Hi, my name is Deb. I've been married to my DH for 31 years, we have a married son and a bunch of pets. Spent the day readying the garden for planting, so taking a much deserved break right now.

Our favorite cake? Pick a page, we love them all!

Hello everyone, my name is Joy and I live in Ohio. I'm still a newlywed of 2 years now. No kids but a step dog I inherited by marriage. I started baking last year, I woke up one morning and said, I'm going to take cake decorating lessons. I told my husband and he laughed and said you are always doing something. Well turns out I've found my caling in life. It is so therapeutic to me when I bake and share the things I've made. My goal is to open a little bakery. Hmmm, my five favorite cakes...I've been stuck on the white chocolate pound cake. Oh! I do like Marcias Lively Lemon Cake!

Hi, I am Trina and a new member. I have seen the cookbooks but have not purchased one yet.

I am 60, married with children and grandchildren. I have been displaced to South Louisiana from my beloved Georgia and Alabama.

I still have to learn my way around this site so bear with me as I fumble through.

I am looking for a way to doctor up a boxed pound cake mix using some sour cream I have left in the refrigerator. I checked out the best ever poundcake recipe and wonder if it would work with the poundcake mix. The box I have is only 16 ounces as opposed to the 18.5 ounce yellow cake mix.

Hi Trina - Welcome to the CMD board! To answer your question, I think you could use the 16 oz box for the pound cake recipe. We are all here to help each other so if you have any questions, just post them. Hope your cake comes out good!

_________________
- BarbaraMc

Hi all!
My name is Sue - I am a 36 yr old stay at home mom (as of Feb)I have a wonderful husband and two children. A 13 year old daughter and an 11 year old son. I have all of Anne's books and like most of you - have tried numerous cakes. When I was working as a teacher, I always used my fellow teachers as my taste testers or I sent cakes to work with my husband. Other than baking and cake decorating, I love to scrapbook with my daughter, enbroidery, read, etc.

My family recently moved to GA (FEB '04) - thus the stay at home mom.

My 5 favorite cakes or those my co-workers & family enjoyed the most: (hard to narrow it down)

Pecan Pie Cake
Earthquake Cake
Hummingbird Cake
Italian Cream Cake
Chocolate cake with Peanut Butter frosting
. . . and many others

Sue

Hi All,

My name is Genia and I'm a mother of 2. Married for 11 years to a wonderful man. I love to cook, desserts mainly.

Is a brownie recipe considered a favorite cake recipe?

I love chocolate mainly but here is my personal recipe for brownies:

Genia’s Best Brownies Ever

This really makes my brownies chocolately. I use any kind of brownie mix (i.e. Duncan hines, Betty Crocker, even the cheap store brands) Substitute half the liquid called for with Hershey's (or other brand) chocolate syrup. Then stir in just before putting it in the pan, 1/8 to 1/4 cup milk chocolate chips. Bake as called for on the package. They are yummy!

2 boxes brownie mix
Hershey’s chocolate candy bar (with almonds or plain), enough to cover the 13x9” pan your working in
Milk chocolate frosting
½ cup finely chopped almonds, optional
Hershey’s chocolate syrup

Mix brownies according to directions on box, except : substitute half of the liquid called for on the box for equal amount of Hershey’s syrup. Grease bottom only of a 13x9” pan. Spread half of the batter into pan. Add candy bars, layering side by side to cover batter. Spread remaining batter on top. Tear off a piece of foil that is about 2 inches longer that your pan on each end. Cut out the center of the foil so you just have about an inch or two covering the edges of the pan. (some people do this with pies)
Bake at 350 degrees until brownie center is set. Do not overbake. Remove from oven to wire rack. Follow directions on frosting to melt (microwavable directions). Pour over brownies. Top with almonds. Cool


My other recipe, well not mine, is one that I haven't tried yet. I haven't gotten that brave yet:

Insulin Shock Black Hole Brownies

Start with your favorite brownie batter. You'll want enough to fill *two* 9x9x2" baking pans. In addition you'll need

1/2 jar hot fudge
1 cup peanut butter, smooth (optional)
16oz chocolate morsels
1 bar dark chocolate
2 cups flavored liquor (Bailey's, Chambord, Rumpleminze

Melt 12oz chocolate, hot fudge, peanut butter and 1 cup liquor in a small saucepan. When mixture is liquid, mix into batter (for truly decadent, replace all the fluids (milk/water) in batter with liquor). Pour batter into ONE 13x9x2 pan. melt remaining chocolate and liquor in saucepan. Using a spoon, drizzle the chocolate over the batter (needs to be very liquidy to work well). Pour rest over ice cream to keep you from eating the brownies immediately. Bake at 350 degrees for 35-40 minutes.


IMPORTANT: Every 5-10 minutes, remove the pan from the oven and "slam" it down on a counter two or three times. If you do not, the brownies will escape into the bowels of your oven! Brownies are done when a toothpick inserted near the EDGE comes out clean. The center will still be semi-liquid. Can be eaten immediately, but best after 24 hours (it takes that long to set!) Consume a 1" cube with a half-gallon of milk. Share alot. The Bailey's version is very popular

Genia

My name is Erin from Austin, TX. I’ve been lurking here for almost a year now, but have yet to really post much. I’m a newlywed (almost 9 months), and I’ll be 30 this summer. I always thought of myself as a career girl until just the last few years when a new, domestically oriented woman has begun to emerge. Baking especially has become my new hobby. DH loves this new hobby, but since it has resulted in us both gaining nearly 10 lbs since the wedding, my hobby has been curtailed to just baking for “special occasions,” mostly birthdays of co-workers. I work as a usability engineer which means I help companies make sure their website, software or hardware interfaces are maximally usable and user-friendly.

Favorites:
- Chocolate Covered Cherry/Strawberry Cake
- Chocolate Fudge Ribbon Cake
- Triple Decker Chocolate Raspberry Cake
- Darn Good Chocolate Cake
(are you picking up on the chocolate trend here?)
- Red Velvet (I’ve been making a scratch version of this cake which has become the boss’s favorite, but I one day hope to secretly replace his favorite cake with the CMD Red Velvet)

Back to work now.

Hi,
my name is Birdy. I just joined the board, I was delighted to find this web site! I bought both of the Cake Mix Doctor books about a month ago and have loved every one I've tried. I work as a professional cake decorator in a grocery store and We have been doctoring our mixes for years to make the cakes moister and for variety but I had no Idea how many great things can be done with cake mix till I bought Anne's books.

I live in the Great Northwest with my husband and peanut butter loving Siamese cat (his favorite is the Peanut butter frosting). I've only tried three cakes so far because my husband requests that I make the banana cake with caramel frosting every week! He used to only eat ice cream for dessert and now he's a complete convert to cake! Here are my favorites so far and the two that I am sure I will love in the future
1) Banana cake with quick caramel frosting
2) Candy Bars (these taste better than my from scratch recipe, I added a few chocolate chips in addition to the candy)
3) Chocolate Covered Cherry Cake (I added some chocolate chips to the batter as well) with Chocolate Pan Icing
and in the future I'm pretty sure I'll like (well... I'll probably like ALL of them)
4)darn good chocolate cake/also Mary K's neverending chocolate cake.
5)Strawberry Cake with Strawberry cream cheese icing

I'm happy to meet all of you and happy baking!!

Welcome, birdy. We frosting-challenged members may just pick your brain a little now that we know cake decorating is your life's work! Hope that you'll join us often!

_________________
Save the earth. It's the only planet with chocolate!

Hi,
Thank you for the welcome. I will be happy to help with any questions anyone may have about frosting etc. Previously I worked for a private bakery/candy company that specialized in fine chocolate. I hope I can be of help in that department as well in return for all of the great ideas I have received from all you great bakers on this board!
birdy

Hello! I'm a stay-at-home Mom of two lovely little girls-a three yr. old and a 19 mth. old. I'm happily married to a great guy, 8 years next month I really enjoy cooking/baking for my family and friends. I admit fully to a love affair with chocolate and so I exercise regularly It will be no suprise my favorite cakes/bars are: (and not in order)
1) Ever So Moist
2) Darn good Chocolate
3)Tunnel of Fudge
4)Incredible Melted Ice-Cream with Ben & Jerry's Cherry Garcia
5) Jessica's Chocolate Carmel Brownies

There are so many more I enjoy, and want to try. I think the next I'll bake is George's Overload-what a shock

_________________
One of life's greatest pleasures is food!

Hi Everyone! I am a stay at home mom with three children. A 15 year old, a 12 year old, and a 9 year old. I have been married for 19 years (20 this October!) to a great guy, and I love to cook. So far my fave cakes are Darn Good Chocolate and Blueberry Muffin Cake. I love to play around with recipes. Right now I have a Banana Blueberry Muffin cake in the oven. My oldest loves anything banana! I have to confess I bought The Dinner Doctor first and have been working my way through that. I have never joined a message board before, but you all seem so friendly I couldn't help myself! I'm happy to meet you all!

Hi, I'm from London, U.K. and I love this forum. I have a 5yr old daughter and and 3 year old son, who both love to cook, they hear me open a cupboard in the kitchen and come running with chairs to climb up and help. I love Anne's books and am determined to do some doctoring myself even if I have to make the mix as well. We are pretty limited in terms of mixes over here. So far the Chocolate Fudge ribbon cake is a fave, but the kids want me to make cupcakes so we'll battle it out.
Kathleen

Hello everybody, I just found this site earlier this evening. My family and friends all think I'm the Cake Mix Doctor because I always add extra stuff . I'm married to a sailor on the USS Nimitz, I have 23, 21, 20 and 10 year old children as well as a 1 year old grandson who lives with us. I am a brittle diabetic so am always experimenting with ways to cut fat and sugar from recipes and I usually find my biggest successes come from being too dumb to know you can't do it that way. As far as favorite recipes go, anything with chocolate is my favorite. Now that I know it exists I will be buying the Cake Mix Doctor book next payday, can't wait to see what kind of treasures it has.[/u]

Hi Everyone: My husband and I retired to North Carolina from Connecticut some 12 years ago. We both enjoy living in the South and the hospitality that the Southerns are so willing to share. I've always enjoyed cooking and baking and now that I have the time to spend, I love to do both for my family and friends. I enjoy trying new things, so when I was introduced to the CMD book, it's been fun making the wonderful recipes that Anne put together. Everyone that I've tried so far has been good. This Board is a wonderful tool to receive and share ideas. Our favorite recipe thus far has been the Almond Cream Cheese Pound Cake. Keep up all of the great posts. Pumpkin