by Joyce Rosencrans
Scripps Howard News Service
Homemade chocolate cake and a tall glass of cold, white milk may be the ultimate comfort food, but no one is suggesting that a person spend precious time sifting flour, measuring out baking powder or melting chocolate--unless they really want to do so.
The "Cake Mix Doctor," Ann Byrn, who is the former food editor of the Atlanta Constitution, is merely suggesting we doctor up cake mixes to make them taste like something that didn't come out of a box.
She baked so many cakes with mixes for her first blockbuster book, The Cake Mix Doctor, which became the No. 1 best-selling cookbook of 2000, that the doc knows what ingredients to add so that the "box-mix flavor" of cheap vanillin is covered up. Adding things to a chocolate cake mix such as pure vanilla extract or cinnamon or sour cream can banish that boxy flavor.
In some of Byrn's doctored-up recipes, even that lightweight, insubstantial cake-mix texture becomes something more substantial and pleasing in the mouth, if not on the hips.
Now Chocolate From The Cake Mix Doctor, by Anne Byrn, has been released to another thundering herd of cookbook buyers.
They will run right home from the bookstore to bake up such dark beauties as Black Russian Cake, Chocolate Midnight Cake, Old-Fashioned Devil's Food Cake, Quick Tunnel of Fudge, Chocolate Surprise Muffins, Triple Decker Chocolate Raspberry Cake, Ebony and Ivory Cake, Banana Split Fudge Cake, Mint Chocolate Cream Cheese Pound Cake, Kathy's Chocolate Chocolate Chip Cake, Double Chocolate Lime Cheesecake, Molten Chocolate Pudding Cake, Chocolate Snickerdoodle Cake, Marcia's Easy Chocolate Toffee Crunch Poke Cake, German Chocolate Velvet Crumb Cake and Milky Way Swirl Cake.
This practice of doctoring up cake mixes has become a publishing phenomenon in the 21st century, thanks to the "Cake Mix Doctor," but cooks and hobby bakers all have a collection of cake-mix fixer-uppers on dog-eared recipe cards. These recipes have long been traded over the back fence, at church suppers, at potlucks, from lawn chair to lawn chair at kids' soccer games.
Many Pillsbury Bake-Off winners have reflected this popular way of baking cakes. The first million-dollar Bake-Off winner called for adding pureed canned pears to a chocolate cake mix. Perhaps the Tunnel of Fudge Cake of 1966 became the best-known Bake-Off cake. That recipe alone put a fluted Bundt pan in every kitchen cupboard. Ms. Byrn's version of Quick Tunnel of Fudge substitutes a fudge pudding mix for the long-gone brand of dry frosting mix called for in the original. She concedes that the tunnel is not as gloriously gooey, but other brands of dry frosting mix sink to the bottom of the pan. This is the "Cake Mix Doc"--she knows.
The best thing about both of her cake-mix books, besides the recipes, are the lists of tips on so many of the pages, imparting the wisdom of the "Cake Mix Doctor." For example, adding too much additional cocoa powder to a cake mix makes for a dry cake. Another example: Adding a mashed banana makes a moister "mix" cake.
Here are some devilishly dark-chocolate cakes suggested by Byrn:
Chocolate Chiffon Cake
Ingredients:
5 egg whites
1/2 tsp. cream of tartar
one 18.25-oz. plain chocolate fudge or devil's food cake mix
3/4 cup water
1/2 cup vegetable oil
3 egg yolks
2 tsp. vanilla
Preparation:
Place oven rack in center of oven and heat to 325. Set aside an ungreased 10-inch tube pan.
Place egg whites and cream of tartar in a medium-size mixing bowl. Beat with electric beaters on high speed until stiff peaks form--about two to three minutes. Set aside.
Place cake mix, water, oil, egg yolks and vanilla in a large mixer bowl, and with same beaters (no need to clean them), blend on low speed for one minute. Stop and scrape down bowl. Increase speed to medium and beat for two minutes, again scraping down bowl. Turn the egg whites out on top of the batter and fold in with a rubber spatula until batter is light but well-combined. Pour batter into the ungreased pan, smoothing top.
Bake at 325 for 60 to 65 minutes or until cake springs back when lightly pressed. Remove and turn it upside down over the neck of a glass bottle. Cool for one hour.
Remove pan from bottle and run a long, sharp knife around the edge of the cake and invert onto a rack. Invert again onto a serving platter so that it's right side up.
Ingredients for the Crushed Peppermint Buttercream:
8 Tbs. butter, room temperature
1/2 tsp. peppermint extract
1 cup powdered sugar
2-1/2 cups sifted powdered sugar
3 Tbs. milk
1/2 cup crushed peppermint candy
Preparation:
Place butter, peppermint extract and powdered sugar in a large mixing bowl. Blend with electric beaters on low speed for 30 seconds. Add powdered sugar alternately with milk, one tablespoon at a time, blending on low speed. Add another tablespoon of milk if frosting seems too stiff.
Increase mixer to medium speed and beat frosting for one minute or until light and fluffy. Fold in peppermint candy. Spread over the top and sides of the cake with smooth strokes. Let cake rest for 10 minutes, then slice and serve. The cake also looks great without frosting--just dust with sifted powdered sugar.
Yield: 16 servings
Chocolate Midnight Cake
Ingredients:
one 18.25-oz. pkg. plain dark chocolate fudge cake mix*
1 cup water
1 cup real mayonnaise
3 large eggs
2 tsp. vanilla
* Note: Duncan Hines and generics are plain, while Betty Crocker and Pillsbury have pudding.
Preparation:
Place a rack in center of oven and heat to 350. Generously grease two nine-inch round cake pans with solid vegetable shortening, then dust with flour. Shake out excess.
Place cake mix, water, mayonnaise, eggs and vanilla in large mixing bowl. Blend with an electric mixer on low speed for one minute. Stop and scrape down the bowl. Increase speed to medium and beat for two minutes, scraping bowl. Divide batter evenly between pans and place side by side in the 350-degree oven.
Bake until cakes spring back when lightly pressed with finger--about 28 to 32 minutes. Cool on wire racks for 10 minutes. Run a dinner knife around the edges of each layer and invert onto another rack until cakes are right side up. Cool for 30 more minutes.
Frost with vanilla buttercream (recipe below), placing one cake layer, right side up, on a serving plate. Spread top with frosting. Place second layer right side up on top of the first and frost the top and sides with smooth strokes.
Ingredients for Vanilla Buttercream (for 3-1/2 cups):
8 Tbs. real butter, room temperature
2 tsp. vanilla
4 cups powdered sugar
3 Tbs. milk
Preparation:
Place butter, vanilla and one cup powdered sugar in a large mixing bowl. Blend with electric beaters at low speed for 30 seconds. Add three more cups powdered sugar alternately with milk, one tablespoon at a time, blending at low speed. Increase to medium speed and beat until light and fluffy--about one minute more.
Yield: 16 servings
Darn Good Chocolate Cake
one 18.25-oz. pkg. plain devil's food or fudge cake mix
one 3.9-oz. pkg. chocolate instant pudding mix
1 cup sour cream
1/2 cup water
1/2 cup vegetable oil
4 large eggs
1-1/2 cups semisweet chocolate chips
Preparation:
Place rack in center of oven and heat to 350. Lightly mist a 12-cup Bundt pan with vegetable oil spray and dust with flour, shaking out excess.
Place cake mix, pudding mix, sour cream, water, oil and eggs in a large mixing bowl. Blend with electric beaters on low speed for one minute. Stop and scrape down bowl. Increase speed to medium and beat for two to three minutes more, scraping down bowl.
Fold in chocolate chips, making sure to distribute them well. Turn batter into the Bundt pan and bake at 350 for 58 to 62 minutes or until the cake springs back when lightly pressed and is just starting to pull away from the pan. Place on wire rack to cool for 20 minutes. Run a long, sharp knife around edge of cake and invert onto a rack to cool for 20 more minutes. Meanwhile, prepare icing (recipe below).
Ingredients for Martha's Chocolate Icing (for 1-1/2 cups):
1 cup granulated sugar
5 Tbs. butter
1/3 cup whole milk
1 cup semisweet chocolate chips
Preparation:
Place sugar, butter and milk in a medium saucepan over medium-high heat. Stir until it comes to a boil--about three to four minutes. Still stirring, let mixture boil for one minute. Remove from heat. Stir in semisweet chocolate chips and stir smooth. Spread icing over a cooled cake or cupcakes, or pour over a Bundt cake.
Yield: 16 servings
(Contact Joyce Rosencrans at The Cincinnati Post)
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