Below is a guest post from the winner of a private baking lesson with Anne Byrn, Cathy Seiple, who won the trip and tutorial as part of a PARADE magazine sweepstakes.
Click here for even more photos from the trip!

My name is Cathy Seiple and I was the lucky winner of the “Winner Bakes the Cake Sweepstakes” featured in PARADE magazine. As the winner, I chose to take my husband, Bob, with me to Nashville, Tennessee to meet Anne Byrn, the author of the Cake Mix Doctor cookbooks. As we had never been to Tennessee, we were excited about my win.

We arrived at The Viking Store located at The Factory in Franklin, TN on Saturday, July 17, and were warmly greeted by Anne and her assistant, Diane, at the Cooking Studio kitchen. We also met the ever charming Rebecca Carlisle, from the Workman Publishing publicity department.

After introductions were complete, we donned our aprons and got to work. Anne had chosen three yummy cake recipes: (1) a Cinnamon Breakfast Bundt Cake which we drizzled with a simple glaze; (2) a Lemon Lover’s Layer Cake with Lemon Cream Cheese Frosting garnished with fresh blueberries and thin lemon slices; and (3) a Chocolate Chip Layer Cake covered with a Bittersweet Chocolate Ganache.

Over the years, I found that baking is a wonderful stress reliever for me. I have now learned that using cake mixes doctored with simple ingredients can be a quicker and less complicated way of achieving an attractive and rather tasty finished product. I was especially thrilled to pick up many simple garnishing ideas from Anne that will prove useful in my future baking projects. Anne is an easy person to work with so preparing and baking the recipes she chose was fun. Making the ganache was simple and I wondered why I had never attempted it before.

The highlight in the kitchen that afternoon was seeing Bob with an apron on, completing tasks that Anne asked him to help with, and enjoying himself. Of course, he could not wait to taste the finished products. He and I both favored the cinnamon cake which would be perfect at any time of day.

Meeting and baking with Anne, being able to benefit from her baking skills, combined with the camaraderie shared by all of us working in the kitchen that afternoon, proved to be a fun time and one that I will remember with fondness. So, a big THANK YOU to everyone involved. I feel fortunate to have won such a great prize.

I recently had the pleasure of going on a “business” trip to Nashville, TN to assist with a private baking lesson taught by the legendary Cake Mix Doctor Anne Byrn. I use quotations because, in reality, it was so much fun that it feels wrong to label it as purely business.

The recipients of the lesson, Cathy and Robert Seiple, won it as part of a PARADE magazine sweepstakes. We spent the afternoon baking and eating three mouthwatering cakes with Anne and her assistant, Diane (both of whom, I might add, have the most beautiful southern accents that make every word uttered sound ever so much more pleasant and polite than lowly New York chatter).

After witnessing firsthand just how easy it is to make Anne’s cakes – with such delicious, made from scratch results – I will put it in writing that I am a complete convert to her method.

With Anne’s new gluten-free book coming out soon, I’m fervently hoping that Workman will need to send an emissary back to Nashville for further dessert-related assistance. And, once that day comes, perhaps this blog post will serve as a not-so-subtle suggestion that I am the woman for the job!

For more photos, visit the Cake Mix Doctor Facebook page.

Rebecca Carlisle is a senior publicist

Because I edit so many cookbooks, you most likely think I’d blog a new favorite recipe, say, from Steven Raichlen’s forthcoming Planet Barbecue, or maybe something dessertish from Anne Byrn’s The Cake Mix Doctor Returns. Nope—because when I get over-reciped, I turn to knitting. I can’t pass a yarn store without going in (knitters—you know what I mean). I can’t go in without buying something (knitters—you really know what I mean). I have a great big yarn stash that makes me happy (knitters with great big yarn stashes are very happy). But I don’t only like to look at my stash. I actually love to knit.  And what better place to find the perfect pattern than—where else?—Stitch ’N Bitch, by Debbie Stoller.  In fact, there’s a pattern I like so much (the Big Sack Sweater on page 203), I knit it twice.  Actually, I’m considering taking orders (okay, not really). Below are both sweaters, as worn by America’s Next Top Models (aka myself and my assistant, Erin).

–Cookbook Director Suzanne Rafer just won’t put the needles down.

My friends are always asking me for recipe advice. It’s not because I’m a brilliant cook, (I’m not) it’s because I have access to the latest Workman cookbooks and love to share the recipes!

But a recent recipe request had me stumped. My friend Anita had volunteered to bake cupcakes for her office’s Haiti earthquake relief bake sale fundraiser and asked for a recipe that would be unique enough to grab the attention of her officemates but simple enough to put together after work one night. I immediately thought of the adorable cupcakes in Anne Byrn’s Cupcakes! from the Cake Mix Doctor, but cringed at the thought of beautifully decorated icing on the bumpy New York City transit.

Luckily I was able to get advice Cake Mix Doctor herself, Anne Byrn! She immediately suggested the Bake Sale Caramel Cupcakes from her newest book, The Cake Mix Doctor Returns. Well, why didn’t I think of that? The caramel icing is cooked and it hardens slightly as it cools on the cupcake, keeping it from getting messy in transit, and the classic flavor is perfect for a bake sale.

Anita’s cupcakes were a huge hit at the bake sale, which raised over $2000 in just one lunch hour! Anne shared the recipe, as well as some other bake sale tips, over on her blog at CakeMixDoctor.com.

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

It’s the return of The Cake Mix Doctor, and Anne Byrn’s latest book is full of brand new recipes that turn ordinary cake mix into unique, delicious treats. Below, Anne shares some snapshots from the photo shoot for the book.

Workman Art Director Lisa Hollander, photo stylist Susan Sugarman, and her assistant work out details before shooting begins on the 163 cake photos in The Cake Mix Doctor Returns!

A huge slice of the Smith Island Cake waits to have its photo made. You cannot imagine the temptation present in this New York loft studio where cakes were frosted, sliced, photographed, then sampled, for five delicious days.

You can see from the fuzziness of this photo why I am a food writer, not food photographer. This darling Blueberry Muffin Crumble Cake, is one of my favorites in the new book. And I promise it will look a lot better in the book than in this photo.

A sumptuous Chocolate Chip Layer Cake with Chocolate Cream Cheese Frosting rests on the cake stand. There’s a funny thing about photography sessions. Once you’ve seen one cake, you’ve seen them all. I love this cake and yet the food stylists and art director aren’t thinking about how gorgeous this cake looks on that stand. They’re thinking the next cake and the next…

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