Let them eat anything but cake.

That's how the Byrn family is feeling these days. Anne Byrn, better known as "The Cake Mix Doctor," has just finished her fourth cake cookbook (technically, three on cakes and one on cupcakes), "The Cake Mix Doctor Returns!" She and a friend tested 160 recipes for this book, often tweaking and retesting the same recipe.

"My husband is so over cake," Mrs. Byrn said.

For a senior speech in high school, Mrs. Byrn's daughter calculated that, as the "product of the Cake Mix Doctor," she had eaten more than 2,000 slices of cake.

Not that she was complaining. Seeing Mom on "Good Morning America" compensated for the cake overdoses.

And, Mrs. Byrn admitted, once a cookbook is done, the pantry gets cleaned out in a hurry. Book tour time means she's on the road and not cooking much of anything.

This time, her tour will bring her to the Monroeville Convention Center on Nov. 7 for "Good Taste Pittsburgh," a food show featuring Mrs. Byrn and other celebrities such as Katie Lee Joel, "The View" co-host Sherri Shepherd, and chef Duff Goldman from the Food Network's "Ace of Cakes."

For 15 years, Mrs. Byrn was food editor of The Atlanta Journal-Constitution before moving with her family in 1994 to her native Nashville.

She wrote two regional cookbooks published in the mid-'90s but didn't hit the big time until 1999 with the publication of "The Cake Mix Doctor."

She never dreamed it would make her famous -- and neither did the publisher. They ordered 30,000 copies for the first printing and blew through those in a month.

So why was it such a whopping success?

"It helps to be the first with an idea, and then the copycats follow," Mrs. Byrn said.

Not that she was the first person ever to add something besides oil and eggs to a boxed cake mix. But she was the first to compile all those apocryphal recipes that housewives were swapping and put them into one volume.

Back when she was a food editor, she got continual requests from readers to locate a recipe for some cake they'd heard about that used a boxed mix. She'd paw through Junior League Cookbooks and community cookbooks, tracking down elusive recipes. So her motivation for the original "Cake Mix Doctor," as much as anything, was to assist food editors by putting all those recipes in one place.

Not that she baked that way herself -- not back then, at least. She'd been to cooking school in Paris, for Pete's sakes. Boxed cake mixes were not for her.

"I was a food snob," she said.

"But reality comes in the form of children" -- she has three -- and she learned the value of the shortcut.

Now, 10 years after the original "Cake Mix Doctor," she's ba-aaack.

You'd think that after doing the original "Cake Mix Doctor," then a chocolate-only version, and then a cupcake book, she'd have churned out every doctored cake mix option known to man. But no.

A few recipes in the new book are revisions of originals (chiefly to make the original versions lighter), but most are new. Besides the usual cakes, there are a number of recipes for brownies, bars, cookies, coffee cakes and even a wedding cake.

She'd been getting requests for years on her Web site, cakemixdoctor.com, for a wedding cake recipe. Professional bakers suggested she add flour to cake mix to increase firmness and assemble the cake using dowels to hold the layers in place.

"I couldn't believe how well that worked," she said.

And when it came time to decide on a decorating scheme, she had only one mantra: "as simple as possible."

She got out a pastry bag, experimented with decorator tips and figured out which ones she could actually use.

"I am not a cake decorator," she said. "The ones I can operate, any person can operate."

She decided on simple balls of frosting around the cake's edges, plus decorative pearls for added garnish and plenty of fresh flowers to hide all the gaffes.

And now, she is done with cake books.

She's floating another dinner-related cookbook idea to her publisher, but our guess is her family might rebel if she stuffs their craws with another slice of cake.

Besides, "I think I have exhausted every idea possible.

"But sure enough, as soon as I say that, someone will come to me and say, 'You didn't include this.' "

Cinnamon Streusel Layer Cake

PG tested

Anne Byrn, "The Cake Mix Doctor," will bake this cake for a cooking demonstration at Good Taste Pittsburgh on Nov. 7.

• Vegetable oil spray, for misting the pans
• 3/4 cup packed dark or light brown sugar plus 3 tablespoons for the topping
• 8 tablespoons (1 stick) butter, at room temperature
• 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
• 1 package (18.25 ounces) plain yellow cake mix
• 1 cup sour cream (regular or reduced-fat)
• 1/3 cup vegetable oil
• 1/4 cup water
• 3 large eggs
• Cream Cheese Frosting (see recipe to the left)

Place a rack in the center of the oven and preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Lightly mist 2 9-inch round cake pans with vegetable oil spray. Using a pencil, trace the bottom of 1 of the cake pans onto 2 pieces of parchment paper. Cut out the round pieces of paper and place them in the bottom of the 2 prepared cake pans.

Place 3/4 cup of the brown sugar, the butter, and 1 teaspoon cinnamon in a small mixing bowl and beat with an electric mixer on medium-low speed until creamy and smooth, 1 minute. Put half of the streusel mixture in each prepared cake pan. Using a rubber spatula, spread the streusel out to within 2 inches of the edge of the pans. Set the pans aside.

Place the cake mix, sour cream, oil, water and eggs in a large mixing bowl and beat with an electric mixer on low speed until the ingredients are just incorporated, 30 seconds. Stop the machine and scrape down the side of the bowl with a rubber spatula. Increase the mixer speed to medium and beat until smooth, about 11/2 minutes longer, scraping down the side of the bowl again if needed. Transfer 1 cup of the batter to a smaller bowl and set aside. Divide the remaining cake batter evenly between the 2 cake pans, spreading the batter over the streusel.

Stir the remaining 3 tablespoons of brown sugar and the remaining teaspoon of cinnamon into the reserved batter until well blended and smooth, about 1 minute. Drop the cinnamon-flavored batter by heaping tablespoonfuls onto the batter in the pans and swirl it to the edge of the pan, being sure not to disturb the streusel layer. Place the pans in the oven side by side.

Bake the cake layers until the tops spring back when lightly pressed with a finger, 30 to 35 minutes. Transfer the cake pans to wire racks and let the cake layers cool for 5 minutes. Run a sharp knife around the edge of each cake layer and give the pans a good shake to loosen the cakes. Invert each layer onto a wire rack to cool completely, streusel side up, about 20 minutes longer. Peel off and discard the parchment paper circles.

While the cakes cool, make the Cream Cheese Frosting.

To assemble the cake, transfer 1 layer, streusel side up, to a serving platter. Spread the top with about 1 cup of the frosting. Place the second cake layer, streusel side down, on top of the first layer and frost the top and sides with the remaining frosting. Place the cake, uncovered, in the refrigerator until the frosting sets, 15 minutes, then slice and serve.

Cream Cheese Frosting

PG tested

Mrs. Byrn says she's "all for using reduced-fat cream cheese. It is more watery than regular cream cheese, so save it for cooler weather. Or, place the frosted cake in the refrigerator to let the frosting set for 20 minutes before serving."

• 8-ounce package cream cheese, at room temperature
• 4 tablespoons ( 1/2 stick) butter, at room temperature
• 3 1/2 cups confectioners' sugar, sifted
• 2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract

Place the cream cheese and butter in a medium-size bowl and beat with an electric mixer on low speed until combined, 30 seconds. Stop the machine. Add the confectioners' sugar a bit at a time, beating with the mixer on low speed until the confectioners' sugar is well incorporated, 1 minute. Add the vanilla, then increase the mixer speed to medium and beat the frosting until fluffy, 1 minute longer. Use the frosting at once.

-- "The Cake Mix Doctor Returns!" by Anne Byrn

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