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"Gone Baking"

I have this dreadful memory of baking peach pound cake in Atlanta on one sizzling July afternoon. Room temperature butter melted into a pool on the counter, the eggs were so warm they nearly scrambled, and my kitchen turned into a steam bath after that scratch cake took 90 tortuous minutes to cook.

Baking in hot summer weather then was as unthinkable as toting a chattering cell phone on a peaceful fishing trip now. But in the summer of 1998 I took a chance. I offered a sampling of easy cake recipes that all began with a cake mix to newspaper readers in Nashville. Would they bite? You bet! The Cake Mix Doctor was conceived, and ironically it was born in a scorcher of a summer. Thus, I learned that cake baking need not be sweat-provoking or time-consuming. It can occur on the spur of the moment and fit into a summertime routine. But it needs to begin with a cake mix. No matter how high the mercury soars in your hometown this summer, why not go cake baking?

My favorite warm weather cakes are listed in this third newsletter, along with some new items like Favorite Quotes and the International Corner, where we'll get to hear from a cake baker outside the United States.

Don't miss the Chocolate Marble Angel Food Cake from Nashville cook Barbara Weindling. And don't miss another round of questions and answers, such as how the size of an egg will affect your cakes. We've even got that requested cornbread recipe that begins with a yellow cake mix. Thanks to all the food sleuths who tracked that one down!

A Piece of Cake's subscriber list has skyrocketed from a healthy 700 just two months ago to a whopping 2,000 now. Welcome newcomers! (Check out our past newsletters. And welcome back baking pals. Thank you for the kind words, suggestions, comments, gripes, tips and trivia.

Summer 2000 is time to slice into homegrown tomatoes, sip lemonade and bake a cake for someone else. So let's go baking!

From all of us at Workman Publishing, thanks for making The Cake Mix Doctor the smash of the season! Like you, everyone here has been fully bitten by the cake mix "bug," including our families - one of our employee's mothers has even become a sort of town crier for the book, spreading the gospel at the office, parties, pot lucks, and beyond.

Now, after 17 cities and one more QVC appearance on June 10, Anne is taking the summer off. But she leaves in her wake a community of cake mix devotees from interns to bona fide surgeons. Your devotion and talking about The Cake Mix Doctor has made it bigger than ever! Workman has now shipped most of the sixth printing (total in print: 262,000). The book has recently appeared in new stories in USA Today, The Baltimore Sun, The Orange County Register, The Arizona Republic, The Cape Cod Times, and The Orlando Sentinel. Anne's tour concluded with sell-out stops in Raleigh, Atlanta, Cincinnati, and Dayton, and as a result the book has logged four straight weeks (and 6 of its 14 weeks total) at No. 1 on the Los Angeles Times National Cookbook Hot List. In fact, The Cake Mix Doctor has hovered at the top of everyone's list from Amazon online to Joseph-Beth Booksellers in the Mid-east. The hits of the spring? No doubt the Fresh Strawberry Cake and The Incredible Melted Ice Cream Cake.

A happy summer (and summer off to Anne) and thanks again to all of you!

Several of your cake recipes call for buttermilk. Can buttermilk powder be substituted?
—Sandy Bayley, Cashiers, NC

Absolutely. Following directions on the package, add enough dry powder and liquid to equal the amount of buttermilk in the recipe.

Cakes seem to stick to the bottom of my tube pan. This doesn't happen with my Bundt pan. Can I substitute the Bundt when the recipe calls for the tube pan?
—Molly Koenig, Tucson, AZ

Yes, but watch the Bundt edges so they don't over brown. I find the Bundts cook a little faster than tubes. As for keeping the cake from sticking to a tube pan, try greasing with vegetable shortening, dusting with flour and letting the cake rest in the pan about 20 minutes before unmolding. Run a sharp long knife around the exterior and interior edges of the cake, shake the pan firmly with both hands to loosen the cake from the pan, then invert it onto a rack to cool.

I want to bake in the Nordic Ware miniature pans, but don't know how much cake batter to add. Can you help?
—Dina Anderson, Warsaw, MO

Jill Gurley, Nordic Ware's marketing manager, offered this handy conversion information: For the Bundtlette (1-cup capacity) use 3/4 cup batter. For the mini-loaf (1 1/2-cup capacity) use 1 1/4 cups batter. For the Bundt cupcake (1/2-cup capacity) use 1/4 cup batter. And for the Angelette (1-cup capacity) use 3/4 cup batter.

I have just made your Grandma's Coconut Icebox Cake. The frosting was transparent in color. Is this right?
—Roseanne Harrod, Goshen, KY

When the frosting is first spread on the cake it will look transparent and it will slide down the sides of the cake. But have faith! Put the cake in the refrigerator as the recipe says, preferably under a plastic cake saver, and in about six hours the frosting with thicken up and look white, not transparent. With a spatula you can pull the frosting back up the sides of the cake. For a more dramatic presentation, pat on some extra unsweetened or sweetened coconut on top and sides just before serving. Remember to wait three days before eating (that's the hard part). And for all of you having trouble finding frozen unsweetened coconut in your supermarket's freezer case, look in Asian markets and health food stores.

I often burn the bottom of a cake, or at least it is drier than the rest of the cake. Any suggestions?
—Christina Mangano

First, check the oven rack position. Make sure it is as close to the center as possible and not at the bottom of the oven. Check the oven temperature with an oven thermometer from the hardware store. Let the oven fully preheat before adding cake. And lastly, don't bake light-battered cakes in dark pans. Don't spray dark pans with vegetable oil sprays that contain propellants (alcohol). Read the label. These will cause the edges of the cake to bake more quickly than the center, get crusty and darken.

In our small town you can only get cake mix with pudding in it. Where can I find plain cake mix?
—Laura Jolicoeur, Valdez, AK

Duncan Hines makes a plain cake mix, even though the label says "moist deluxe." Also Jiffy makes plain cake mix (use two boxes), and many store brands offer plain cake mix. In many of the layer cakes, a pudding-in-the-mix can be substituted for plain. It will work, but you will have a heavier and wetter cake, which many people like.

I have made your Quick Red Velvet Cake to rave reviews, but could I use milk instead of water, use melted butter instead of oil, add a box of instant chocolate pudding to the mix if I use plain German chocolate cake mix?
—Kristel Simmonds, Brooklyn, NY

Yes, yes, yes. Enjoy!

What is the cake on the cover of the book? I don't recognize it in any of the recipes, and it looks wonderful.
—Bev Scheerer, Columbia, SC

That cake is the Basic Yellow Pound Cake (page 406) frosted with the Fluffy Chocolate Frosting (page 426). And in case you wondered why there is a layer of frosting on the bottom of the cake...No, this isn't a new fad. That cake was originally baked in three gargantuan layers so it would look big and important on the book cover. But when I showed up at the photo studio, the cake was so tall it covered my entire torso. And I couldn't lift it. So with a long sharp knife, we carefully sliced off that bottom layer but left the frosting behind.

EGGS-ACTLY WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW BEFORE YOU BAKE WITH EGGS

In our household, we only buy one size of eggs—large. That's because I know that at any given time I can reach into the egg carton and find a large egg—not a small, medium or jumbo— and add it to a cake recipe. But as I traversed the country and baked cakes in different cities and in different kitchens and with different ingredients, I learned that not everyone follows this golden rule. Many people bake with small eggs and jumbo eggs even though the recipe states "large."

So when I returned home I checked with the American Egg Board, and they agreed with me. You need to stick with the size egg the cake recipe calls for because you need to maintain the right proportion of egg white to yolk, and liquid to dry for a cake to bake up correctly. If a cake recipe doesn't specify the size of egg, use large. Using larger eggs than this will cause cakes to be more spongy, or it could dry them out from the added whites, or cause them to rise more (and possibly fall). Using eggs smaller will produce a less than tender cake and one that doesn't rise as well.

BAKING IN COFFEE CANS

Marsha Campbell of Franklin, TN, was curious as to how to bake cakes in coffee cans as she remembered her mother baking pumpkin bread and zucchini bread in coffee cans. But before I could locate a recipe, Marsha was back in touch, having found this method:

Thoroughly clean 2 1-pound coffee cans. Grease and flour as you would a 9-inch loaf pan. Pour in batter that bakes well in loaf pans - pumpkin bread batter and the sturdier pound cake batters are excellent. Fill cans half full and bake about 1 hour and 15 minutes at 350 degrees.

Test cake or bread for doneness within 60 minutes of baking time with a toothpick inserted in center. It should come out clean. Remove cans from oven and let rest on rack for 20 minutes, then run a sharp knife around the edges and invert onto a rack to finish cooling. Wrap the bread or cake in plastic to store, and wrap a ribbon around it if this is a gift.

THE MISSING CORNBREAD RECIPE

In the second newsletter, Diana and Bill Johnson of Meadville, PA, were hunting for a cornbread recipe using yellow cake mix and corn muffin mix. Our readers uncovered that recipe. It can be made into bread or muffins. Your choice. And it goes by names like Sunshine Muffins or Sweet Cornbread. Use both
the Jiffy corn muffin mix and the Jiffy yellow cake mix. Ann Strawser of Arlington, TX, notes: "This may be the recipe that was requested by your reader. She must be a Northerner as our neighbors here in the South think this is too sweet. Being from Ohio, it fit our tastebuds just right!"

SWEET CORNBREAD

Makes 12 servings

1 8 1/2-ounce package Jiffy corn muffin mix
1 9-ounce package Jiffy yellow cake mix Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Prepare corn muffin mix as directed on package. In another bowl, prepare cake mix as directed on package. Stir muffin batter into cake batter to combine thoroughly. Spread batter evenly into a lightly greased 13 by 9-inch pan for 30 to 40 minutes, or until cornbread begins to crack a bit around the edges. Cut into squares while still warm.

Note: Norma Maienschein of Lee's Summit, MO, doesn't think this cornbread is sweet enough. She drizzles honey over the pieces before serving!

CHOCOLATE MARBLE ANGEL FOOD CAKE

Serves: 16
Preparation time: 10 minutes
Baking time: 40 to 45 minutes

I knew Barbara Wiendling was a from-scratch girl. So I was a bit surprised when she e-mailed me with this delightful low-fat and easy angel food cake based on a mix. It was one she devised for Thanksgiving, to serve after a heavy meal. I think it's perfect for summertime, too, because it's light and totable and a bit different, marbled with chocolate and lightly glazed with more chocolate.

1 package (16 ounces) angel food cake mix
1 1/4 cups water
1 tablespoon unsweetened cocoa

Glaze:

1/2 cup semisweet chocolate chips
2 tablespoons margarine or butter
2 tablespoons light corn syrup
1 to 2 teaspoons hot water

1. Place a rack in the center of the oven and preheat the oven to 325 degrees. Set aside an ungreased 10-inch tube pan.

2. Place the cake mix and water in a large mixing bowl. Blend with an electric mixer on low speed for 1 minute. Stop the machine and scrape down the sides of the bowl. Increase the mixer speed to medium and beat 1 minute more. Pour half of the batter into a clean bowl. Stir cocoa into this batter. Drop white and chocolate batters alternately by generous tablespoons into reserved ungreased pan. Smooth out the top with a rubber spatula, and place the pan in the oven.

3. Bake the cake until it is light brown and springs back when lightly pressed with your finger, 40 to 45 minutes. Remove the pan from the oven and immediately invert it over a long-necked glass bottle to cool for 1 hour. Remove the pan from the bottle. Run a long, sharp knife around the edge of the cake and invert it onto a serving platter.

4. For the glaze, place the chocolate chips, margarine or butter, and corn syrup in a small saucepan over low heat. Stir and cook until chocolate is melted. Remove pan from the heat and stir in water, a teaspoon at a time, or until thin enough to pour. Pour glaze over the top of the cake and spread as needed, allowing it to drizzle down the sides. Slice and serve.

Meet Wayne Hoover of Castell'Anselmo, Italy, an American teacher living in a small hilltop town about 10 miles south of Pisa. Wayne "doctored the doctor" by heating 1/3 cup butter and 1 cup chocolate semisweet chocolate chips to form a glaze and spread this over the Chocolate Sheet Cake with Peanut Butter Frosting (page 52). Yum. "I decided it needed a little more chocolate...I took it to work and everybody raved," Wayne said. "What I didn't tell them was how easy it was."

Cake mix in Italy? Mama mia! Wayne says a few cake mixes are found in Italian supermarkets, but he is fortunate enough to shop the U.S. military commissary with its full supply of U.S. cake mixes and other doctoring ingredients. Wayne is a teacher for the Department of Defense Dependents' School, and when he isn't teaching he's baking or buying fresh peaches and tomatoes from the local markets.

"This is a beautiful area of the world. The rolling hills, olive groves, cypress trees, and thousand-year-old farm houses all make this area incredibly rich. I consider myself very fortunate to have this experience, and even to get paid for it!"

"For the cooks who prefer 8-inch layers and want tall cakes: What I have done for years is use 1 1/2 cake mixes with 1 1/2 half of the oil, milk, eggs, flavorings, etc., and bake in three 9-inch pans for a beautiful, professional and tall-looking cake." —Sandy Lacey, Dahlonega, GA

Try These Summer Cakes

Pina Colada Cake (page 296)
Darn Good Chocolate Cake (page 36)
Red, White and Blue Angel Food Ice Cream Cake (page 197)
Fresh Peach Pecan Kuchen (page 276)
Harvey Wallbanger Cake (page 284)
Favorite Apricot Nectar Cake (page 85)

Katie Harkness of Eaton Rapids, MI, made the Carrot Cake on page 109 but omitted the cinnamon and used a spice cake mix instead of the yellow mix. "I got a lot of compliments," says this new mom who finds these cake mix recipes faster than her old scratch recipes.

Molly Koenig of Tuscon, AZ, suggests trying Haagen-Dazs strawberry cheesecake ice cream in the Incredible Melted Ice Cream Cake.

Terry Shelton of Houston, TX, recalls her favorite birthday cake memory: "When I was a little girl we would go to Iowa to visit my aunt every summer. One summer she made me an early birthday cake (we visited in June but my birthday wasn't until August), and it was her favorite, a cherry chip cake. It had little cherry chips that just melted in your mouth. From that time on, every summer she would bake me my special birthday cake when I visited. That cake never tasted the same I when I tried to make it. My aunt passed away many years ago, but I'll always remember my Cherry Chip Birthday Cake."

Note: Duncan Hines used to make this cherry chip cake mix, but it is no longer produced. Betty Crocker makes a pudding-in-the-mix cherry chip cake. Terry Shelton is one of many readers who have e-mailed me about this cake mix.

Laura Klein is a cook in an assisted living care center. "This is quite a task, especially since we are short-staffed. I happen to be the cook with the most culinary experience and therefore, I am in charge of soups and desserts" (as well as the main meal.) She is looking for great cake ideas that can be prepared quickly and in large quantities. She would like ideas as to what cakes seniors like to eat. And she is willing to share what she has learned with those of you in the same profession. Send those ideas to anne@cakemixdoctor.com, and I'll compile all the tips for baking for the elderly in one of my newsletters.

And, Cathi Williams of Powhatan, VA, is looking for a gismo to help her neatly fill cupcake tins. "Do you know of any mess-free way to get the same amount of batter into a tin for a cupcake or muffin? I make a lot of these for my three school-aged children." Help this frustrated mom! Send your ideas to anne@cakemixdoctor.com.

"I made about five recipes of the chocolate macadamia biscotti, and all the ladies in my church went crazy over them. In a religious way, of course!"
—Marcia Kelley, Warren, TX

"I have a confession. Before The Cake Mix Doctor came into my life, I had all but stopped baking cakes"
—Beverly Mills with Alicia Ross, Desperation Dinners

Any favorite chocolate cake recipes to pass along? And yes, they must begin with a cake mix! Send these to anne@cakemixdoctor.com.