We all know that using a box mix while baking a cake is one of the fastest and most reliable methods. The results of box mixes are almost always flawless, they are inexpensive, and they are simple to assemble.
Why therefore alter perfection?
Perhaps you would prefer a somewhat more imaginative cake. Perhaps you want to add some flair to that box mix so nobody can tell your cake wasn’t truly baked by Betty Crocker. Or maybe you simply believe that the cake made from a box mix may be a little bit better.
Here is the blog post for you if you are considering any of these.
I’ll point you to a few scrumptious and simple tips that will make your box cake mix even better.
1. Bye-Bye Water
Most recipes for boxed cake mix include water. Water simply won’t cut it if you want a rich, excellent cake. Therefore, swap out the water for whole milk (be sure to check out the differences in milk and buttermilk in cake).
The cake will have more fat and a better mouth feel and a smoother taste as a result of the addition of whole milk. 2% or skim milk will do just fine if you don’t have whole milk; anything is preferable to plain water!
Steer clear of heavy cream and half-and-half because they are a little too rich (too much fat can mess with your recipe is a negative way so stick with the milks rather than the creams).
Simply substitute one cup of milk for one cup of water if your recipe calls for it. By adjusting just one ingredient, you can create a box cake that tastes like it just came from the bakery.
2 – Coffee in Cake?
You should absolutely substitute coffee for the water while baking a chocolate box cake. The addition of coffee will intensify the chocolate flavour and give the cake a more opulent flavour.
Unexpectedly, you won’t taste any coffee at all—just more chocolate! For this easy hack, substitute an equal amount of coffee for the recipe’s water.
Furthermore, this is a wonderful way to use up leftover coffee.
3 More Eggs!
What if you add one additional egg to the one that’s typically required for making box cake mixes? What would occur? What is it? Magic.
Your cake will become incredibly moist and dense by adding one extra egg. The extra egg will thicken the cake and give it a homemade flavour with no sign of a box!
Your cake will change if you crack one extra egg.
4 – Zesty
When baking, sometimes adding a single, insignificant ingredient can have a huge impact. In this instance, I’m referring to sprinkling lemon zest on a cake made from a box mix.
Your everyday vanilla box cake can become special with just a teaspoon of lemon zest. Bright fruit flavours will permeate every slice of cake and give it your own touch.
While lemon zest is fantastic in vanilla and white cakes, orange zest works better in chocolate-flavoured cakes.
5. Waffles
With this tiny tip, you can obtain your cake faster. Everyone wants to get their cake eaten right away after mixing and weighing it out—no one likes to wait around while the cake bakes!
Pouring the batter into a waffle maker is a quick and easy way to get to the cake right away. If you don’t already own one, you can easily order a waffle maker on Amazon for a reasonable price. There are many baking techniques you can use for, and they are undoubtedly fun culinary items to have.
Golden brown cake waffles will be produced by waffle machines after cooking the cake batter for three to five minutes.
With this fantastic trick, you won’t have to wait long for cake—from opening the box to taking your first slice, the entire process will take just ten minutes.
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6. Cook it slowly
Place any can of fruit filling and the cake mix directly into a slow cooker (a can of cherry filling for a chocolate cake mix, a can of strawberry filling for a strawberry cake mix or maybe a can of pumpkin for a vanilla cake mix).
Start the slow cooker, then depart. One of the moistest cakes you’ve ever had will be waiting for you in four hours!
When a cake is made in a conventional oven, moisture escapes while the cake cooks because slow cookers lock in moisture, preventing this from happening. Additionally, the fruit filling gives the cake a tonne of moisture.
7. We Need Butter
The majority of box cake mixes call for oil to be added, but what is an alternative to oil? Butter. Butter is always preferable, to put it simply.
The cake mix will have a richer flavour and a nicer texture if butter is used in place of the oil, which oil simply cannot provide.
Before incorporating it into the batter when using butter, it should be melted. Use twice as much butter as oil as well. One cup of butter is required if your recipe box calls for half a cup of oil.
A richer cake is a simple swap!
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8 – Spicy
Most cake mixes found in boxes are rather straightforward. There is not a lot of variety—just white cake here, vanilla cake there. Spices can be added to the dish as a quick remedy for the monotony.
Determine the flavour character you want to achieve when choosing your spices. You desire a cake with warm aromas because it is fall. Take some cinnamon, cloves, nutmeg, or allspice (or all of the above! ), and add a dash of each to your mixture.
Your chocolate cake will have a wonderful kick to it if you add some chilli powder to it to make it Mexican chocolate!
Get creative—there are so many different spices you can experiment with!
9. Extract
The cake mix benefits greatly from a small amount of vanilla essence.
After being on store shelves for a while, boxed cake mixes occasionally lose their flavour. These flavours will come back to life when you add vanilla extract since vanilla will enhance everything else in the dish.
But don’t stop there; try putting some almond or maple extract in your vanilla cakes as well. Your taste buds will be delighted by a few drops of mint extract in a chocolate cake, and you’ll undoubtedly enjoy the unexpectedly delightful flavour of lavender extract in a strawberry cake.
Salute to the simplicity and originality of extracts!
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10. Anything Else
You can pretty much add anything to the batter because box cake mixes are so beautifully basic. You can add just about anything to a box of cake mix, including peanut butter cups, chocolate chips, cookie crumbs, fresh fruit, and pumpkin puree.
While it’s true that some “mix-ins” can change the texture of the cake (frozen berries, for instance, add moisture and make the cake denser), they’re really simple to incorporate into the cake batter to make a fun, original form of cake.
Take a look inside your cabinet to discover what you have! Please add some chocolate chips and chopped strawberries to the cake mix in the box I’m using.
I’m confident that after reading all of these fantastic box cake mix hacks, you won’t ever look at a basic box of cake mix in the same depressing way again. Making cakes from scratch again would almost be absurd given how many methods there are to improve box mixes.
Put your chef’s hat on now and decide which types of cakes to bake first. Break out the box mix and only use the “recipe” as a loose guideline; with the help of these wonderful hacks, you can come up with some spectacular new cake flavours!