Georgia Magazine - February 2022 - 30

GEORGIA Cooks
By Jane F. Garvey
H
Reimagining cake baking:
ave you stopped using cake mixes because you
consider yourself to be a " scratch " cook who wouldn't
be caught dead with a prepackaged mix in your
pantry? If you are basing your opinion on cake mixes of a few
decades ago, you might want to revisit the subject.
Anne Byrn, a former food editor and restaurant reviewer
for The Atlanta Journal-Constitution from 1978 to 1993, would
tell you to take another look-and another taste.
Now living again in Nashville, Tenn., where she was born
and reared, Byrn is busy with family and still writing about food.
She recently published " A New Take on Cake " (Clarkson Potter,
2021), wherein she uses cake mixes as the starting point for
many recipes. She not only embellishes them to make
beautiful cakes, muffins, cookies and other desserts but also
responds to contemporary dietary needs by reducing the sugar
content or making them vegan or gluten-free.
Byrn's background includes a bachelor's degree from the
University of Georgia in Athens, where she studied journalism
and home economics and obtained her degree from the College
of Family and Consumer Sciences. In 2003, the college honored
her for her professional achievements. She is also a graduate of
Ecole de Cuisine LaVarenne, a cooking school in Paris, France,
´
and says that training enhanced her skills as a " scratch " baker.
" My LaVarenne experience has greatly influenced my
career, not only in writing about food but also
cooking, " she says. " It taught me classic French
cooking and a great appreciation of technique,
both savory and pastry. I have been able to hone
my scratch baking skills through the years and
make something as easy as baking with a cake
mix more elegant.
" But [when I] came back here [to Nashville],
our lives were busy, and I got swept back into the
life I grew up in here. "
In the process, she found that Nashville
didn't share Atlanta's gourmet reputation or its
influence from restaurants.
" It was refreshing, " she says.
Soon she started writing about food for the
morning newspaper, The Tennessean. In a story
about how you could doctor up a cake mix and
how they're great for a patio party or a picnic, she
asked readers to send her their favorite cakemix
recipes. To her surprise, this simple request
yielded more mail than anything she'd written
while working in Atlanta, she says, and prompted
30 Georgia Magazine February 2022
Anne Byrn's 'A New Take on Cake'
Above: Cookbook author
Anne Byrn, known as
" The Cake Mix Doctor, "
often can be found in her
Nashville, Tenn., kitchen
testing recipes as Cooper
sits patiently nearby.
Left: Byrn's latest cookbook,
" A New Take on
Cake " (Clarkson Potter,
2021; $26.99) features
recipes that start with
simple, boxed cake
mixes. Learn more at
annebyrn.com.
REPRINTED WITH PERMISSION FROM " A NEW TAKE ON CAKE " BY ANNE BYRN ©2021. PHOTOGRAPHS BY DANIELLE
ATKINS. PUBLISHED BY CLARKSON POTTER, A DIVISION OF PENGUIN RANDOM HOUSE, LLC.
AVAILABLE AT AMAZON.COM.
REPRINTED WITH PERMISSION FROM " A NEW TAKE ON CAKE " BY ANNE BYRN ©2021. PHOTOGRAPHS BY DANIELLE ATKINS. PUBLISHED
BY CLARKSON POTTER, A DIVISION OF PENGUIN RANDOM HOUSE, LLC. AVAILABLE AT AMAZON.COM.

http://www.AMAZON.COM http://www.AMAZON.COM http://www.annebyrn.com

Georgia Magazine - February 2022

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