Hi,
I'm new to the forum but an old baker. I live in the Florida panhandle and teach at the local junior college. I've been baking since I was 8 - I grew up on a farm and took over kitchen duties when my older sister went to college. Most of what I bake ends up at work since I have no hubby or kids - they're great guinea pigs for new recipes! I've been baking birthday cakes for every member of the gang at work (currently 15) for a few years now, plus for any other holiday or occasion that calls for cake!
The favorites so far:
Hummingbird Cake~ My boss's favorite!!
Sock-It-To-Me Cake~ great for breakfast
Pineapple Inside-Out Cake
anything chocolate but Darn Good Chocolate Cake is great, especially baked in a 9x13 pan and frosted with Chocolate Marshmallow Frosting
and any of the Gooey Butter Cakes, but the Coconut-Pecan Gooey Butter Cake is to die for!

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There are two means of refuge from the miseries of life: music and cats.
--Albert Schweitzer (1875-1965)

Hello everyone! I have had Anne's cake doctor books for awhile, and also love and use often her "Cooking in the New South, " which came out awhile back. I live on Lookout Mountain where her in-laws live (or lived). I am an empty nester on my fourth little pug dog (named Emma which is where my name comes from) and I have one daughter and a 15 month old grandson who live in SC.

So far my favorite cakes from the book (I have not made that many yet) are:

1) Grandma's Coconut Icebox Cake (and yes, I remember that icestorm!)
2) Almond Cream Cheese Pound Cake
3)Dark Chocolate Chiffon Cake (which was a big hit for a birthday before Christmas)
4) Susan's Lemon Cake

My next project is the Peaches and Cream Cake : I want to make it this weekend for a supper club dessert. I bought the canned peaches but I will probably use fresh on the top.

I bought a silicone tube pan and have been baking the cakes in that and they have come out pretty well.

Love to hear from whomever. Thanks! Mmadpug

I have not seen the Dinner Doctor yet but have seen the materials about it and some recipes. Anne should tell her "reps" to get in touch with Twiggs on Lookout Mtn to sell her books again. They used to have copies of the CMD books and I think they sold them all, but the owner was surprised when I told her there was a new book.

I am going to bake the peach cake now. I will let you all know.

mmadpug

Hi, everyone!

My name is Chris and I've just joined. I'm 56, mother of 2, grandmother of one and married for 30 years. My hobbies are baking (of course!), quilting, gardening, kayaking and rubber stamping. I LOVE playing in the kitchen, especially with new recipes. I have both the CMD and CCMD cookbooks and love both of them. I always get requests for my cake recipes and most are amazed that they start with a cake mix.

My favorite cakes are:

Darn Good Chocolate Cake
Triple Decker Choc Raspberry Cake
Susan's Lemon Cake
Marsha's Lively Lemon Bundt
Fresh Orange Cake with orange curd filling
Lemon Lovers White Choc Cake

I also really like the biscotti recipes and have made them often. I love the newsletter and the message board. Hope to be a frequent visitor.

Chris
Traverse City, MI

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Stacey S.
Put "eat chocolate" at the top of your list of things to do today. That way, at least you'll get one thing done.

Hello, my name is Jordan and I am 24 years old, married, and a student at the University of Utah currently working towards a marketing undergrad.

I love to bake and received the first Cake Mix Doctor a few years ago as a gift. I had previously been a from-scratch-only baker, but came to LOVE baking the "doctored" cake mixes. I have since purchased The Chocolate Cake Mix Doctor as well. These are some of the cakes I've made: bride's cake, Bacardi rum cake, carrot cake, darn good chocolate cake, peanut butter cake, german chocolate cake, chocolate sour cream cupcakes, chocolate coffee angel food cake, and more! I most recently tried the classic orange chiffon and loved it. Cake is my favorite dessert, and although I am big into eating healthy and exercising, I can't resist making a cake every so often. Every cake I've made thus far from these two books has been absolutely delicious.

I'm excited to have found this board. I don't know what took me so long to look up the Cake Mix Doctor on the Internet, but I look forward to reading what other cake mix converts have to say!

Helloooo from Ontario Canada. I have been baking cakes since 1981 and only in the past little while have I enjoyed the delight of using a mix. Wow, such fabulous recipes, it will take a long while to try all of them and ohhh, my poor hips.
Anyway, I am a 56 year old Grandma with one amazing husband of 30 years, 3 daughters, 1 son-in-law and 2 grandsons, all are healthy, beautiful and just cheeky enough to gobble up all the cake I could possible make for them. I enjoy creating marvelous wedding cakes and doing logos and sales promotions for corporations, oh, and not forgetting strange creatures for birthdays, and glittering gold or silver frilly anniversary cakes...some day I might actually treat it as a career instead of a hobby. But, no, that would probably take all the joy out of it, as it is I can make a booboo on the icing and no one cares as long as it "tastes great".
So nice to "chat" with you all, looking forward to learning new and wonderful things with you and maybe share a trick or two as well.

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God Bless and keep you, and enjoy this beautiful day:)

Hi everyone,
My name is Shea. I am a 30 year old stay home mom to 3. I love to cook but I am not the best at cakes. I do better out of the box.

I can make a good Orange bundt cake. The kids love German Chocolate and The Candy bar Cake we make together.

Hi. I found Anne on TV in 2000 as I was recuperating from surgery. I bought her book the next day and read it making notes in the margins. I emailed Anne curious if she knew a friend who had been at the paper in Atlanta when she was. The bond was struck. I give the book as a special gift to friends and tell them I have actually had email conversations with the author about cake tips! I make CMD cakes for our newsroom. I also take my CMD with me (along with my portable mixer, Bundt pans, utensils, bowls, etc.), when I am going on a visit to family and friends. I have a separate suitcase for it all. When I first started doing this, my husband would grumble about the paper bag. He can't argue with a suitcase though. A tip I submitted to "A Piece of Cake" in 2000 ended up as a Hot Tip on Pg 172 in Chocolate from the CMD. Thanks again, Anne.
My top five cakes are:
Susan's Lemon Cake,
Yellow Pound Cake
Mattie's Orange Cinnamon Poppy Seed Cake
Chocolate Better Than ? Cake
Charleston Poppy Seed Cake

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MCP says this is the year of the GATOR

Howdy!!
I'm an Iowa girl with a California address, which makes it lonely at holiday times since all realtives are there. I'm 45, 1 DH who works at home, 2 kids, DD is 17 and a high school senior this year and DS is 20 and recently started boot camp at San Diego Depot/Camp Pendleton, and 2 dogs. This has been a stressful year full of transitions but I will make it through, God willing!

I use my CMD book regularly and just love it!

My favorite recipes are:
Chocolate-Covered Cherry Cake
Honey Bun Cake
Banana Loaves
Candy Bars- using Milky Way candy bars
Susan's Lemon Cake with Lemon Buttercream Frosting

These are not in specific order because I love lemon cake in the summer and the banana loaves in the winter. Have a swell day!

My name is Julie and I am 35 years old. I live right outside of Boston, MA. I am a homemaker and mother to a 10 month old son. I am trying to talk my husband into another but he isn't hearing me right now!

The cake I have made that got me rave reviews is the bride's cake. The one with the white chocolate frosting and raspberry filling. Everyone at a family gathering RAVED about it. I will definitely make it again.

Hello everyone! This is my 2nd post. I have been lurking on this site for a couple months now. My name is Diane and I'm 52 years old and single. I come from a family of fabulous cooks, but don't match up to any of them. I love to cook, especially deserts, and have been collecting all kinds of recipes for years now. I have been dieting for the past year and a half (Weight Watchers - finally made my goal of losing 123 lbs.) and I can now indulge, but only a little. People think I'm crazy going to this site while I'm trying to lose weight but I have really enjoyed reading all the posts and getting to know so many nice people. Not to mention all the wonderful recipes and ideas!

I have all three Cake Mix Doctor books and am wearing them out. I get great ideas from the community board, print them, cut them out and stick them in the books with the recipe. You can imagine how thick they are!!! My all time favorite recipe is Susan's Lemon Cake. I used the idea of the juice from 2 lemons instead of 1. It made my glaze more juicy so I poked holes in the hot cake and poured the glaze all over it. WOW!!!!! I also like the Darn Good Chocolate Cake but next time will use the mini chocolate chips and not use any glaze. I'm looking forward to trying more recipes and hearing more great ideas from you pros.

Diane

Hi - my name is Tami, I'm almost 35, and have been married almost 9 years. I'm a stay-at-home mom to 3. We have 4 1/2-year-old twin girls and in July we welcomed a little boy. I am new to the site (only my second post) and love to cook and bake, but don't have lots of time to do it. I've had a Cake Mix Doctor book for years, and I've looked through it often but actually only used it for the first time last night. I made the Macadamia Fudge Torte and we all loved it.

Our son's baptism is coming up over Labor Day weekend and we're having both families over (around 25 people). Instead of ordering a sheet cake, I'm going to make 3 cakes, one will be the Macadamia Fudge Torte and I'm undecided on the other two. I'm deciding amongst: Susan’s Lemon Cake, Stacy’s Chocolate Chip Cake, chocolate-cream cheese pound cake, incredible melted ice cream cake, white Chocolate Pound Cake, lemon Chip Picnic Cake. If I make Susan's Lemon Cake, Chocolate-Cream cheese pound cake or the white chocolate pound cake I was also thinking of making a raspberry sauce to serve with them. Any recommendations from my list or additional ideas?

Hello, my name is Chelley, and I've been aging for 45 years. Been happily married to hubby for 21 of those years, and no children. We both love sweets, and I don't think I could ever have enough chocolate. I love to bake when I have the time. Recently, hubby has dropped 30 pounds, and it's really hard to keep the sweet fixins behind closed doors, because he hasn't quite met his goal, and I don't want to spoil it for him. Problem with us is we can't just have one piece of a good thing - we have to eat half the cake in one day. A dozen brownies last about 24 hours around here, if that long.

About 3 weeks ago my Mom commented that she would like to have the CMD book. Curious myself, I purchased the book intending to put it away as part of her birthday coming up in October. Once the book arrived, and I took a peak inside - I couldn't put it down - even took it to bed that night. The next day I was itching to crank up the oven - I had to make some cakes, and NOW was the time. So off to the store I went...like a kid in a candy store, cake mixes started flying off the shelves, and into my buggy. Not just one or two - I had to have several flavors. After all...Anne suggested having a variety of cake mix on hand, and I agreed! The next day I made my first cake from the book, and gave it to my friend who was headed north to participate in the "longest yard sale" for 10 days. I chose a cake I thought would travel well. Of course, I selected a chocolate one - the Darn Good Chocolate Cake (w/mini chips), topped with powdered sugar. And oh, the wonderful smell that permiates the house while this cake is baking. My friend is also a chocolate lover, and she and the other participants returned rave reviews. Said it's definitely worth baking again. So I did - a few days later for another friend's birthday - only this one sported a chocolate glaze. Received same reviews on this cake. That's the good news. The bad news...I never got to sample either one!

Second cake baked was the Cannoli Cake with Buttercream Frosting for a luncheon with the girls. I did get to sample this one, and was impressed. It was delicious! Only problem was I left it behind, and didn't have another piece for later.

During the interim, my Mom heard about my cake baking episodes. It's not normal for me to bake 3 cakes in one week. I couldn't hold back any longer - I had to spill the [cocoa] beans. With just 3 cakes under the belt, and having tasted only one - I was hesitant, but relinquished the book to her. My next cake will be hers, whatever she chooses from the CMD, since it's no longer a surprise, and she turned down my previous cake baking offer to her - for a stinking peach cobbler she already had on the menu to serve her Bridge group.

Thanks to everyone for the great ideas. I love this site, and wish it continued success. And looking forward to making more scrumptious cakes.

Bon Apetit!

Chocolate: In the early 1500's the Spanish succeeded in keeping the art of the cocoa industry a secret from the rest of Europe for nearly a hundred years. (they thought it was good then - imagine if they were here today!)

Hi Tami -
I've made the Macadamia Fudge Torte and rated it a "10"!. It's a rich delicious cake. I think the raspberry sauce would go well with any of the last three cakes you are considering. I keep a pint of frozen raspberry sauce on hand. It would exceptionally well with the white chocolate pound cake or the chocolate cream cheese pound cake.
Congratulations on your new son!

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- BarbaraMc