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Watch Anne Byrn today on Good Morning America with cakes from her latest book, The Cake Mix Doctor Bakes Gluten-Free. Today she’ll share an amazing gluten-free take on a chocolate pound cake–visit her website (CakeMixDoctor.com) for the recipe.

Old-Fashioned Chocolate Pound Cake with Peppermint Drizzle

Read an excerpt from Anne Byrn’s latest book, The Cake Mix Doctor Bakes Gluten-Free. Take gluten-free cake mixes and doctor them to create 71 layer cakes, bundts, cookies, bars, brownies, and more.

Take Halloween treats a step further than the typical orange-and-black-frosted cupcakes with these adorably creepy Halloween Spider Cupcakes from Anne Byrn’s Cupcakes! From the Cake Mix Doctor. For more sweet treats, visit CakeMixDoctor.com.

Makes 24 cupcakes (2 1/2 inches each)
Preparation time: 30 minutes
Spider chilling time: 30 to 40 minutes
Baking time: 16 to 20 minutes
Assembly time: 15 minutes

24 silver or foil liners for cupcake pans (2 1/2-inch size)

CUPCAKES
1 package (18.25 ounces) plain devil’s food cake mix
2 tablespoons Dutch process cocoa powder
1 1/3 cups buttermilk
1/2 cup vegetable oil
3 large eggs
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

FROSTING:
Buttercream Frosting (recipe below)
6 drops yellow food coloring
2 drops red food coloring

GARNISHES:
24 Chocolate Spiders (recipe follows)
Tiny round decorating candies (optional)
Brown decorating gel (optional)

1. Place a rack in the center of the oven and preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Line 24 cupcake cups with silver paper liners. Set the pans aside.

2. Prepare the cupcake batter: Place the cake mix, cocoa powder, buttermilk, oil, eggs, and vanilla extract in a large mixing bowl. Blend with an electric mixer on low speed for 30 seconds. 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. Spoon or scoop a heaping 1/4 cup batter into each lined cupcake cup, filling it two thirds of the way full. (You will get between 22 and 24 cupcakes; remove the empty liners, if any.) Place the pans in the oven.

3. Bake the cupcakes until they spring back when lightly pressed with your finger, 16 to 20 minutes. Remove the pans from the oven and place them on wire racks to cool for 5 minutes. Run a dinner knife around the edges of the cupcake liners, lift the cupcakes up from the bottoms of the cups using the end of the knife, and pick them out of the cups carefully with your fingertips. Place them on a wire rack to cool completely, 30 minutes.

4. Meanwhile, prepare the Buttercream Frosting. Place G cup of the frosting in a plastic sandwich bag and set aside. Add the yellow and red food coloring to the remaining frosting. Blend well so the frosting is evenly orange. Place a heaping tablespoon of frosting on each cupcake and swirl to spread it out with a short metal spatula or a spoon, taking care to cover the tops completely.

5. Garnish the cupcakes: Cut off a small piece from one of the bottom corners of the plastic bag holding the frosting. Pipe 2 eyes on each of the Chocolate Spiders. Place a small round decorating candy in the center of each eye, if desired. Place a spider on top of each cupcake. There will be 6 extra spiders for additional platter garnish or simply to enjoy. If you wish, pipe a web on the platter using brown decorating gel. The cupcakes are ready to serve.

Store these cupcakes, uncovered or in a cake saver, at room temperature for up to 2 days or in the refrigerator for up to 1 week. Or freeze the unfrosted and undecorated cupcakes in a cake saver for up to 6 months. Thaw the cupcakes overnight in the refrigerator before frosting, decorating, and serving.

CHOCOLATE SPIDERS
You can make these spiders up to two days before you bake the cupcakes. The six extras make wonderful platter decorations or sweet treats by themselves.

1 1/4 cups chow mein noodles
2 1/2 cups semisweet chocolate chips
1/3 cup milk
1/2 cup confectioners’ sugar
1 cup crispy rice cereal

1. Line a baking sheet with waxed paper and set aside.

2. Measure out 1 cup chow mein noodles and break them into small pieces. Break the remaining noodles into 2-inch pieces. These will be the spiders’ legs. Set the noodles aside in separate groupings.

3. Combine the chocolate chips and milk in a medium-size saucepan over low heat, stirring frequently, until the chocolate has melted and the mixture is smooth, 3 to 4 minutes. Remove the pan from the heat and stir in the confectioners’ sugar, cereal, and the small chow mein noodle pieces until blended. Line a baking sheet with waxed paper. Drop the chocolate mixture by tablespoons in a slightly oblong shape (the body of the spider) onto the prepared baking sheet. You will have about 30 bodies, about 2 inches in size. Immediately insert the noodle legs into the spider bodies, 4 on one side and 4 on the opposite side. Space them evenly apart. Place the baking sheet in the refrigerator and chill the spiders until hardened, 30 to 40 minutes.

4. Once chilled, remove them from the waxed paper by pushing up from the underside of the waxed paper.

Store the spiders in a plastic storage container at room temperature for up to 2 days.

the Cupcake Doctor says . . .
Here’s something to remember when you’re making orange-colored frosting: Use drops of yellow
and red food coloring in a 3 to 1 ratio, adding for example, 6 drops yellow and 2 drops red.

the Cupcake Doctor says . . .
Once the frosting for the cupcakes is made, reserve a small amount of it to pipe on each spider for its eyes.

BUTTERCREAM FROSTING
Makes 2 1/2 cups, enough to frost 24 cupcakes (2 1/2-inch size)
Preparation time: 5 minutes

8 tablespoons (1 stick) butter, at room temperature (see “the Cupcake Doctor says” below)
3 cups confectioners’ sugar, sifted
3 to 4 tablespoons milk
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

1. Place the butter in a large mixing bowl. Blend with an electric mixer on low speed until fluffy, 30 seconds. Stop the machine and add the confectioners’ sugar, 3 tablespoons of the milk, and the vanilla.

2. Blend with the mixer on low speed until the sugar is incorporated, 1 minute. Increase the speed to medium and beat until light and fluffy, 1 minute more. Add up to 1 tablespoon more milk if the frosting seems too stiff.

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

Recently, our favorite baker, Anne Byrn, The Cake Mix Doctor, was in the office for a photo shoot for her forthcoming book, The Cake Mix Doctor Bakes Gluten- Free. Anne also spent some time talking with her editor, Suzanne Rafer, about the readers who inspired the book, the testing process behind building a recipe using gluten-free mixes, and trying to choose her favorite recipes. We caught their conversation on video. Enjoy.

[flv]http://www.workman.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2010/07/VID00026.flv[/flv]

Follow Anne on Twitter (@annebyrn) or Facebook for more behind-the-scenes updates. Anne Byrn’s The Cake Mix Doctor Bakes Gluten-Free will be in stores this November.

Anne Byrn, better known as the Cake Mix Doctor, has delicious recipes for any occasion. However, where her made-from-mix style shines is in last minute preparation!

With Mother’s Day extra early this year and school graduations around the corner, this Sour Cream Cinnamon Loaf from The Dinner Doctor is the perfect thing to whip up for a special, but quick, treat. It’s also a great end-of-year present for a beloved teacher.

Visit the Recipe Corner at CakeMixDoctor.com for this recipe and many more!

It was Saturday night. Know what that means? Time to party. And we all know what that means—food and drink (as well as dancing). For our housewarming party, my roommates and I decided to each make one batch of cupcakes. There was just one problem. I had never baked cupcakes before. The Great Cupcake Challenge meant I would have to make two dozen individual cakes—and frost each one! Are you kidding me? Who has the time for that?!

Enter Anne Byrn, dessert diva and Cake Mix Doctor extraordinaire. I chose Anne’s Peanut Butter Surprises from Cupcakes! from the Cake Mix Doctor. (Before I continue, I know what you’re thinking: Where did this girl grow up—Timbuktu? All true-blue American children have baked cupcakes at some point in their lives! To which I will answer: No, I was not deprived of sweets as a young child. I just grew up in a household that wasn’t big on spending time at the oven or stove.)

Back to the present, and my cupcake coup. I grocery-shopped, I baked, I frosted. You can see the result below, and if you want me to repeat verbatim the accolades I received for their superior, home-baked flavor…well, I’d be happy to oblige.

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.