless dessert was way ahead of its time when first in vogue. Thanks to everyone on my gluten-free book tour who asked about flourless chocolate cakes, for your questions helped me remember an old-faithful of a recipe I had forgotten.

What makes this cake rise and give it the structure it lacks without flour are the six eggs. You beat the yolks with sugar until thickened and fold in melted chocolate and butter, then stiffly beaten egg whites. The cake goes into a relatively hot oven – 375 degrees – but just for 15 minutes, then the oven temperature is gradually reduced as the cake bakes, resulting in a crunchy exterior and smooth interior – perfection.

This French-style chocolate cake was all the rage in the 1980s. Some recipes contained ground almonds, others a tablespoon of flour. Some omitted flour but called for so much butter and chocolate you could barely eat a sliver. Super-chef Jean-Georges Vongerichten made his mark by portioning flourless chocolate cake batter into ramekins and baked them in a hot oven, so that the cake intentionally wasn’t done in the center. Molten chocolate cake was born.

The secrets to my beloved recipe are good bittersweet chocolate (Scharffen Berger), large eggs, and the right pan, such as a tall-sided springform that allows the cake to rise up, and fall into ooey-gooey, brownie-like goodness.

Who said simple couldn’t be delicious? But don’t tell your Valentine how easy this cake is to assemble and how you have all the ingredients on hand. Some things are better left unsaid…

Here is the recipe.

Southern Caramel Cake with Peach Conserve

tamra — Mon, 17 Dec 2012 17:55:58 +0000

I spent 20 years in Georgia, first in college at the University of Georgia, and then in Atlanta as food editor of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. Along the way I met wonderful people and picked up some of my favorite recipes. Gwen Bentley and her husband, the late Jimmy Bentley, were friends of mine in Atlanta. Jimmy was known in political circles, in the real estate world, and to all who loved good food. One of my favorite of his recipes was his caramel cake, which he made by stacking two 9 by 13-inch yellow cakes on top of one another, and frosting with his burnt sugar icing. I had forgotten until recently that Jimmy also folded in a peach and orange marmalade conserve into the bottom cake layer just before it baked. This was such a Southern twist on a simple cake – to fancy up one layer, not both, so you have this beautiful contrast of flavor and texture when you take a bite of cake. Conserves are similar to preserves but they usually have nuts added, and in this case it is chopped pecans. I have scaled down the cake to 9-inch layers, and I have added my mother’s recipe for Caramel Frosting, which is easier to prepare than the old-fashioned method of caramelizing white sugar. This cake will take you through the holidays into the winter and into spring and summer. It is seasonless and lovely.

Here is the recipe

A Piece of Cake December 2012

admin — Fri, 14 Dec 2012 20:08:38 +0000

You know it’s December when the calendar is over-committed, the refrigerator stocked high with butter and eggs, and you bake before bedtime. That’s the case at our house, even though with just one child left at home there are fewer teacher gifts to make. We pull out my mother’s toffee recipe, make a coconut or caramel cake for my husband’s birthday, bake cheese wafers and toasted pecans for nibbling, roll out and decorate gingerbread stars and sugar cookies once my girls get home from college, and then run around the block!

I am just home from my first leg of book tour and successfully survived airport delays, live TV, and late-night cooking classes. I love book tour because I get to meet readers like you. Unbelievably Gluten-Free is my new book, a dinner book for anyone who is gluten-free or has to cook for someone they love on a gluten-free diet. In fact, that was why I wrote the book. I found gluten-free prepared foods at the supermarket expensive and tasteless. Why not make your own quickly, deliciously, inexpensively? (Check out the second half of my tour dates below).

For everyone, g-free or not, welcome to another newsletter, filled with recipes and ramblings, wisdom and wisecracks, and now approaching its 13^th year. Who was it that told me I needed to start writing a newsletter? Think it was the first web designer I had who skied during the daytime in Park City, Utah, and created the Cake Mix Doctor website, and others, at night. It was a good idea. We have shared a lot of great recipes here, and always great baking ideas. I love the ideas you come up with – and this newsletter is no exception. So read on, bake on, and be well this month and into 2013.

Happy Baking!
Anne

Recipe Swap

I had forgotten until recently that Jimmy also folded in a peach and orange marmalade conserve into the bottom cake layer just before it baked. This was such a Southern twist on a simple cake – to fancy up one layer, not both, so you have this beautiful contrast of flavor and texture when you take a bite of cake. Conserves are similar to preserves but they usually have nuts added, and in this case it is chopped pecans. I have scaled down the cake to 9-inch layers, and I have added my mother’s recipe for Caramel Frosting, which is easier to prepare than the old-fashioned method of caramelizing white sugar. This cake will take you through the holidays into the winter and into spring and summer. It is seasonless and lovely.

Southern Caramel Cake with Peach Conserve

Makes 16 servings
Prep: 30 minutes
Bake: 32 to 38 minutes
Total time: 62 to 68 minutes

For the peach conserve:
¼ cup peach preserves
2 heaping tablespoons orange marmalade
2 tablespoons finely chopped pecans

For the cake:
1 package yellow cake mix (see Note)
2 heaping tablespoons instant vanilla pudding mix, if desired
3 large eggs
12 tablespoons unsalted butter, softened
1 1/3 cups milk, warmed

Quick Caramel Frosting:
12 tablespoons butter
¾ cup dark brown sugar
¾ cup light brown sugar
¼ cup plus 2 tablespoons milk
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
3 cups confectioners’ sugar, sifted

1. For the peach conserve, place the peach preserves, orange marmalade, and pecans in a small bowl and stir to combine. Set the conserve aside.

2. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Grease and flour 2 9-inch cake layer pans and set aside.

3. For the cake, place the cake mix and pudding mix in a large bowl and stir to combine. Add the eggs, butter, and milk, and blend on low with an electric mixer until the ingredients are combined, then increase the mixer speed to medium and beat until smooth and thickened, 1½ to 2 minutes. Turn half of the batter into one of the layer pans. Fold the conserve into the remaining batter and turn this batter into the other layer pan. Place the pans in the oven side by side. Bake until the tops are golden, the tops spring back when lightly pressed with a finger, about 32 to 38 minutes. The layer with the conserve added will take several minutes longer to cook than the plain layer.

4. Remove the pans to a rack to cool 10 to 15 minutes. Run a knife around the edge of the pan, shake the pan to loosen the cake, then invert the layers once, then again, onto the rack to cool right-side up.

5. While the cakes are cooling, assemble the frosting ingredients. When the cakes are cool to the touch, you can begin making the frosting. Place the butter in a large saucepan over medium-low heat. When the butter has melted, stir in the brown sugars until well combined and bubbly. Add the milk and reduce the heat to low. Add the vanilla. Remove the pan from the heat and whisk in the confectioners’ sugar until smooth.

6. To assemble and frost the cake, place the layer with the conserve on a cake stand. Spoon a generous layer of caramel frosting over this layer and spread evenly to the edge of the cake. Immediately place the second layer on top of the first, and with generous spoonfuls, ladle warm frosting over the top of the cake. It will set as you spread it. Frost the sides of the cake, working quickly as the frosting sets as it is spread onto the cake. If the frosting gets too hard to spread, place it back over low heat and add a dribble of milk to thin it slightly. This cake will keep at room temperature for three days.

Note: If you use a 15- to 16-ounce yellow cake mix, add 5 tablespoons all-purpose flour to the mix. This recipe is perfect for my cake mix, The Cake Mix Doctor’s Old-Fashioned Yellow cake mix, which is 21.6 ounces. Why add instant pudding mix? It helps suspend the nuts and preserves in the cake layer.

And it’s Free!

My 30 favorite frostings – yes, I really do love that many frostings! – are all together in a cute frosting booklet called, “The Icing on the Cake.” You can download a free version of the 48-page book during the month of December. Yes, it is free!

A New Kind of eBook

A new format of ebook will blow you away – really. It is from Inkling, a creative California-based company that started by making textbooks more interesting to use. Now there are Inkling versions of cookbooks. The photography is everywhere. Recipes don’t jump from one page to another but instead seem like long recipe cards with little interactive pockets of information, tip boxes, and call-outs from sidebars. I am thrilled to have two of my books in Inkling offerings – The Cake Mix Doctor Returns and also Unbelievably Gluten-Free. Check them out! You can buy the whole book in Inkling format or just a chapter.

Anne’s Cake Mix

Two years into the cake mix business, and I am thrilled to say my mixes are now not only in the Central Markets throughout Texas but also Winn-Dixie in Florida and St. Simons, GA, and just added to the fabulous Star Markets in the Boston area. Check out http://www.cakemixdoctor.com/annes-cake-mix/ for locations. If there is no location near you, then you can order online. Or drop me an email anne@cakemixdoctor.com and let me know of a store near you that should carry my mixes. My mixes are unique in that they are easy to bake – dump in a bowl – but have no artificial ingredients.

Holiday Coupon: And now, if you order online, you can take advantage of a winter baking special of 20 percent off! Type the coupon code WINTER20 on the order page. All orders come with a free recipe card.

My Favorite Things

Raindrops on roses and whiskers on kittens are not some of my favorite things during the holidays. I prefer:

India Tree decorating sugars for a beautiful upscale look to decorated sugar cookies.

Scharffen Berger bittersweet chocolate for making chocolate ganache.

Using dried and sweetened cranberries and cherries instead of raisins in cookies.

Citrus of all types – satsumas, clementines, California navel oranges, and some juicy temple oranges this year. We make pomander balls of lemon and oranges by poking holes in the citrus with a toothpick and them plugging the holes with whole cloves. Place these in a pretty glass bowl in the center of the table and they are not only beautiful to look at but this colonial period decoration keeps the house freshly scented as it did years ago in the pre-air freshener days.

Ginger. My sister’s name and also a spice that gives a little pick-me-up to whatever it inhabits – apple pie, pumpkin bread, gingerbread cookies, etc.

Allison’s Gluten-Free Granola from my new book. I stash in the pantry for easy breakfasts or pack into plastic bags for gifts. Allison’s recipe has coconut, almonds, pepitas, and dried cherries so it is unique and fun. You don’t have to be g-free to love it.

Unbelievably Gluten-Free Book Tour: Part 2

I may be in a city near you! Come see me. And remember even if you are not gluten-free, my other books will be sold and I am happy to visit with you and answer any baking or cooking questions.

Wednesday, January 16th, 7 pm
Seattle, WA
Third Place Books
17171 Bothell Way NE
Lake Forest Park, WA 98155
(206) 366-3333

Tuesday, January 22nd, 7 pm
Grand Rapids, MI
Schuler Books & Music
2660 28th Street SE
Grand Rapids, MI 49512
(616) 942-2561

Thursday, January 24th, 6 pm
Twin Cities, MN
Cooks of Crocus Hill
24 S. Main St
Stillwater, MN 55082
(651) 351-1144

Wednesday, January 30th, 7 pm
Phoenix, AZ
Changing Hands Bookstore
6428 S. McClintock Dr
Tempe, AZ 85283
(480) 730-0205

Thursday, January 31st; 7:30 pm
Denver, CO
Tattered Cover Bookstore
9315 Dorchester Street
Highlands Ranch, CO 80129
(303) 470-7050

Hot Tips

Where would I be without great baking tips from readers like you?

Ilene Leventhal writes that she has been baking from-scratch cakes for years but started using my recipes to make things a little easier in the kitchen. Her great tip is to make a sheet or round cake, let it cool, then slice in half horizontally and drizzle the inside “very lightly with rum – white and not dark. I use just enough to moisten the cake and not have that rum flavor.” And Ilene adds, she now uses extra-large eggs when baking because oftentimes the large eggs are not large anymore! I agree, Ilene, and have resorted to weighing eggs to make sure they are at least 2 ounces each. Ilene started baking when she was seven years of age, and she credits her love of baking to her mom who encouraged her. “Because of her praising me, I was hooked and loved baking, cooking, etc.”

Survey Says…Few are happy with reformulated, smaller cake mixes

Diane Rockwell, aka The Cake Lady, of Lancaster, MA, wrote earlier this fall. She was surveying cake bakers as to their opinions of the new smaller cake mixes. To get things in the right order, Diane first wrote a letter to the CEO of Smuckers, parent company of Pillsbury cake mix, last summer saying she had been baking with the Pillsbury mix for 35 years and included not-so-favorable comments about the smaller mixes from internet chat boards. Then she received a phone call from Smuckers, asking her to come meet with their marketing and research and development teams. But before her visit Diane wanted to have facts in hand, so she conducted an online survey of bakers and as of early November her survey had yielded 348 responses. Here are Diane’s survey results:

Two-thirds of the bakers switched to another brand of cake mix when theirs was down-sized.

One-third of the bakers add more mix or dry ingredients to get back to the volume of the old mixes.

The majority of bakers did not like the new size, texture, and volume of the mixes.

Only 20 percent follow box directions – most people customize them with added ingredients.

Half of the bakers have more than 10 years baking experience.

My advice is to add 5 to 6 tablespoons all-purpose flour to the smaller mixes before adding other ingredients.

Diane and others are petitioning cake mix companies to bring back the original formulas and sizes. To help them, fill out the survey by visiting:

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/viewform?fromEmail=true&formkey=dEJ2Z3FSbDhTLVZUZFYwQXFpV29qNXc6MQ

Follow me: It’s easy!

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Mix-cellaneous! If you would like more news from my kitchen, would like to hear about must-have ingredients I stash in my pantry as well as updates and recipes using my cake mixes, sign up for a new newsletter – Mix-cellaneous!

Next issue: News from the road. Winter baking. Keeping fit.

Fresh Cranberry Tart

tamra — Tue, 20 Nov 2012 16:28:59 +0000

It is two days before Thanksgiving and I am knocking out those little recipes like cranberry sauce that are easy to prepare ahead of time and chill. But I am careful not to use all the cranberries, saving two cups for my cranberry tart.

A recipe shared with me a few years back by a good Nashville cook, this cranberry tart is a holiday staple at our house. For it is crustless, which makes it dead-easy. And it is versatile, too, so we add cranberries, or half cranberries and half apples, or blueberries, whatever is on hand.

I was working on my cookbook, What Can I Bring, when I spoke with Sally Mabry, who was then the receptionist at the middle school where my girls attended. Sally is this larger than life personality, full of energy and smiles and funny comments, and having raised a family, she knows good recipes, too. I asked Sally if she had that one great recipe she toted to parties, something so wonderful that everyone begged for the recipe.

Sally thought a minute, and then smiled. It wasn’t exactly her recipe because she had gotten it from Rita, who got it from Ophelia, who got the recipe from another Sally. I knew it had to be good if it had passed through so many kitchens! Fortunately, Sally shared the recipe with me, I shared it with readers of What Can I Bring, and now I share it with you.

Thanksgiving is a wonderful time to cook traditional family recipes – the pumpkin pie – and throw in one that is new and unexpected – this cranberry tart. Just remember to save two cups of cranberries!

Here is the recipe.

Gluten-Free Baked Apricots

tamra — Tue, 13 Nov 2012 23:19:34 +0000

What’s your favorite Thanksgiving side?

Are you a dressing gal, a sweet potato fan, green bean guy? My old-time favorites are cornbread dressing and gravy, Mikey’s sweet potatoes, fresh cranberry sauce, and my mom’s recipe for cooking fresh green beans. But as of the last few years my infatuation has been with baked apricots.

I know that sounds strange and if you told me as a child I would be writing a blog about baked apricots one day, I would have replied, “Yeck!” For canned apricots were the fruit my parents ate. My mom turned them into gelatin salads, and we kids passed on it because the texture was mushy, not our thing. But now, my apricot days must be here. For these baked apricots are the cobbler-meets-side I yearn for in late November. I spoon them alongside roasted turkey or ham (or even barbecued ribs!) Brightly orange and packed with vitamin A and C, these apricots are layered with brown sugar and cinnamon plus crushed buttery round crackers. I love them.

And they are gluten-free – a recipe from my new cookbook called, Unbelievably Gluten-Free.

So try them if you have someone coming for Thanksgiving who is gluten-free. Or just try them anyway. And if you want to substitute regular buttery round crackers for the gluten-free ones, that will not hurt my feelings, either. Enjoy!

Here is the recipe.

Blueberry Honey Bun Cake

tamra — Mon, 15 Oct 2012 16:25:59 +0000

Coffee cakes, casseroles, chicken dinners – to my mother’s generation they were the most used recipe cards, smudged and stained from repeated use. If you could bake a good coffee cake, a hearty casserole, and could fry chicken, you just about had it covered in feeding a family, entertaining friends, and impressing everyone at the potluck supper. Today, times have definitely changed, but on rainy Sundays I yearn for the food of yesterday. So I bake coffee cake and realize it’s still useful to have an amazing coffee cake recipe up my sleeve, one I can whip out effortlessly, with ingredients on hand in the pantry and fridge. This is one such recipe, so called a Honey Bun Cake because it resembles those irresistible honey bun sweet rolls with confectioners’ sugar drizzle. Through the years I have tweaked this favorite recipe, sometimes adding ricotta cheese in place of the sour cream, or using fresh berries for color and flavor, but always beginning with a yellow cake mix. The version I share today uses my cake mix (and it is a recipe I shared with food blogger Karly Campbell – www.bunsinmyoven.com – who took this gorgeous photo). If you use a smaller cake mix (from 15 to 16 ounces) simply omit the water in the recipe, and watch the baking time as the coffee cake may bake a little faster. Consider this a nostalgic turns new recipe, one you may tweak as you please and hopefully bake often.

Here is the recipe.

Big Batch Pumpkin Bread

tamra — Tue, 02 Oct 2012 18:20:12 +0000

Last week was crazy-busy, and yet I still needed to take a loaf of bread to three friends in three different situations. One was celebrating a birthday, another making a big change and moving south to live in Nashville, and a third grieving over the loss of her father. So I reached for my food-stained and much-loved copy of What Can I Bring? and flipped to page 446 to bake my mother’s pumpkin bread recipe. This is a workhorse of a recipe, making three big loaves of bread at one time. Love it! An added bonus of baking this pumpkin bread is that I think of my mother Bebe when I make it. She was a thoughtful and caring friend, remembering others by baking for them. As her family, we just hoped she would reserve one loaf for us. The smell of the cinnamon and nutmeg in the batter perfumed the kitchen as the bread baked, and we begged for a slice! These days pumpkin bread seems to be everywhere, but it is never as good as when you make it in your own kitchen and deliver it to someone you care about. Did I mention that this pumpkin bread seems to taste better on day two or three? If it lasts that long…

Here is the recipe.

Flourless Chocolate Cakes

tamra — Tue, 18 Sep 2012 20:08:01 +0000

Each and every one of my cookbooks is like my child, my baby. I put work, creativity, love, time, and money into each book hoping that it will be well received in kitchens everywhere. My newest book, Unbelievably Gluten-Free, is no exception. If books are truly like children, then this one is the child on a special diet, the child who cannot eat bread or cake, who must forgo gluten – the protein in wheat, barley, and rye – in order to be well, to live. I loved writing this book and coming up with ways everyone who follows a gluten-free diet can still enjoy fried chicken, meatloaf, lasagna, pizza, pasta, pie, even cake. One of the most delicious of all chocolate cakes is naturally gluten-free because it contains no flour to help it rise. You beat the eggs well and then slowly incorporate melted semisweet chocolate until the batter is thickened, and this is what allows the cake to rise and then gently fall when cooling, yielding a soft, gooey chocolate center that is downright irresistible. Enjoy this recipe from my new book!

Flourless Chocolate Cakes

Buy the book