I’m a long-time fan of The Cake Mix Doctor–it was with Anne Byrn’s recipes that I first experimented with making icing from scratch (believe me, once you try it, you will never buy canned icing again). As soon as The Cake Mix Doctor Returns! landed on my desk, I was already picking out which cake I was going to make first.

I went with the Fresh Orange Birthday Cake with Orange Cream Cheese Frosting. The freshly squeezed orange in the cake and zest in the icing had my kitchen smelling incredible before I even got the pans in the oven. The result was a decadent icing paired with a light and refreshing cake so good that we ended up eating a generous slice for Sunday brunch! One of my favorite things about the Cake Mix Doctor books is how easy it is to mix and match the cakes with different icings, and I’d love to try this one with a chocolate frosting or glaze with some orange zest sprinkled in, but I’ve got 159 cakes to get through before trying repeats!

Fresh Orange Birthday Cake

Vegetable oil spray, for misting the pans
Flour, for dusting the pans
1 large orange
About 1 cup orange juice from a carton
1 package (18.25 ounces) plain yellow cake mix
1 package (3.4 ounces) vanilla instant pudding mix
½ cup vegetable oil
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
3 large eggs
Orange Cream Cheese Frosting (recipe below)
12 to 15 fresh orange slices, or candy gum drop
orange slices, for garnish

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The Cake Mix Doctor Returns! is in stores now, and we’ve got recipes from the new book to share.

For a full-color look at all of the cakes in the book and four recipes including Fresh Strawberry Cake and Orange Birthday Cake, click here or read the excerpt below.

Visit cakemixdoctor.com for Anne Byrn’s tour dates

The original, still the best in design, authorship, and production quality, Page-A-Day Calendars cover a spectrum of subjects, obsessions, and interests. This year’s irresistible titles range from perennial hits like 365 Cats, 365 Dogs, and 365 Stupidest Things Ever Said to three exciting additions to the lineup: Wonderword Word Search, Angels on Earth, and One-Minute Devotions. Scroll down to preview your favorite.

To view our full calendar selection for 2010, visit workman.com/calendars

	Preview Wonderword Word Search Page-A-Day Calendar 2010 Buy it here
	Preview Angels on Earth Page-A-Day Calendar 2010 Buy it here
	Preview One-Minute Devotions Page-A-Day Calendar 2010 Buy it here
	Preview 1000 Places to See Before You Die Page-A-Day Calendar 2010 Buy it here
	Preview Golf Digest 365 Golf Holes Page-A-Day Calendar 2010 Buy it here
	Preview 365 Cats Page-A-Day Calendar 2010 Buy it here
	Preview 365 Dogs Page-A-Day Calendar 2010 Buy it here
	Preview Bad Cat Page-A-Day Calendar 2010 Buy it here
	Preview Bad Dog Page-A-Day Calendar 2010 Buy it here
	Preview Bible Verses Page-A-Day Calendar 2010 Buy it here
	Preview 365 Bottles of Beer for the Year Page-A-Day Calendar 2010 Buy it here
	Preview The Wine Lover’s Page-A-Day Calendar 2010 Buy it here
	Preview 365 Incredible Fishing Stories Page-A-Day Calendar 2010 Buy it here
	Preview 365 New Words Page-A-Day Calendar 2010 Buy it here
	Preview A Year of Duct Tape Page-A-Day Calendar 2010 Buy it here
	Preview Book Lover’s Page-A-Day Calendar 2010 Buy it here
	Preview For Women Who Do Too Much Page-A-Day Calendar 2010 Buy it here
	Preview Living Green Page-A-Day Calendar 2010 Buy it here
	Preview Mensa 365 Brain Puzzlers Page-A-Day Calendar 2010 Buy it here
	Preview The Original Sudoku Page-A-Day Calendar 2010 Buy it here
	Preview Never Not Knitting Page-A-Day Calendar 2010 Buy it here
	Preview The 365 Stupidest Things Ever Said Page-A-Day Calendar 2010 Buy it here
	Preview Smart Ass Page-A-Day Calendar 2010 Buy it here
	Preview The Official 365 Sports Facts-A-Year Page-A-Day Calendar 2010 Buy it here
	Preview The Original 365 Jokes, Puns & Riddles Page-A-Day Calendar 2010 Buy it here
	Preview The Original Amazing Trivia Facts Page-A-Day Calendar 2010 Buy it here
	Preview Zen Page-A-Day Calendar 2010 Buy it here

It’s so easy to come up with an excuse to put off exercising…”I don’t belong to a gym,” “I can’t afford expensive equipment,” and the most common reason of all: “I don’t have enough time.” Sean Foy’s The 10-Minute Total Body Breakthrough dismisses these notions and instead provides a manageable and effective workout regime that fits with a busy lifestyle, and can be performed outside, at home or on the road. Might as well start burning off those summertime cheeseburgers and chips now…

Read an excerpt from The 10-Minute Total Body Breakthrough below:

10 Minutes Really Can Make A Difference

Most fitness gurus are still repeating the same old advice about the importance of 30 to 60 minutes of aerobic activity three to five times a week. You don’t have that kind of time to spare—and now research shows you don’t need it! Again, exercise does not have to be prolonged or painful to build muscles and give you a metabolic boost. As you’ll learn in Chapter 4, short bursts of intense exercise are highly effective.

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We’ve got a sneak peek at the 2010 Bad Cat and Bad Dog Page-A-Day Calendars! To meet some of the baddest cats and dogs around, scroll through the first two weeks of 2010 for both calendars below.

The phrase “photo shoot” elicits glamour in the mind of anyone who has flipped through a glossy fashion magazine and admired the poised models, stunning jewelry, and unaffordable clothes. So it was with a fast-beating heart and visions of celebrity that I left the Workman office one afternoon to go to a SoHo loft for a photo shoot for 62 Projects to Make with a Dead Computer. I am not a model and did not know what to expect, but my fantasies of beautiful people, groupies, and free sample designer clothes seemed at hand as I entered the refurbished living room with lights, cameras, hangers, free food and…trash?

But it wasn’t trash that I put on my wrist and carefully positioned to be centered in the shot. It was a “rocking remote cuff”, made out of the plastic that covers buttons in an old T.V. remote. And it looked just as chic as a Rolex watch. With a bit of effort we got through the first shoot—please stop moving!—and went on to the second shot, for which I had to take off my clothes and get in the bath. The shoot was heading in a risqué direction, but fortunately for the audience I was not the focus of the shot: the scene-stealer was an old Walkman recycled into a soap dish (page 9 of the excerpt below). And later a towel rack made out of an old phone headset.

I was disappointed not to be discovered and shipped to the runways of Paris; but I did learn what makes a successful shot: props. And the best props are often not the expensive, latest-craze, name-branded types; but accessories and necessities that you can make from everyday items, like remote controls and Walkmen. And don’t worry if you can’t think of any good ideas: there are plenty in 62 Projects to Make with a Dead Computer that will make you look like a superstar.

We’ve got a sneak peek at the 2010 365 Cats and 365 Dogs Page-A-Day Calendars! Meet some of the furry, charming winners of the 2009 Cat and Dog Calendar Contests. Scroll through the first two weeks of 2010 for both calendars below.

It’s the South from those in the know. With stories culled from both established and debut writers, this year’s New Stories From the South, edited by Madison Smartt Bell, illustrates the Southern experience as it is today: post-Katrina, with an ever-changing economy, and a new influx of races from Asia to South America. The South may still be recognizable, but it’s certainly no longer predictable.

Grow, harvest and eat as a family. Kids love to help out in the garden and to keep them interested there is the (almost) instant gratification of fresh flowers, herbs, fruits and vegetables. Karen Liebreich, Jutta Wagner, and Annette Wendland’s The Family Kitchen Garden offers a slew of ideas and activities relating to the garden—and all are child-friendly. Offering crafts, information on growing seasons, plant varieties, and recipes for family meals, there is something for everyone year-round.

Oriental Summer Rolls are one of August’s highlighted recipes and can be made with fresh peppers and herbs plucked straight from the garden.  But not to worry, even if you can’t grow your own, you can still indulge in this seasonal snack…

Oriental Summer Rolls
This dish is great for getting the kids involved, as there is lots of rolling and filling. Serves 4.

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There are many conflicting views on what will lead this country out of the current economic recession, but Louis Foreman, the executive producer of the Emmy award–winning PBS show Everyday Edisons and the co-author of The Independent Inventor’s Handbook, is certain that innovation will be on the forefront of the recovery effort.

According to Louis, there has never been a better time in recent history for innovation: “It has been innovation that has led this country out of recessions in the past, and it will be innovation that creates new opportunities in the future.”

Jeff Bezos, Amazon.com founder and one of the world’s great innovators, agrees. Addressing the recession in a recent interview he announced that “We’re going to invent our way out of this problem [recession]. This is a very inventive country. And, in fact, everywhere I travel all over the world I meet young people working on alternative energy and all kinds of new technologies that are going to make our economy more productive.”

And if you look back over time, many amazing inventions were developed during the recessions or The Great Depression. A few examples:

1930s Great Depression – Scotch Tape, Revlon Nail Polish, Miracle Whip, the Fluorescent Light bulb
1950s Recession – McDonalds, Hula Hoop, Pampers
1970s Stagflation – Post-it Note, UPC Code, Microsoft
1980s Recession – Diet Coke, Microsoft Word, MTV

Who knows what amazing inventions the current recession will produce? Ask Louis Foreman in a couple of months, when he wraps up his whirlwind tour of nearly two dozen cities, speaking to local inventor groups around the nation and, perhaps, giving his feedback on the Next Big Thing of 2010.

Click here to watch Louis’s appearance on a local Nashville TV show a few days ago.