Looking for how how to improve a grocery store cake mix
Hello, I have a cake mix box in my pantry and I'm looking for simple recipes based on that. I also want to make my own chocolate frosting. Amy recipes and suggestions are appreciated, thanks!
Substitute the same volume of oil for butter - make sure butter is not liquid but room temp and soft (it’s very important that the butter be allowed to fully melt while only in the oven otherwise it’ll just pool all at the bottom of the pan and it gets gross)
Add another egg yolk
This takes a box mix from eh to absolutely phenomenal. The box mixes are the way to go since they’re premeasured, they have the perfect ratios of flour, sugar, leaveners, and they’re sized for normal cake pans.
Sorry to be pedantic, but I disagree with your second point.
Butter is about 15-20% water, so you'd want to substitute a little more than the volume of oil. So, if the box called for 1/3 cup of oil, used 1/2 cup of butter, or one stick, instead.
Also, unless you're making something as delicate as a macaron, melting the butter fully in the microwave first won't do any harm.
Yes, I usually throw in a full stick of butter for every box mix. The butter consistency is more about making sure it’s creamed in to the cake mix and suspended evenly so that the consistency of the cake is even throughout.
My partner absolutely agrees with this. She also recommends letting it sit refrigerated for at least 12 hours after cooking. Something about refrigerating it increases how moist it is. Everyone that eats her cakes are shocked when she mentions it’s from a box.
I’m going to disagree with a lot of the suggestions here to substitute ingredients or add an extra egg. I think you should follow the recipe on the box exactly and don’t bother with the experimentation.
Cake mixes have been engineered to produce decent cake as long as you follow the instructions. The food scientists at Pillsbury and Duncan Hines knew what they were doing when they added in all those unpronounceable ingredients whose only purpose is to make the cake mix idiot proof. You’d be surprised by the amount of people who say they love my cake and are shocked when they hear it came from a box.
I wouldn’t add anything liquid-y like jam or jelly until after the cake is baked. Some dried ingredients like nuts in the mix would probably be fine though.
Changing the base of the cake is going to be a huge gamble. Anything you add to the cake mix can change how it bakes and make it not rise enough, become too dry, or fail in any other way. So the best option is to bake the mix as instructed. Then you can add things. For suggestions, it would be helpful if you said what type of cake mix it is.
A simple method would be to cut the cake in half horizontally and add some jam/jelly/marmalade. Works with basically every base, and you pick a jam flavor that goes well with the base.
For the chocolate frosting, the easiest and simplest is to just use chocolate and butter. Use 1.5 times as much chocolate as butter. Just break the chocolate and butter into small pieces and put them in a bowl. Preferably a metal bowl and then melt everything over warm water. Use a second bowl with hot water, and put the bowl with the mix in the water. As soon as the mix is liquid put it on top of your cake. You have to work fast or the frosting will solidify but you can always remelt it.
You can literally use any type of chocolate you have. Milk chocolate will make a softer frosting, so if you want it to be hard use something else. If it's unsweetened chocolate you might want to add some sugar. But just taste the melted mix first and then add to taste. You can also add any type of nuts to it.
if you have fruit on hand, you can add it to the batter to or on top before serving to add some "freshness" to the cake. Or with the fruit, like with apples, make a layer at the bottom of the cake tin and make a upside down apple cake, but this depends if you have them on hand first.
I have heard to use milk or cream instead of water but I’ve never tried this myself.
I just make normal cakes though usually. Also explore chocolate peanut butter ganache. I’ve always wanted to do a two layer cake with that in between the layers.
Adding a can of full sugar soda works too. I've tried cherry vanilla coke in chocolate cake and ginger cake and both were delicious.
I think zero soda works too, I've seen in on diet forums but never tried it.
Also ganache is super easy- heat cream (vegan stuff works too!) till it's steaming hot and add chopped chocolate and stir. To boost the flavour, add a pinch of salt and a sprinkle of instant coffee in with the chocolate.
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