Ann Byrn is on to something. Her first book, The Cake Mix Doctor, showed readers how to tweak store-bought cake mixes to produce "like-homemade" treats. The sequel, Chocolate from the Cake Mix Doctor repeats Byrn's foolproof approach, focusing solely on chocolate. The strategy? Begin with commercial mixes like chocolate cake, devil's food, and chocolate brownie; alter them with ingredients that add flavor, such as cocoa powder, or richness and moistness, like sour cream; use homemade frostings (supermarket versions won't cut it); and you're in business. "My mission," says Byrn, "is to help busy cooks find the time to bake even when company is not coming." If her sweets lack true homemade quality, they nonetheless produce entirely creditable desserts most bakers, and those they feed, will applaud.

Beginning with a blueprint for mix-doctoring success, which includes information on pantry essentials and a useful chocolate primer, the book then presents over 150 easy recipes for a full range of chocolate layer, pound, sheet, angel food, and chiffon cakes, as well as muffins, cookies, brownies, and more. Among these, readers will surely want to try Triple Decker Raspberry Chocolate Cake, White Chocolate Peach Cake, Frozen Chocolate Neapolitan Cake, and Jessica's Caramel Chocolate Brownies. Besides more basic finishes, the frosting chapter offers recipes for the likes of Crushed Peppermint Buttercream Frosting. An introductory section presents color photos of all the cakes; Byrn also supplies interesting technical information, lore (Nuggets of Chocolate History, for one), and a chocolate cake glossary all bakers can use. --Arthur Boehm


From Publishers Weekly
Following her hugely successful baking book The Cake Mix Doctor, Byrn brings her winning formula of doctoring cake mixes to the world of chocolate. No other ingredient tantalizes and tempts the American consumer, who devours it to the tune of 2.8 billion pounds a year. Byrn marries cake mixes with chocolate in 150 easy recipes to create a personalized result. From layers to pound cakes and from sheet cakes to muffins, chocolate invades the senses. These are complemented by 38 frostings, fillings and glazes that intensify the flavors. Whether it's the rich Chocolate Apricot Cake topped with Martha's Chocolate Icing or the lighter than air Barbara's Chocolate Marble Angel Food Cake crowned with Shiny Chocolate Glaze, the recipes are easy and the results are fulfilling. Even the health conscious are looked after, with Good-for-You Chocolate Pound Cake, again with the Shiny Chocolate Glaze, which is so extraordinarily sinful that it's hard to believe it uses applesauce and egg substitute rather than oil and eggs. Throughout the book, useful hints and tips labeled "the Cake Mix Doctor says" are interspersed to give variations to the cakes as well as help and support. There are also larger additions, e.g., "If the cake sticks to the pan," that provide general aid. Despite focusing only on chocolate, this book tops even the original and should appeal to the busy cook, the first-time baker and the chocoholic. (Oct.)Forecast: Expect big sales. The Cake Mix Doctor has 784,000 copies in print, and with a 290,000 printing and 20-city author tour, the publisher fully expects to meet that number for this title.Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.


Book Description
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.


From the Back Cover
THE CAKE MIX DOCTOR GOES CHOCOLATE - NOW YOU NEVER HAVE TO BAKE FROM SCRATCH AGAIN! In a marriage made in baker's heaven, baking phenomenon and best-selling cookbook author Anne Byrn brings her easy, no fail, tried-and-true cake mix techniques to chocolate - the ingredient that inspires a love bordering on obsession. "Cake Walk...Anne Byrn tells readers how to turn mixes into masterpieces." (PEOPLE MAGAZINE) All Chocolate All the Time CHOCOLATE-Y - Ebony and Ivory Cake, Peanut Butter Cake with Fluffy Chocolate Frosting, White Chocolate Peach Cake CHOCOLATE-IER - German Chocolate Spice Cake, Mint Chocolate Cream Cheese Pound Cake, Banana Split Fudge Cake CHOCOLATE-IEST - Kathy's Chocolate Chocolate Chip Chip Cake, Double Chocolate Lime Cheesecake, Molten Chocolate Pudding Cake


About the Author
ANNE BYRN, award-winning food writer and journalist, is now known nationally as The Cake Mix Doctor through her #1 best-selling cookbook, The Cake Mix Doctor, and appearances on Good Morning America, Later Today, All Things Considered, and dozens of other television and radio programs. She lives and bakes in Nashville, Tennessee.


Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.
Ever-So-Moist Chocolate Cake with Chocolate Sour Cream Frosting SERVES: 16 PREPARATION TIME: 10 MINUTES BAKING TIME: 28 TO 32 MINUTES ASSEMBLY TIME: 10 MINUTES Solid vegetable shortening for greasing the pans Flour for dusting the pans 1 package (18.25 ounces) devil's food cake mix with pudding 1 cup sour cream 3/4 cup water 1/2 cup vegetable oil 3 large eggs 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract Chocolate Sour Cream Frosting (see below) 1. Place a rack in the center of the oven and preheat the oven to 350ªF. Generously grease two 9-inch round cake pans with solid vegetable shortening, then dust with flour. Shake out the excess flour. Set the pans aside. 2. Place the cake mix, sour cream, water, oil, eggs, and vanilla in a large mixing bowl. Blend with an electric mixer on low speed 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 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 to 32 minutes. Remove the pans from the oven 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, then invert again onto another rack so that the cakes are right side up. Allow to cool completely, 30 minutes more. 4. Meanwhile, prepare the Chocolate Sour Cream Frosting. 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 sides of the cake with clean, smooth strokes. The Cake Mix Doctor says: If you are trying to cut calories and fat, substitute plain yogurt for the sour cream in the cake batter. But be forewarned that the sour cream produces a far moister cake than one with yogurt. Chocolate Sour Cream Frosting MAKES 3 CUPS, ENOUGH TO FROST A 2- OR 3-LAYER CAKE OR 30 CUPCAKES PREPARATION TIME: 10 MINUTES 8 tablespoons (1 stick) butter, cut into 8 pieces 2/3 cup unsweetened cocoa powder 3 cups confectioners' sugar, sifted 1/3 cup sour cream 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract 1. Melt the butter in a small saucepan over low heat or melt it in a large glass bowl in the microwave oven on high power for 45 seconds. 2. Place the melted butter in a large mixing bowl and add the cocoa powder. Whisk until smooth. Add the confectioners' sugar alternately with the sour cream, blending with an electric mixer on low speed for 1 to 11/2 minutes, or until incorporated. Stop the machine and add the vanilla. Increase the mixer speed to medium and beat until light and fluffy, 1 minute more. 3. Use the frosting to frost the top and sides of the cake or cupcakes of your choice. Store this cake in a cake saver or under a glass dome, in the refrigerator for up to 1 week. Or freeze it, in a cake saver, for up to 6 months. Thaw the cake overnight in the refrigerator before serving.Amazing German Chocolate Cake/ SERVES: 16 PREPARATION TIME: 8 MINUTES BAKING TIME: 48 TO 52 MINUTES Vegetable oil spray for misting the pan Flour for dusting the pan 1 package (18.25 ounces) plain German chocolate cake mix 1 container (15 ounces) coconut pecan frosting 1 cup water 1/3 cup vegetable oil 3 large eggs 1. Place a rack in the center of the oven and preheat the oven to 350ªF. Lightly mist a 12-cup Bundt pan with vegetable oil spray, then dust with flour. Shake out the excess flour. Set the pan aside. 2. Place the cake mix, frosting, water, oil, and eggs in a large mixing bowl. Blend with an electric mixer on low speed 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 the sides down again if needed. The batter should look thick and well combined. Pour the batter into the prepared pan, smoothing it out with the rubber spatula. Place the pan in the oven. 3. Bake the cake until it springs back when lightly pressed with your finger, 48 to 52 minutes. Remove the pan from the oven and place it on a wire rack to cool for 20 minutes. Run a long, sharp knife around the edge of the cake and invert it onto a rack to cool completely, 20 minutes more. 4. Slide the cake onto a serving platter and slice. Store this cake, wrapped in plastic wrap or aluminum foil, or in a cake saver or under a glass dome, at room temperature for up to 1 week. Or freeze it, wrapped in foil, for up to 6 months. Thaw the cake overnight in the refrigerator before serving.White Chocolate Banana-Macadamia Cheesecake SERVES: 20 PREPARATION TIME: 15 MINUTES BAKING TIME: 45 TO 50 MINUTES Softened butter for greasing the pan 1 package (18.25 ounces) plain white cake mix 1/2 cup finely chopped macadamia nuts 4 tablespoons (1/2 stick) butter, melted 4 large eggs, at room temperature 6 ounces white chocolate, chopped 2 packages (8 ounces each) cream cheese, at room temperature 1 can (14 ounces) sweetened condensed milk 2 small ripe bananas, peeled and mashed (about 3/4 cup) 1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract 1. Place a rack in the center of the oven and preheat the oven to 325ªF. Lightly grease a 13- by 9-inch pan with softened butter. Set the pan aside. 2. Measure out 1/2 cup of the cake mix and set it aside for the filling. 3. Place the remaining cake mix, the macadamias, the melted butter, and 1 egg in a large mixing bowl. Blend with an electric mixer on low speed for 2 minutes. Stop the machine and scrape down the sides of the bowl with a rubber spatula. The batter should come together into a ball. With your fingertips, pat the batter evenly over the bottom and 1 inch up the sides of the prepared pan, spreading it out with your fingers until smooth. Set the pan aside. 4. Place the white chocolate in a small glass bowl and heat in the microwave oven on high power for 1 minute. Remove the bowl from the oven and stir with a small rubber spatula until it is melted. (See Melting White Chocolate, page 92.) Let it cool slightly. 5. Place the melted white chocolate, cream cheese, and sweetened condensed milk in the same mixing bowl that was used for the crust. With the same beaters (no need to clean them either), blend with an electric mixer on low speed until just combined, 30 seconds. Stop the machine and add the reserved cake mix, the remaining 3 eggs, the mashed bananas, and the vanilla. Beat on medium speed for 1 minute. Stop the machine and scrape down the sides of the bowl with the rubber spatula. Pour the filling onto the crust, and spread it out with the rubber spatula so that it covers the entire surface and reaches the sides of the pan. Place the pan in the oven. 6. Bake the cheesecake until it looks shiny and golden brown and the center no longer jiggles when you shake the pan, 45 to 50 minutes. Remove the pan from the oven and place it on a wire rack to cool for 30 minutes. Lightly cover the pan with plastic wrap and place it in the refrigerator to chill for at least 1 hour, or preferably 24 hours, for the flavors to meld. Cut into squares and serve. Store this cake, covered first in plastic wrap and then in aluminum foil, in the refrigerator for up to 1 week. Or freeze it, wrapped in foil, for up to 2 months. Thaw the cake overnight in the refrigerator before serving.