Savor the taste of convenience

Last week, in the midst of some stressful deadlines, I got a request to bake a cake for a dear family member’s birthday party. I knew I would have to rein in my ambitions, but was determined not to turn to a bakery to bail me out. I turned to Betty Crocker instead.

For as long as I’ve been writing about food, I’ve insisted on baking all my cakes from scratch. I confess: I’ve been a snob.

My former AJC Food section colleague and longtime friend Anne Byrn — who, unlike me, studied classic French cooking in Paris — once shared that attitude. Settling into a hectic family life in Nashville cured her of those pretentions. When birthday parties and bake sales rolled around, she’d pull out one of those timesavers-in-a-box after the kids went to bed and doctor them up with quality homemade frostings and clever add-ins. She wrote a story about it, planting the seed for her 1999 bestseller, “The Cake Mix Doctor.” She’s been cranking out cookbook hits ever since.

As times and tastes have changed, so have cake mixes. In recent years, she’s been updating those batter-splattered fan favorites and adding new ones to her repertoire with contemporary flavors and looks, such as Matcha Mint Cupcakes and Blood Orange Loaf with Campari Glaze, and taking into account vegan and gluten-free preferences. Happily, the result of those experiments — “A New Take on Cake: 175 Beautiful, Doable Cake Mix Recipes for Bundts, Layers, Slabs, Loaves, Cooking, and More!” (Potter, $26.99) — arrived just as I was stewing over how to fulfill my cake-baking commitment.

After scanning its lusciously photographed recipes and making a quick run to the supermarket, I whipped up cupcake versions of both Easy Red Velvet Cake with Mascarpone Frosting and Almond Cream Cheese Pound Cake with Martha’s Chocolate Fudge Frosting — all in one evening.

I decorated the tops with white chocolate curls, crushed peppermint and sprinkles, admiring my handiwork as I went. I sampled a bite of each and suddenly felt relaxed.

Susan Puckett is a cookbook author and former food editor of The Atlanta Journalconstitution. Follow her at susanpuckett.com.