The Cake Mix Doctor

A lot can go wrong with a cake made from scratch-falling, too crumbly, too hard. That's why cake mixes are popular despite not tasting as good as a scratch product. This cookbook teaches you how to add various ingredients to obtain the best of both worlds- the taste of homemade and the ease of a mix. I have personally made about ten of Anne Byrne's recipes and all but one (peanut butter frosting) have turned out amazingly well, especially the strawberry cake and turtle cake There are a million ways to take a cake mix and make it ten times better and once you've had homemade frosting, the can will never seem acceptable again. Each cake has a picture which is a nice touch. She also has a second volume focused on chocolate, a dinner cookbook and a cupcake book based o n the same principles.

The Gallery of Regrettable Food

Are you hungry? Then avoid this book. If you're looking for a laugh, though, you'll enjoy this fond and disturbing nostalgic trip through the 1950's through the recipes and advice in cookbooks. There are all sorts of disturbing combinations put together here--peppers and marshmallows, hot dogs in everything, and oh, what horrors could be done with Jell-O. In addition to the recipes and visuals, there is snarky commentary on the culinary masterpieces presented. It could possibly be the best diet cookbook on the market because I guarantee you won't want to eat more than a few bites of anything here.