Chocolate from the Cake Mix Doctor

by Anne Byrn

The Cake Mix Doctor goes chocolate! Anne Byrn brings her proven prescription for doctoring cake mix to an ingredient that inspires love bordering on obsession. It's a marriage made in baker's heaven-150 all-new, all-easy recipes for cakes, starring the ingredient that surpasses all other flavors, including vanilla, by a 3-to-1 margin, and that Americans consume to the tune of 2.8 billion pounds a year. Starting with versatile supermarket cake mixes and adding just the right extras-including melted semisweet chocolate bars, chocolate chips, or cocoa powder, plus fresh eggs or a bit of buttermilk, dried coconut, mashed bananas, or instant coffee powder-a baker at any level of experience can turn out dark, rich, moist, delicious chocolate layer cakes, time and again. Not to mention sheet cakes, pound cakes, cupcakes and muffins, cheesecakes, cookies, brownies, and bars. Rounding out the book are 38 all-new homemade frostings and fillings, and a full-color insert showing every cake in the book.

Genres: Cookbooks, Cooking, Nonfiction, Food, Reference

464 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2001

Reviews

[UniquelyMoi ~ BlithelyBookish · Rating 5 out of 5]

Several years ago I bought this cookbook on a whim, and tonight when I was looking for a way to "doctor" up a boxed cake mix I bought at the market today, I immediately grabbed this book! Chocolate from the Cake Mix Doctor is a great go-to cookbook, loaded with recipes, tips and tricks to take any boxed cake mix from mundane to magnificent with very little effort.

In the front you'll find a few pages with pictures of each recipe, along with the page number. The rest of the book is divided into sections:

1. Chocolate Cake Mix 101
2. Luscious Layers
3. Chocolate Pound Cake
4. Sheet Cakes
5. Cheesecakes, Pudding Cakes, and So Much More
6. Chocolate Angel Food and Chiffon Cakes
7. Muffins, Cupcakes, and Little Cakes
8. Cookies, Bars, and Brownies,
9. Frostings
20. Conversion Table
11. Chocolate Cake Glossary

We've made the Old-Fashioned Devil's Food Cake with Fluffy Chocolate Frosting so many times that the page is not just wrinkled and *gasp* dog-eared, but there are chocolate smudges all over it, too! Another favorite is the German Chocolate Cake recipe, and just tonight I found the Upside Down German Chocolate Cake recipe. I have no idea how that one escaped my notice!

Anyway, I can't recommend this book highly enough - it doesn't get easier than this!

I've decided to include one of my favorite recipes from this book, so you'll get an idea of what to expect, and to see how truly easy this is! I hope, if you decide to try it, that you'll love this chocolaty goodness as much as I do!

Old Fashioned Devil’s Food Cake
(Found on page 48)

Serves 16

Ingredients

Solid vegetable shortening for greasing the pan

Flour for dusting the pans

1 package plain devil’s food cake mix (with pudding in the mix)

2 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder

1 1/3 C buttermilk

1/2 C vegetable oil

3 large eggs

1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

1. Place rack in center of oven and preheat to 350. Generously grease two 9-inch pans with shortening, the dust with flour. Shake to remove excess flour.

2. Place the cake mix, cocoa, buttermilk, oil, eggs, and vanilla in a large mixing bowl. Blend with an electric mixer n low 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 combined. Divide the batter evenly between the prepared pans, smoothing it out with the rubber spatula. Place the pans in the oven, side by side.

3. Bake the cakes until they spring back when lightly pressed with your finger, 28-30 minutes. Remove the pans and place them on wire racks to cool for 10 minutes. Run a dinner knife around the edge of each layer and invert each onto a rack, the invert again onto another rack so that the cakes are right side up. Allow to cool completely, 30 minutes more.

4. Meanwhile, prepare the Fluffy Chocolate Frosting (Recipe below)

5. Place one cake layer, right side up, on a serving platter. Spread the top with frosting. Place the second layer, right side up, on top of the first layer and frost the top and sided of the cake with clean, smooth stokes.

Fluffy Chocolate Frosting
(Found on page 409)

2/3C unsweetened cocoa powder

6 tablespoons boiling water (and additional if needed)

1 stick of room temperature butter

3C confectioners’ sugar; sifted (plus extra if needed)

1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

1. Place the cocoa powder in a large mixing bowl and pour the boiling water over it. Stir with wooden spoon or rubber spatula until the cocoa comes together in a soft mass. Add the butter and blend with an electric mixer on low speed until the mixture is soft and well combined, 30 seconds. Stop the machine. Place the confectioners’ sugar and vanilla in the bowl, and beat with the mixer on low speed until the sugar is incorporated, 1 minute. Increase the mixer speed to medium and beat until the frosting lightens and is fluffy, 2 minutes more. Add more boiling water, a teaspoon at a time, or more confectioners’ sugar, a tablespoon at a time, if the frosting is too thick or too thin for your liking.

2. Use the frosting to frost the top and sides of the cake or cupcakes of your choice.

[Carrie Chaney · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book is a road map to chocolate heaven. The icing on the cake is that each recipe is born from a cake mix box. The frostings (which are the only things in the boook that are completely homemade) are devine, and the cakes are delicious add-in concoctions that make you wonder" "Why did I never think of this?"

[Judy · Rating 5 out of 5]

I think this series is a must have for emergency desserts. You take a cake mix and add in some stuff- puff a great dessert. Not quite what you would call a die hard baking creation, but who has time for those all the time.

[Jessica · Rating 5 out of 5]

A must for chocoholics like myself, or just cake fans. All kinds of chocolate desserts, starting with that same simple cake mix. Plus tips about baking, cakes, and chocolate.

[Keri · Rating 5 out of 5]

There are some amazing cakes in here. I made the Chocolate Midnight Cake (Devil's food cake with White Chocolate icing) It was so good and turned out very beautiful.

[Kay · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is the "chocolate" sequel to The Cake Mix Doctor and it offers more fabulous recipes. I'm always in a pinch for time and always in need of something to bring along to social invitations. I find there's nothing easier than a bundt cake. There are some really fabulous recipes here, though not always will the ingredients be on hand. I love the recipes with liquor! Chocolate Kahlua Cake .. yummmmm!

[Stephanie Ludi · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is awesome. You don't read it per se since it is a cookbook, but I have used it many times for use at home and for taking to parties. I like this book due to its focus on chocolate and I found that it does repeat recipes from the original cake doctor book.

[Gina Andrews · Rating 5 out of 5]

If you love chocolate or if you love cake but sometimes think chocolate cake comes out of the oven dry, this is the book for you! With these recipes, say good-bye to boring, blah cakes and say hello awesome creations.

[Msstacylynn Turner · Rating 5 out of 5]

Definatly a must have for chocoholics.. a great addition to the Cake Doctor collection

[Katie · Rating 5 out of 5]

Oh man, do I crush on these Cake Mix books! This one is wickedly rich, sinful and easy!

[Lisa Hartjes · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is the third of Ann Byrn's books we own and we love it as much as we do the others. The Black Russian cake is a family favorite!

[Jovita Salinas · Rating 2 out of 5]

has good ideas, but most of them are in the first book.

[Beth T · Rating 3 out of 5]

I don't use this book as much as the first one but it's still a keeper.

[Mary Lynn · Rating 4 out of 5]

I f you ever need a cake in a jiffy this is your book. I received many compliments on two of the cakes from this book.

[Dorothy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good, but recipes were a little more involved than I thought they would be.

[Ruth · Rating 5 out of 5]

tunnel of fudge cake

[April · Rating 3 out of 5]

Recipes are easy to follow and taste good.
I liked the resource information in the front of the book- especially the cake pan conversion - the best.

[Dray · Rating 4 out of 5]

I love chocolate and I love cake. There may be a few chocolate cakes that are not in this book but i can't think of any. Lots of side bar wisdom and a great orientation introduction.

[Ally Embrey · Rating 4 out of 5]

easy recipes, great for a quick mix for any occasion.

[Yousseif Abdellatif · Rating 4 out of 5]

The real punch in Chocolate from the Cake Mix Doctor comes from Byrn, Anne showing how elite structures trade in human anxiety to keep public discourse running on loop.

[L.C. Tang · Rating 5 out of 5]

The title of this book caught my attention, as I was always looking for a chocolate doctor!!!! I finally found Dr. Anne Byrn, the chocolate doctor!! Through the pages of this publication, Anne Byrn has me salivating at the ingredients, pictures, and recipes. Includes a conversion table, glossary, bibliography, and index at the end of the book. This book is a must-have for anyone who appreciates chocolate!