All-New Cake Mix Doctor - Anne Byrn [2]
I’m really overwhelmed that our family’s simple approach has turned into a way of baking cakes for so many. It’s staggering and joyous at the same time to think that millions of you have celebrated birthdays and anniversaries with cakes you’ve discovered in my books, and have taught your children and grandchildren how to cook using my recipes. You have baked these cakes for aging parents. You have baked them to celebrate the birth of a baby.
Here in Nashville, I have baked right along with you, and this new book is the result. I’ve answered many of your requests with the recipes on these pages, specifically a wedding cake, and your desire for a photo, once again, for every recipe.
Over the years, my recipes have evolved, the changes indicative of how we bake today. For example, these days I add half as much cream cheese to a frosting as I used to, not only to save calories and fat but also to make the cake taste lighter. I might omit the added sugar in a recipe because the glaze makes the final cake sweet enough. Or I might reduce the oil or replace some of it with applesauce. You will see some golden-oldie recipes in this book, such as the Darn Good Chocolate Cake and my sister Susan’s lemon cake, but they have been lightened or altered slightly because this is the way I bake them today.
And because my first recipes were road tested in cities across the country as I have traveled on book tours, I have learned new and better methods for prepping, baking, frosting, and presenting the finished cakes. Many of you have suggested these new methods as well as new ingredients to try, and I share all of these in the pages that follow. You’ll find this book fresh with new ideas, but loyal to the original tried-and-true Cake Mix Doctor concepts.
For some things don’t change. Now more than ever, with the stresses and demands of the outside world, the home—and specifically the kitchen—is a refuge. Baking and sharing good food with those we love strengthens and renews us.
When we preheat the oven and grease and flour the pan, we anticipate something hot, fragrant, moist, and memorable. Our family and work lives may change, but baking is always a constant. Year after year, decade after decade, we look forward to cakes—new and old recipes—to bake and share with others.
Thank you for baking my cakes, for doctoring them up, and for requesting recipes I wasn’t aware existed so that I might go looking for them. You have kept me happily curious and in the kitchen.
Bring on the milk!
Anne Byrn
Nashville, Tennessee
Take a Cake Break
HOW TO USE THIS BOOK
In the ten years since the first Cake Mix Doctor was published I’ve learned a lot. I’ve taught cooking classes and learned about ingredients in other parts of the country. I’ve figured out the best ways to present cakes for the camera. And I’ve learned which recipes from the first book you liked the best, and how you doctored my recipes, and kept track by writing notes in the margins of the book. Well, I’ve written notes, too, so it seemed the right time for a follow-up.
And as much as we all enjoy baking cakes that begin with a cake mix, just as we did ten years ago, times have changed a bit since then. Dessert portions have gotten smaller, which is a good thing. (I’ve got plenty of smaller cakes in this book, as well as strategies for freezing leftovers for another meal—perfect for smaller families and for providing you with last-minute desserts.)
People expect more than