The Cake Mix Doctor
By Anne Byrn
Workman, $14.95 paperback
ISBN 0761117199

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REVIEW BY ANNE BYRN

The holidays are upon us, the relatives will soon arrive, the shopping has yet to be done.

When in the world will you have time to bake?

It doesn't take as long as you think, especially if you begin with a box of cake mix from your pantry shelf. In my new cookbook, The Cake Mix Doctor, I divulge how to doctor up cake mixes to create stellar layer cakes, coffee cakes, sheet cakes, crisps, bars, brownies, even a darling gingerbread house. You've already got most of the flavor boosters right on hand: lemon zest, coffee, grated coconut, unsweetened cocoa powder, buttermilk, dry sherry, and almond extract.

So, snip open a packet of cake mix, pour yourself a mug of hot cocoa, and let The Doctor help you find a cure for the common cake this holiday season.

• Enliven a box of devil's food cake mix with up to 3 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder, and substitute buttermilk for the water on the package directions.
• Sandwich layers of chocolate cake with a quick peppermint-infused buttercream frosting, then frost the top and sides with a deep chocolate pan frosting. Place this cake on a silver platter, garnish with sprigs of fresh holly, and wait for the applause.
• Or, frost those chocolate layers with a cream cheese-packed white chocolate frosting.
• Looking for a speedy but superlative gift? Bake loaves of Stacy's Chocolate Chip Cake, wrap in parchment paper, and tie with raffia or organdy ribbons.
• Save those ripe bananas! They are the beginning of a delicious gift or star of the holiday dessert table. Combine mashed ripe bananas and cinnamon with a yellow cake mix batter, frost with an easy caramel frosting, then top with toasted chopped pecans.
• What could be more festive than the flavors of dried cranberries and orange? They come together in a Festive Cran-Orange Cake, based on a yellow cake mix with pudding.
• Children will clamber for Snowballs, pieces of moist white cake spread with an easy marshmallow frosting and then rolled in soft, sweet coconut.
• And adults won't pass up Grandma's Coconut Icebox Cake, either. You bake two layers of white cake (which you have enriched with whole eggs, not egg whites), split them in half to form four layers, and then sandwich all with an easy sour cream, sugar, and coconut frosting. The hard part is placing this in a dark corner of the refrigerator and not touching it for two days so the flavors can mellow!
• Two show-stoppers are the Holiday Yule Log made by rolling a soft chocolate sheet cake around a whipped cream filling, then glazing with dark chocolate, and the Gingerbread House. It takes two boxes of spice cake mix, a little ground ginger, a cup of oil, a cup of molasses, and a little water to make the gingerbread dough. The little ones will have a lot of fun assembling and decorating the house. Mine did.

Just because it's the holidays doesn't mean you should settle for common cake.