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Holiday Greetings—Note From The Doctor
Notes From Workman—Correct Me If I'm Wrong
Reader Q&A
Bits & Bytes—High Altitude Baking
Recipe Swap—Lemonade Pound Cake, Brownies from Cake Mix
Hot Holiday Tips—Gifts, Yogurt, Sparkling Water
Doctor The Doctor—You Doctor My Recipes
Favorite Quotes
Do Share—Blondies, Apricot Cake, Neapolitan Bars
Next Issue—Valentine's Day

Sorry this newsletter is arriving a week later than planned, but what with the success of The Cake Mix Doctor, the bustling new Web site and message board, and all of your questions and comments, it's been a frantic—but fun— December. But mostly I've been busy with the new book. That's right: Rumors have been circulating, and now it can be told...yes, a sequel will be published next fall.

Thanks to all of you for your wonderful messages and questions. Karin Stucchio of Long Island was right when she says in this issue how much the Internet has changed our lives. Who would have thought I would be corresponding with readers each day? And the give-and-take between us is creating a strong second book.

In this last newsletter issue of the year, we share last-minute holiday baking and giving ideas, we pass along two great recipes requested from our readers, and help out those poor souls who may breathe the cleaner air of high altitudes but who bake cakes that look like the Grand Canyon!

The pleas started trickling in as soon as The Cake Mix Doctor was published last year. Cecelia Lain of Janesville, CA, Teresa Buckley of Denver, CO, Lonie Compson of Prescott, AZ, Josh Hilden of Arnold, CA, Christine Doughty of Albuquerque, NM, and others, pleaded for help in adapting my recipes to high altitudes. But it wasn't until I located Bonnie West of Denver, CO, that I got the answers.

Bonnie has lived in Colorado all of her life and is a graduate of Colorado State University where the Consumer Sciences department is known for its high-altitude lab. She jokingly says old-timers to high-altitude baking aren't as picky as the newcomers. "The people who have the most trouble are those who have recently moved here from a lower altitude and want their cake to turn out the way it did back home."

For this issue, Bonnie tested Susan's Lemon Cake, the Chocolate Sheetcake, and Darn Good Chocolate Cake in the Mile High City. The sheetcake wasn't as successful as the lemon cake and the chocolate Bundt. Her suggestions for spotting high-risk cakes are fascinating.

So for those of you who live in the clouds, this is my long-overdue holiday gift. And for those of you on lower, flatter ground, read on and feel fortunate that you can just bake by the box, or the recipe, or by whim in whatever pan that suits you.

Happy Holidays to all!

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Nothing is perfect—even something as wonderful as The Cake Mix Doctor. But we're getting there! In the 10+ printings of The Cake Mix Doctor, we've had to make a few corrections, and so we leave 2000 with this holiday message. (Please Note: Not All Printings Need Corrections.)

Happy Holidays Cake Lovers from All of Us Here

Thanks for making The Cake Mix Doctor one of the best-selling cookbooks of the year!
But even with something as wonderful as this book
Perfection is a process, just take a look
We've noticed a goggle, a gung and some glitches
So we've fixed up the snags, the snoggles, and snitches!
We've reviewed it once over and then another zillion
We've tested our cakes - we've eaten a gazillion!
So here is a list, check it once or twice
We want your cakes to be great, wonderful . . . real nice!

Susan's Lemon Cake (p. 83)
1 cup confectioners' sugar in glaze (not 2 or 1/2)

Apricot Nectar Cake (p. 85)
Preheat to 350 F (not 325)

Grandma's Coconut Ice Box Cake (p. 118)
2 cups GRANULATED sugar
And please note: icing will go on runny but will firm up as it chills

Banana Pudding Cake (p. 139)
3 cups COLD whole milk
4 tablespoons butter MELTED (not cut up)

Easy Tiramisu (p. 146)
Topping: 2 packages (8 ounces each) cream cheese (not 10 ounces or one 16 ounce package)

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Q. When you make a glaze with powdered sugar and liquid such as orange juice is there a way of getting rid of the powdered sugar taste and intensifying the orange taste?
—Connie Regner, Vallejo, CA

A. Be sure and add some of the grated orange rind or zest to the glaze. The oil in the zest is an intense flavor and will mask that sugary taste of the powdered sugar. No fresh oranges? Try orange oil. It's available in specialty shops and through food catalogs, but it is quite expensive.

Q. I made your apple spice cake in a 9- by 13-inch glass pan. The cake tasted really great, but I just didn't like the way it looked. The bottom looked too well done. Would a metal pan give me better results?
—Alyce Taxe, Northbrook, IL

A. Glass bakes hotter than metal and causes cakes to burn on the bottom and darken in the corners. I like shiny metal 9- by 13-inch pans. You can find heavy nice ones at Williams-Sonoma, or perfectly good and less expensive ones at Target. The cake will bake more evenly in metal and rise better, too.

Q. I am ready to bake a cake in a tube pan. When the cake is inverted over the neck of a bottle, what happens to the cake during the hour-long cooling process. Won't it fall out of the pan?
—Dolores Forthright, New Orleans, LA

A. This is a great question. First of all, not all cakes baked in a tube pan need to be inverted over the neck of a glass bottle to cool. Regular pound cakes can be baked in a greased and floured tube pan, left to cool in the pan for 20 minutes, and then turned out and left to cool completely on a rack. But angel food and chiffon batters need to be poured into an ungreased shiny tube or angel food cake pan before baking. The angel and chiffon cakes cling to the sides of the ungreased pan as they bake. Their volume relies on egg whites, which expand in the hot oven and cause the cake to rise tall. You want to invert these cakes in mid-air over a bottle neck because letting them cool on a rack would deflate much of that hard-earned volume. And no, they won't fall out of the pan. Because you didn't grease the pan, the cake sticks to the side until cool and you run a sharp knife around the edges to release it. The only exception is when you bake an angel or chiffon in a pan with a slippery non-stick surface. I have done this and my cakes still hold fast, but some readers have told me they have inverted cakes in non-stick pans and the cakes have slid out.

Q. I love your book, but now that I am making so many cakes I am having trouble transporting
them. Can you recommend a cake carrier?
—Brette Sember, Clarence, NY

A. I use the plain and simple Rubbermaid cake savers found at Target, Wal-Mart and other discount stores. I have seen fancier cake carriers, but don't own them! I would welcome any comments about cake carriers from readers. E-mail your cake carrier suggestions to anne@cakemixdoctor.com and we'll share those ideas in a future newsletter.

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HIGH-ALTITUDE BAKING: What You Need to Know

An area with an altitude over 3,500 feet is called high altitude. This is where there is less air pressure and cakes may rise higher than they would at sea level. If cakes do not have the structural strength to support the additional height, they fall. So what you need to do if baking at high altitudes is to strengthen the structure of your cake, or at least choose a cake recipe wisely. Some cakes are just more risky to bake at high altitudes, says Bonnie West, a Denver, CO, home economist and consultant.

If cakes were just made up of flour, eggs and water they would perform well at high-altitudes. But we all know that is not the case. Sugar, oil, butter, even cocoa, tenderize a cake, making it taste better but structurally be more delicate. More sugar in the form of gelatin and pudding creates an even more delicate structure, as does peanut butter, melted chocolate, and melted butter.

So what can you do? Learn to spot the high-risk cakes and avoid them. (For example, the Chocolate Sheet Cake with added cocoa baked in a 9- by 13-inch pan was a poor choice for Denver, says Bonnie. The cocoa tenderized the cake, and the pan couldn't support it). Learn to boost the structure of the cake you are baking. Here are some steps for high-altitude success from Bonnie West:

1. Choose the right pan. Bundt pans have lots of sides for the cake to cling to as it rises and bakes. Bundt cakes tend to bake up dense and fall less. On the other hand, 9- by 13-inch pans have the least support. If additional sugar or fat is added to the cake mix you will notice the center dipping. High-altitude bakers say that if a cake works in a 9- by 13-inch pan it will work in any pan.

2. Follow the high-altitude directions on the cake mix box. They are there to boost the structure of the cake. Often they call for adding a little extra flour or baking at a higher temperature.

3. Higher temperatures are helpful in setting the structure of the cake, but take care not to overbake the cake. "An overdone cake that is dry," says Bonnie, "is much worse than one that falls slightly."

4. Make sure you beat the cake for the maximum time recommended. Beating the cake develops gluten in the flour, which is what develops structure. Bonnie recommends at least 3 minutes of beating time. Over-beating makes a tougher cake, says Bonnie, but usually the maximum time is very acceptable.

5. If your baked cakes have large air holes or pockets, the next time try dropping the cake pan from 1 inch above the counter before baking. This will break those bubbles.

6. And don't fret if cakes crack on top. "I don't really consider this a problem because you usually turn a cake over to serve or frost it. It comes from the air here being extra dry," says Bonnie. "Adding a little more liquid may help or try baking on a humid day, but I wouldn't worry about it."

Keep in mind that adjusting a cake for high altitudes is for visual purposes, not flavor. "Most family members will be so glad you've baked a cake," says Bonnie, "they don't care if it dips a little in the middle...For those of us who grew up at high altitude, we believe frosting was invented to fill the dip!"

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LEMONADE POUND CAKE

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

If you recall, Jan Koren of Villa Park, CA, was seeking a cake with a can of lemonade concentrate mixed into the batter, but not in the glaze. Well, I received all sorts of recipes, some sheetcakes, others layers, and this easy pound cake. You can use either the regular lemonade or the pink lemonade. I thought the cake needed a glaze, so without any concentrate left, I made a quick glaze from a lemon and confectioners' sugar.

CAKE:

1 package (18. 25 ounces) plain white cake mix
1 cup sour cream
1 container (6 ounces) frozen lemonade concentrate, thawed
1 package (3 ounces) cream cheese, at room temperature
3 large eggs

GLAZE:

1 cup confectioners' sugar
3 tablespoons lemon juice
1 teaspoon grated lemon rind

1. Place a rack in the center of the oven and preheat the oven to 350 F. Lightly mist a 12-cup Bundt pan with vegetable oil, then dust with flour. Shake out the excess flour. Set the pan aside.

2. Place the cake mix, sour cream, lemonade concentrate, cream cheese, and eggs 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 with a rubber spatula. Increase the mixer speed to medium and beat 2 minutes more, scraping down the sides again if needed. The batter should look well blended.

3. Pour the batter into the prepared pan, smoothing the top with the rubber spatula. Place the pan in the oven.

4. Bake the cake until it springs back when lightly pressed with your finger, 40 to 45 minutes. Remove the pan from the oven and place it on a wire rack to cool, 20 minutes.

5. Meanwhile, prepare the glaze by whisking the confectioners' sugar, lemon juice, and lemon rind in a medium mixing bowl.

6. Turn the cake out onto a serving platter. Spoon the glaze over the top.

CHOCOLATE WALNUT BROWNIES

Makes: 32 brownies
Preparation time: 10 minutes
Baking time: 20 to 25 minutes

Jackie Garza of Monterey, CA, was looking for a brownie recipe that started not with a brownie mix, but with a chocolate cake mix. Several of the readers found such a recipe, one from a recent issue of [Cooking Light] magazine, another from a community cookbook, and the following that appeared as Bavarian Brownies in a small Pillsbury cookbook. Instead of a German chocolate cake mix with pudding, I used devil's food. I increased the amount of butter to make the brownies richer, and I added vanilla and more walnuts. These are wonderfully chewy brownies that are delicious served warm with ice cream.

1 package (18.25 ounces) devil's food cake mix with pudding
5 tablespoons butter, melted
1/3 cup milk
1 large egg
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1 cup semisweet chocolate chips
3/4 cup finely chopped walnuts

1. Place a rack in the center of the oven and preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Lightly mist a 13- by 9-inch pan with vegetable oil spray and dust with flour. Shake out the excess flour. Set the pan aside.

2. Place the cake mix, butter, milk, egg, and vanilla in a large bowl. Blend with an electric mixer on low speed for 30 seconds. Stop the machine and scrape down the sides of the bowl. Increase the mixer speed to medium and beat 1 to 2 minutes more, or until batter is smooth and very thick. Stir in the chocolate chips and walnuts.

3. Turn the batter into the prepared pan, and with a fork or your fingertips, press the batter out to cover the bottom. Don't worry if you are almost to the sides, as the batter will spread out once it gets in the oven. Place the pan in the oven and bake for 20 to 25 minutes, or until brownies puff up and are firm around the edges. They will be thin and chewy when cooled. Remove the pan from the oven, and let brownies cool 20 minutes before slicing.

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"If I am preparing a recipe that calls for sour cream and I do not have any, I have substituted yogurt and it works just fine."
—Ingrid Hall, Kettering, OH

"My new favorite gift is a cake plate from Pier One, Target, etc., three or four basic cake mixes and your cookbook wrapped up in a tower. Everyone I have given it to has absolutely loved it!"
—Kathy Sellers, Nashville, TN

"I've been replacing the water amounts on cake mixes with equal amounts of the flavored sparking water. I mix and match, using raspberry with chocolate, orange with orange mixes, etc."
—Vicki Launders, Prescott Valley, AZ

"Now that the holidays are fast approaching, I have a really easy recipe for gingerbread cutout cookies. Take a box of gingerbread cake mix and add 4 to 5 tablespoons water to make a dough. Roll out 1/8-inch thick on a floured surface and cut out. Bake at 350 degrees for about 10 minutes. Remove cookies to a rack to cool." And, to prepare those cookies for hanging on the tree, poke a whole in the top with a straw before baking.
—Janet Macauley, Alpine, CA

"Buy a loaf pan, a few bread mixes, jars of baby food, plus your recipe, tie it up in colored cellophane
and give to neighbors, shut-ins, teachers as gifts."
—Zita Cavano, Douglaston, NY

Holiday Gift Ideas from The Doctor

What am I giving friends this year? Here is a peek inside my frantic holiday kitchen, as well as some ideas on tools every baker would love to own:

• Double Chocolate Chewies (page 324) with the new cinnamon chips added


• Chocolate Pistachio Cakes (page 40) baked in mini Bundt pans


• Miniature loaves of Stacy's Chocolate Chip Cake (page 42) and a copy of my book


• A handful of heat-resistant rubber spatulas, along with a gift certificate to the cooking store


• A bottle of Champagne along with a tin of cheddar cheese and pecan biscuits (not from cake mix!)


• A Microplane (see microplane.com) for beautiful zesting and a sack of tangerines


• A copy of the book in an attractive gift bag surrounded by bags of chocolate chips, peanut butter chips, cinnamon chips, dried sweetened cherries and cranberries, yellow raisins, Georgia pecans, etc.


• Stainless steel bowls from the restaurant supply store, with a box of cake mix tucked inside


• Nesting glass bowls from the cooking store, a jar of blackberry jam and the recipe for Tennessee Jam Cake


• A 7-speed hand mixer tied with a bright red bow

Holiday Yule Log (page 209)
Lethal Peppermint Chocolate Cake (page 30)
Charleston Poppy Seed Cake (page 124)
Rum Balls (page 332)
Fresh Orange Cake (page 79)
Gingerbread House (page 218)

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Vicki Launders of Prescott Valley, AZ, makes Stacy's Chocolate Chip Cake with a German chocolate cake mix instead of yellow and German chocolate instant pudding mix instead of vanilla. "Quite decadent."

Dawnelle Smith of Nashville, TN, made the Apple Kuchen recipe, but thinking how delicious caramel apples are, she drizzled melted caramel and melted peanut butter one at a time over the cake after it came out of the oven. "It was the hit of my party."

Dolores Hetterick of Baltimore, MD, loves coconut, so when she tried the recipe for the Creamy Coconut Cake in a recent newsletter, she added a teaspoon of coconut extract to the cake. And, she sprinkled toasted coconut over the top of the cake for decoration.

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"Gotta love the Internet! Who ever thought I would be able to correspond with the author of a cookbook I bought?"
—Karin Stucchio, Northport, Long Island, NY

"I don't know if I mentioned how I heard about your book in my last e-mail. I was leaving work last Spring and I heard your interview on NPR. I was so enthralled in your description of the melted ice cream cake, that I kept the radio playing while I drove into the car wash. Well, when I exited the car wash, I had your name, and the title of the book, but the car wash had melted (bent) my radio antenna. I still laugh when I think about that day."
—Josh Hilden, Arnold, CA

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Hands on those recipe files, ladies and gentlemen. Look forward to a dazzling 7-Up Cake next issue as there was not enough space to share it and the Lemonade cake this time. We haven't come up with the peanut cake recipe for Nelson Wong of Irvine, CA, but Christina Machado recalls a peanut cake her grandmother made when Christina was a child--peanut butter frosting on a peanut cake mix. Since we cannot get this mix, just place the frosting on a yellow cake, she suggests . . .

Bethany Anderson of Keller, TX, is hunting for a bar her mother used to make in the 1970s. "It was made following the recipe on the box of yellow cake mix, had chocolate chips and other ingredients added. It didn't rise much and had a crumbly texture. My sister thinks it was called a Blondie."

We're still searching for the Apricot Nectar Cake with a coconut and cream cheese filling for Lynn Chaumont of Austin, TX. Also a Black Walnut Cake, chocolate and cream cheese Neapolitan Bars, and Neapolitan Cake calling for strawberry and lime gelatin.

If you have any of these recipes, you'll make some folks happy. Send the recipes to anne@cakemixdoctor.com

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Valentine cakes, links to other great online cooking sites, more Q & A, and what to do with cakes that fall, crack, or sink.

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