Hi, I’m Christina. And I Have a Confession to Make.

New York Times bestselling cookbook author Christina Hitchcock has been hiding shortcuts in plain sight for years. She’s done hiding.

Meet Christina

I’m the fun aunt at every gathering.

You know the one — she shows up with something that looks like it took all day, everyone asks for the recipe, and she laughs when she tells them the secret started with a box mix. That’s me. That’s always been me.

I’m Christina Hitchcock — New York Times bestselling cookbook author, recipe developer, and the shortcut enthusiast behind Cake Mix Recipes. I’ve been cooking since I was old enough to stand at my grandma’s elbow and watch her work. I inherited her recipe box when she passed. And her sister’s. And my mother-in-law’s. Over the years, they kept coming — recipes clipped from magazines, scrawled on paper plates at parties, copied from the back of pasta boxes.

But somewhere in the middle of all those recipes, I noticed something. The ones that disappeared fastest at potlucks? The ones my family requested again and again? The ones that made people stop mid-bite and say “okay, what’s in this?” — they weren’t always the complicated ones. Sometimes the secret was a box of cake mix. A can of condensed soup. A jar of something from the pantry shelf.

For a long time, I kept that secret. I’d smile and say “oh, it’s just something I threw together.” I’d leave out the part about the box.

Then one day I stopped.

Because here’s the thing — there is nothing wrong with using a shortcut. Shortcuts aren’t lazy. They’re smart. And the home cooks who’ve been made to feel guilty about reaching for a box mix deserve a place that celebrates them instead of judging them.

That’s why I built Cake Mix Recipes.

My Other Kitchen

If you’ve stumbled onto this page from It Is a Keeper — hi, neighbor. CMR is the sister site where I get to let my hair down a little. IAK is about foolproof family recipes that work every time. CMR is about what happens when you start with a box and see how spectacular things can get.

Same kitchen. Same family. Very different secret ingredients.

Visit It Is a Keeper →

A Few Things About Me

I am a recipe hoarder. Unashamed, unrepentant, fully committed. If you share a recipe at a party I will find something to write it on. I have recipes on paper plates, cocktail napkins, and the back of an envelope. I inherited my grandmother’s recipe box, my aunt’s, and my mother-in-law’s. I am the keeper of all the recipes.

I test everything. My husband and son are my official taste testers, and neither of them is shy about sharing their opinion. A recipe doesn’t make it onto CMR until it passes the family test — and the family test is honest.

I believe shortcuts are smart. Always have. The best cooks I’ve ever known — my grandmothers, my mom, my mother-in-law — were masters of working with what they had and making it spectacular. That’s the tradition I’m carrying on, one box mix at a time.

I’m also a NYT bestselling cookbook author with three published cookbooks and fifteen years of recipe development experience. I bring that same rigor and testing standard to every CMR recipe — starting with a shortcut doesn’t mean cutting corners on quality.

Outside the kitchen I’m a college professor, a podcast host, and a firm believer that life is too short for complicated recipes.

You May Have Seen Me

You might have seen me on TV – I’ve done quite a few television cooking segments.   

I’ve also been a featured speaker at various summits and conferences, including:

In addition to co-hosting The Smart Influencer Podcast, I’ve been interviewed on several other podcasts:

A Few Recipes I Keep Coming Back To

These are the ones I’ve made more times than I can count. If you’re not sure where to start, start here.

A Little More About Me

Here are 21 things about me that you probably don’t know…

  1. I read cook books cover to cover like most people read novels. ????
  2. I am named after two of my great-grandmothers.
  3. My middle name has a letter that is not in our alphabet.
  4. I graduated from Penn State with a BS in Management Science and Information Systems and a minor in Operations Management.
  5. I am a HUGE Penn State football fan! ????
  6. I’m the proud mom of an Eagle Scout. ????
  7. We live in the Scranton, PA area — you know, the city from The Office.
  8. I’m an Aries and I pretty much fit the profile to a T.
  9. Toast is on my list of top 5 favorite foods.
  10.  My favorite song of all time is Convoy by CW McCall (most people have never heard of it).
  11. My favorite movie is a tie between Footloose (it’s also my second favorite song) and Spaceballs.
  12. I am obsessed with true crime podcasts and TV shows.
  13. I have never had a mosquito bite. Or, if they do bite me (I don’t know ????‍♀️), I don’t get the itchy, red bumps. Weird, I know. But my mom and maternal grandmother were the same.
  14. My favorite flowers are hydrangeas.
  15. I am petrified of snakes.
  16. I am fascinated by all things Southern – I think I was born on the wrong side of the Mason-Dixon line.
  17. I’m very clumsy – I once fell off the end of Norway.
  18. I’m a huge spreadsheet nerd!
  19. My dad was like a walking GPS, however, I didn’t inherit that skill. I am ALWAYS getting lost. 
  20. I live with not one, but two drummers – my house is loud!
  21. I have a soft spot for veterans – they are true heroes.

Let’s Connect

I really do love hearing from readers. If you made something and it worked — tell me. If it didn’t — tell me that too. Email me at [email protected].

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