Who We Are

Stephanie Ashcraft was raised near Kirklin, Indiana. She received her Bachelors degree in Family Science and a teaching certificate from Brigham Young University.

She is married to Ivan Ashcraft of Sugar City, Idaho. They have three young children.  Being a mom is her full time job.  Cooking is just a hobby "gone out of control."

For years she taught a monthly cooking class entitled "101 Things To Do With a Cake Mix" for Macey's Little Cooking Theater in Utah, while her husband worked on his PhD at Brigham Young University.  Today she enjoys teaching large groups of women at community education workshops or church events.  She loves to find ways to simplify cooking for people around the world.

Stephanie spent a year and a half in Santiago, Chile serving as a missionary for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.  In March 2003, Ivan and Stephanie returned to Chile to research
new recipes for upcoming books and to publicize the cake mix book. 

Stephanie and Ivan are new residents of Marana, Arizona, a suburb of Tucson. 

A note from the Author

How it all began

Stephanie put together her first copy of "101 Things to do with a Cake Mix" as a college class project. A few months later she began teaching a cooking class of the same title at the local Macey's Grocery Store. The people attending her class were interested in having all 101 recipes together in a book, so Stephanie took on the task of revising her book and getting it ready for printing.  

Her main incentive was to finish the book for Christmas presents for immediate family members.  Stephanie's husband, Ivan, was a PhD student at BYU, and finances were extremely tight.  Ivan is the youngest of nine, and Stephanie is the oldest of eight which translates to a lot of Christmas presents.  As Stephanie was finishing the book, she constantly reminded herself how much money this would save them on Christmas.

The first printing was small, just over a hundred copies. This was for the people attending her class and for Christmas presents for family and friends. However, those first hundred copies disappeared much quicker than expected.

The ideal cookbook has spiral bindings and waterproof covers so that the book will stay open and be protected from spills, but it was hard to locate someone who could do the spiral binding, so Stephanie and Ivan decided to try making books on their own. They bought a small spiral binding machine and went to work.

When the demand kept growing, they had to upgrade their little binding machine to the next level. They did a lot of book making in the evenings as a family. The local print shop had a spiral binding machine and helped when they got behind, but most of the work was still done there in the Ashcrafts' living room. It was a great opportunity for Stephanie to help put her husband through college while still staying home with her children.

Interest in the book escalated.  After making 5,000 copies in the living room, they started to pray about what they should do with this book.  Stephanie didn't want the book to take her away from her children. Prayers were answered.  Stephanie and Ivan both felt that they needed to turn the book over to Gibbs-Smith, Publisher.  The book was released in August 2002.  By the middle of October 2002, the book hit #9 on The New York Times Best Seller List for Paperback Advice.

The Ashcrafts give all the credit to a higher power.  Stephanie feels that she was continually guided through prayer and people who served as angels along the way.  They are extremely grateful.

In September 2003, Stephanie's second book, co-authored with Janet Eyring, was released to the public. The book is entitled "101 Things To Do With A Slowcooker".  In April 2004, "101 More Things To Do With A Cake Mix" was released nationwide.  Five more books have followed.  More are on the way.