Cake Magic!: Mix & Match Your Way to 100 Amazing Combinations

by Caroline Wright

Choose a batter, flavor with syrup, add a frosting—it’s magic! Want something decadent and fudgy? Darkest Chocolate Cake + Caramel Syrup + Malted Milk Chocolate Frosting + crushed candy bars = Candy Bar Cake. Or how about a nutty cake like the Peanut Butter Cake + Bacon Syrup + Nutella Frosting, topped with candied bacon. Fit for the king, indeed! This innovative and remarkably easy way to bake luscious, flavorful cakes is a formula for cake bliss. Cake Magic! is a full-color visual cookbook—photos in the front, recipes in the back—and the first step in every baker’s cake adventure. It includes valuable baking tips, vegan and gluten-free variations, plus how to tweak the recipes to make sheet cakes, Bundt cakes, and cupcakes, too.  

Genres: Cookbooks, Nonfiction, Cooking, Food, Reference, Food and Drink

326 pages, Kindle Edition

First published April 5, 2016

About the author

Librarian Note: There is more than one author in the Goodreads database with this name.

Caroline Wright is one part ordered editor and one part wandering artist. These qualities, along with an insatiable appetite, combine to support her food editorial career as a cook, author and stylist.

During college in Paris, she fell in love with the rebellious attitude of her friends who adapted their nation's culinary traditions, without sacrificing skill or technique, to make the experience of eating and cooking more approachable. That irreverent but practical space is still present in Caroline’s most favorite projects, fueling imaginative recipes that hold beautiful and tasty food as the standard. Formal training at La Varenne cooking school introduced Caroline to the culinary language and skill she honed as a food editor at Martha Stewart’s Everyday Food for two years. For the following decade, Caroline worked from her home kitchen in Brooklyn and various test kitchens in New York as a freelance food editor, stylist and busy cook.

In addition to her work as a cookbook author, Caroline collaborates with photographers and editors as a recipe developer, food stylist and culinary writer. Caroline is constantly exploring unexpected ways to serve comfort in every recipe, story or photo she makes, so follow along as she plays with her food, here and here. Caroline lives in Seattle with her husband and two boys.

Reviews

[The Sassy Bookworm · Rating 5 out of 5]

I LOVE to bake. That ain't no lie, and this was a nifty and original little cake book that will keep me in my baking "happy place" for a long time to come. Luscious photographs of all kinds of cake yummyness, and a virtual plethora of cake making combinations. Vanilla cakes, Chocolate cakes, Lemon cakes....you name it. Add to that we get a ton of great ideas for different syrups and frostings. Easy to use, and a delight to drool over. What more can you ask for. I can't wait to get stuck in.

[Alexa · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is absolutely AWESOME!

There are a total of 100 cakes in it, all with gorgeous full page pictures and sometimes even a two-page spread.

The cakes are separated into categories depending on the main flavor or ingredient:

☑ Vanilla cakes,
☑ Chocolate cakes,
☑ Citrus cakes,
☑ Brown sugar cakes,
☑ Fruit + veggie cakes,
☑ Nutty cakes,
☑ Coconut cakes and
☑ Mocha cakes.

The idea behind it is that you get a batter recipe for each category and some variations of each. For example with the Brown Sugar Cake batter you get variations for Brown Sugar Cinnamon Cake , Brown Sugar Nut Cake and Browned Butter Cake.

Then, you mix the cake base with syrup and a frosting and voila! And there are SO many possibilities that you’re guaranteed to find something for everyone and every occasion.

So far I have my eyes set on the Butterscotch cake.

Brown sugar cake + Buttered scotch syrup + Salted caramel frosting = OM NOM NOM.



At the end you have all the recipes for the batters, syrups and frosting, as well as recipes for the decorations or little extras she suggests. There are notes to change most of the recipes into gluten free or vegan as needed.

I wouldn’t have minded some step-by-step pictures of the assembly and the frosting. And also a not-so-dark chocolate cake recipe. However the beauty of this is that you don’t have to actually use the recipes she gives you, if you have a vanilla cake recipe you love (or chocolate cake, or cream cheese frosting... you get my meaning,) then use that and just combine it in the ways she recommends.

[Tink Magoo is bad at reviews · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is exactly what I needed and set out so well with such tempting photographs. They make you want to devour every single cake in this book.

It's such a simple concept really but it's done so well in this book. You can literally make any combination of cake using this book. Why has no one done this before!

[Kate Willis]

Okay, this book is literally an inspiring, "Holy Grail" of a cookbook, and I need to buy it pronto a make something from it. Love it.

[Janet · Rating 2 out of 5]

Fun idea, and I'm sure the cakes are delicious (they look it!), but I'm not a fan of flipping back and forth between pages to simply bake.

[Cynthia Corral · Rating 5 out of 5]

You guys, this book is going to make you fat. You and everyone around you. But you are going to be fat and happy. I just went through this entire book and now I'm both starving and paralyzed with indecision as to which cake to make first. Can I make five at a time? If I make twenty at a time, can I eat them all before they get stale? If I invite friends over will I be willing to give up any of the cake? And if not, how fat am I willing to get in order to sample each and every one of these cakes??

This book is 95% photos. Photos of seriously imaginative and mouth-watering cakes. An overwhelming selection of sugary dreaminess which fortunately (or perhaps not) are made up of ingredients already on hand in your kitchen, just waiting to be lovingly mixed together. Once you find the photo of the cake you want to bake, just head to the back of the book to get the three recipes variations you need: One for cake, one for syrup, one for frosting.

The cover claims 100 recipes, but with these 100 recipes you can assemble an infinite variety of baked yummies. The formula is simple: Pick out a cake mix and bake, pour a flavored syrup over the cake and let cool, frost with the perfect frosting. The recipes are even more simple: flour, sugar, eggs, etc, with varieties for both vegan and gluten-free needs. If you want to get extra fancy-schmancy, there are recipes for toppings to add to your creation to make it even more original and unique.

How about a Triple Citrus Cake? Bake up a Lime cake, add Orange syrup, top with Lemon pudding frosting.
How about the Elvis Cake? Make the Peanut butter cake, add bacon syrup, top with Nutella frosting.
What about a Chai-Pear Cake with Honey Frosting? Does a Zucchini-Thyme Cake with Lemon Pudding Frosting sound perfect for today?

There is a whole chapter of Coconut cakes. An entire chapter of Mocha cakes. One for Nutty cakes. Berry cakes. Etcetera etcetera.

These creations look and taste like they came from an expensive bakery, but are hardly more complicated than a Betty Crocker mix. As far as I'm concerned there is no need for another cake book. The possibilities here are endless, and the only drawback with this book is the uncontrollable NEED you will have to start baking immediately. And these are all so easy, you won't be able to find a reason not to.

Thanks also to NetGalley for providing me with an early copy for review and also to get a headstart on gaining 50 pounds.

[Becky · Rating 4 out of 5]

I like how you can mix and match recipe elements, that there are a ton of flavor options, and there are photos of everything. I didn't love flipping around to different pages while baking, but the recipe I tried turned out great!

[Erin · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is amazing. I am usually underwhelmed at baking books. I checked this out from the library, but will be purchasing it soon. Photos are beautiful (a must for me) and I literally want to bake every cake! My only complaint is it needs more ribbon bookmarks because 3 is not enough!

UPDATE: I made the butterscotch cake and it was out of this world! Like seriously, probably the best cake I have ever eaten. I subbed Bob’s Red Mill 1:1 gluten free flour for regular and no other changes and it was perfect!

[Penmouse · Rating 5 out of 5]

Mix + Match Cakes by Caroline Wright is an imaginative and creative cookbook that uses a basic formula with variations to create different cake recipes. The recipes were created to allow vegans and people eating a gluten-free diet can use the recipes as the author created a gluten-free cake mix you can use in her recipes.

Some of the recipes I plan to try include:

Creamy Caramel Cake
Spicy Cinnamon Cake with Apples
Best Blackout Cake
Warm Chocolate Gingerbread Cake
Hostess Cake
Spicy Hot Chocolate Cake
Summer Lemon Cake
Lemon Pucker Cake
Southern Diner Cake
S'Mores Cake

There are plenty of other recipes I would like to list here, as I can't wait to try them, but the list would go on and on. There are that many recipes I would like try and look forward to doing so.

Recommend.

Review written after downloading a galley from NetGalley.

[Zee Monodee · Rating 5 out of 5]

Good grief - do NOT open this book on an empty stomach! The images of cake in there are just absolutely gorgeous, and you are so definitely gonna be craving cake after just a browse through!
I haven't tried the recipes or the technique yet, but I've been baking for a while and what the author states in here sounds absolutely right and good. Love the idea of a basic cake mix that you then mix and match - saves a lot of time and also provides you with a ready-made base in your pantry for cake anytime the urge bites you. The only bummer would probably have to wait for the syrup to soak in (1-2 hours, apparently), so yeah, better be armed with patience. And have a full stomach while waiting for the cake to get ready *grin*
This is definitely one of those staple cookbooks for any baker, debut-ing or experienced!

[Melissa · Rating 5 out of 5]

A copy of this book has been generously provided by NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

I didn't think I would have such strong feelings for a book about cakes, yet here we are. When I bake, I tend to mix and match recipes from all over the place as it is, so this concept works perfectly for me( without the hassle of endless Google searches). It is a little overwhelming at first, but once I read the intro and flipped through some recipes, I got the gist. The photography is scrumptious, there are so many unique and fun flavours, interesting combinations, and the inclusion of vegan and gluten-free friendly options is much appreciated. I will definitely be getting my hands on a hard copy of this in the future.

[Theresa Peet · Rating 3 out of 5]

The cake recipe I made from this book came out really good and I really do like the mix and match recipes. My only issue is with the layout of the book itself... I felt like I was reading a choose your own adventure book flipping back and forth to different pages.

[Lili · Rating 5 out of 5]

I received this book as an advance reader's copy from NetGalley.

I am a competent cook, but an incompetent baker. All that sifting and fussing and exactitude is just too much for me to handle. This book is so NOT fussy. According to the Introduction, the idea is to find a picture of the cake that you want to make, then find the recipes that cake requires follow through with those recipes and finally assemble the cake. I love that the first 113 pages of this book are predominantly pictures of gorgeous cakes, organized by flavor. The flavor combinations are just amazing. And imagine my delight when I reached the basic mix and match cake mix recipe in back, and the directions literally read “Place all of the ingredients in a large bowl and whisk together well to combine.” I can do that!!! To make a gluten free cake was pretty much just a matter of using the gluten free mix and match cake mix, and coating the baking pans with rice flour instead of wheat flour - which makes this book an excellent gift for the favorite bakers in my life, who happen to lead a gluten free life style. The actual flavored cake recipes were just as simple, reading as if they were the directions on the box of a Duncan Hines mix (which I can also handle). The variations on the flavored cake mixes were very straightforward and easy to understand. I really appreciated that the directions for each flavored cake pretty much read the same, with more or less the same basic and easily obtainable ingredients. The syrup and frosting recipes were also very straightforward, and read fairly similarly. I especially appreciated the translation of four cups of confectioners sugar into one sixteen ounce box in the frosting recipes, because that always perplexes me. The only odd ingredient in the whole book (aside from the flours for the gluten free cake mix) was light agave nectar, for bittersweet chocolate glaze and walnuts in syrup, and I’m fairly sure I can find that in the organic section of my local Super Stop & Shop. I appreciated the section about frosting a crumb free cake, as that has also always seemed to escape me. I am hosting a chocolate themed dinner party in ten days, and may use one of these recipes to make a gluten free dessert. If I do, I will update my review with the results.

UPDATE: For my upcoming chocolate themed dinner, I decided that I would make a four layer gluten-free darkest chocolate cake soaked with milky cocoa syrup, filled with nutella frosting, iced with bittersweet chocolate frosting, and topped with bittersweet chocolate glaze. I’m delighted to report that the recipes were as simple to prepare as they seemed to be, and the results were delicious. My friends said that if I hadn’t prepared it, they wouldn’t have believed that it was gluten free because it was so moist. One of them even said that it was the best gluten free cake that she had ever had.

The mix and match gluten free cake mix recipe required tapioca flour, coconut flour, millet flour and white (NOT brown) rice flour, which was a little bit of a goose chase. I found the first two at my local Super Stop & Shop. I found the white rice flour at Whole Foods three towns over, but not the millet flour. On a whim, I checked the Shop Rite three towns over; they had the millet flour, plus the other three flours all at very reasonable prices. When I run out, that will be my first stop. Measuring and mixing the dry cake mix was as easy as I thought it would be – I just dumped all the dry ingredients into a bowl and stirred them together. Since it seemed to make four cups, I didn’t even bother to measure it out when I made the darkest chocolate cake batter. In the cake batter recipe, I would have liked a conversion from four ounces of semisweet chocolate into a fractional cup of semisweet chocolate chips, as I have three bags of those in my pantry horde and no kitchen scale to figure it out on my own. The bag had a recipe that indicated that the 12-ounce package equaled two cups, so I used one cup of semisweet chocolate chips to approximate the four ounces of semisweet chocolate. That seemed to work out well. I prepared the milky cocoa syrup a few days ahead of the cake, and that came together in a snap, although it was truly necessary to whisk the mixture to get the lumps of cocoa powder dissolved into the milk syrup. I took the container of syrup out of the refrigerator when I started to prepare the cake batter, and it was at room temperature when the cakes came out of the oven. It was easy to brush the hot cakes with syrup. I used a silicone marinade brush and that did not disturb the cake as I brushed the tops with the room temperature syrup. I was really nervous about preparing the frostings because I was unsure about how long “a while” was when it came to leaving the butter out on the counter to soften. Then I decided to do the frostings a day in advance, so it wouldn’t matter if my frostings were too soft because they would harden as they waited in the refrigerator. Both the nutella frosting and the bittersweet chocolate frosting were super easy to prepare. I’m very glad that I used butter that was probably softer than recommended and that I used a LARGE bowl as recommended. The frosting recipes need a lot of space to be mixed. I didn’t measure two cups of confectioners’ sugar for the first step; I guessed at about half the box, and it all turned out fine. I definitely used more nutella than necessary in my frosting, and it turned out fine. My unsweetened chocolate cooled a little too long to drizzle into the frosting bowl (I had to scrape it in there in a big mass) but I beat it a little longer and that turned out fine too. I accidentally started my electric mixer out on medium speed instead of low speed, and that wasn’t cool – confectioners’ sugar went everywhere! I set the frostings out when I took the cakes out of the oven so that they would soften as the cakes were cooling. This was not good enough. The bittersweet chocolate frosting was so stiff that I had to beat it with an electric mixer and it was still very stiff after a good five minutes. Because I used nine inch cake pans (instead of eight inch cake pans), each frosting recipe was a little bit more than enough to cover the center of the cake and the top of the cake. Fortunately, I used the bittersweet chocolate glaze to cover the top of the cake because I make quite the mess of frosting it.

[Bekah · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a pretty perfect basic baking book. I love how it is broken down into a handful of simple cake, syrup, and frosting recipes, but shows how they can be mixed and matched for a number of different cakes.

I especially love the easy to alter varients that the recipes have. Wright also does a wonderful job giving instructions for cake-type variations (sheet, Bundt, cupcake, 9-inch, square) as well. Vegan and gluten-free options are also present.

My only gripe is that all the frostings are buttercream. It is an easy frosting, but not my top choice. The book does cover icing for Bundt cakes, but frosting and icing are not the same thing. Still, a solid, well thought out baking book.

This is a great book for anyone looking to start baking from scratch or if you want to overcome the intimidation that trying new flavors can have.

[Robin · Rating 3 out of 5]

I really liked the idea of this book. The syrup recipes were intriguing and I love the mix-and-match format. I was a little disappointed in the underlying "make your own cake mix" concept that meant for every cake you needed to use not 3, but 4 different recipes from 4 different places in the book. Also- the frostings were all variations on American buttercream. Sigh. I ended up not making any of the recipes because of this. Would maybe be good for a teenager or someone brand new to making cakes from scratch? Not for experienced bakers.

[Jessica · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love the idea of this cookbook! You have a basic cake recipe and by adding a few different ingredients and some flavored syrups, you can transform it into almost any type of cake you wish. I'm a little leary about how it will work at high altitude, but am eager to try it.

[Cadence · Rating 5 out of 5]

I LOVE that these recipes can be gluten free or vegan. I made a GF peanut butter cake with chocolate soaking syrup and malted chocolate buttercream and it was one of the best cakes I’ve ever had. Also, no one knew it was gluten free. Can’t wait to make more cakes!

[Jay Newman · Rating 5 out of 5]

I get why she named it Cake Magic. This is the magic formula for making complicated cakes easy. By separating each recipe into cake, syrup, and frosting it makes it less daunting and allows more flavor combos. I'm not scared to make a layer cake now.

[Sarah · Rating 4 out of 5]

There are some really interesting cakes in here I can't wait to try!

[April · Rating 5 out of 5]

I checked this book out from my local library because I'm an amateur baker. Five minutes after reading this book, I've decided I want to add it to my collection of cookbooks!

[Gail Mitchell · Rating 5 out of 5]

Awesime book, will definitely be trying most of these recipes!!!

[Joni · Rating 4 out of 5]

Have yet to make a cake using the gluten free version but the recipes seem easy and sound delicious

[Sue Parker · Rating 4 out of 5]

An interesting new way to look at cake recipes. Very enjoyable to look through and as a book, rather than a download, would be a great addition to any bakers bookshelf.

[Amanda Judd · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very helpful reference for basic mix and match cake flavours.

[Jamie · Rating 5 out of 5]

I HATE baking cakes, but this mix-&-match cookbook makes it seem so easy that I'm thinking of getting a copy just to keep on hand in case.

[Tressa · Rating 4 out of 5]

Cake Magic! was impressive. It is a mix and match recipe book. There were wonderful photos. The recipes were easy to understand and there were a lot of options.

[Ann · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very helpful for new bakers and even people like me getting into gluten free baking. Friends and family would have loved this 20 or even 15 years a go.

[Sarah]

love

[Crystal Harmon · Rating 4 out of 5]

I enjoyed reading all of the different combinations and can't wait to try some out. I loved the layout of the book as well.

[Jenny · Rating 4 out of 5]

Some nice ideas, but very much written for a US audience, and ingredients are measured in cups.