Because I run into them at the South Beach Wine and Food Festival, I can't denigrate certain Food Network chefs, those corner-cutting, time-saving folks whose recipes involve opening cans or boxes. But privately, I can look down on their techniques. For me to say, “I made this for you,” the recipe needs to be from scratch.
Well at the end of another long summer weekend – pool parties, birthday karaoke bashes until the wee hours, Father’s Day lunch – the specter of Monday loomed large. Who felt like cooking, let alone baking? But in the twenty or thirty minutes it took for the pizza man to drop off a piece of mushroom, onion, and extra-sauce sunshine, I managed to pop a German Chocolate Darn Good Cake from Anne Bryn's The Cake Mix Doctor Returns! in the oven.
This turned out to be the most moist, dense cake I’ve ever made, yet sour cream and vanilla pudding mix kept it from being too rich. The oo’s and aah’s of friends and co-workers the next day proved they didn’t care whether I’d taken another hour to parcel out sugar or melt chocolate or measure flour and baking soda and salt.
We dubbed it the best Monday ever. Thanks, Doctor.
I can vouch. That cake was incredible!
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