How to make box cake mix and canned frosting taste homemade.

There are a few but simple tricks to making box cake mix and canned frosting taste like they were made from scratch.

For cake mix you can make the following changes. I usually do all of these when I am lazy and don't want to bake from scratch.

Add a pudding packet. You can either use the same flavor as the cake mix or get fancy and add a different pudding. Try banana pudding in a chocolate cake mix.

Swap out the oil for melted butter. Use the same amount of butter that the box says for oil.

Use milk in place of water. Or coffee for chocolate cake.

Add one more egg that the box calls for.

For the canned frosting you can do the following. I have only tried this once but everyone thought I had made it from scratch.

Whip the frosting with a stand mixer or hand held mixer. It gives it a lighter and more homemade texture.

Add some milk to thin it just a bit.

Add cream cheese for richness and to cut the sweetness of the frosting.