The convenience of using boxed cake mixes is wonderful, providing you know a few ways to make them even better; either by additions or the way in which you make your cakes.
You will find that if you sift your boxed cake mix first thing, you will get a much fluffier and finer crumb to the cake.
To make a boxed cake taste more "homemade", add 2 Tbsp. of plain all-purpose flour along with an extra egg and 1 Tbsp. of sugar. The cake is a little heavier and more dense than it would have been. You can barely tell it was a boxed cake mix to begin with.
It never hurts to add a Tbsp. of sour cream to any chocolate cake mix. It ends up being so different, although I can't tell you why. Utterly delicious.
When you use a store-bought container of frosting, you can scoop it all into a bowl, add a Tbsp. of butter, and 6 Tbsp. of powdered sugar, then beat it all really well, to get a much better flavored and more stable frosting. Feel free to add 1/2 tsp. of flavoring such as orange, lemon or almond.
If you're using a chocolate frosting, you might want to add a Tbsp. of Hershey's Cocoa along with a tsp of butter to deepen the flavor of chocolate.
Add a Tbsp. of instant coffee to a Tbsp. of hot water, mix coffee and water, then pour it into chocolate frosting in a bowl, and add 6 Tbsp. of powdered sugar and 1 Tbsp. of Hershey's Cocoa to the chocolate frosting to get a rich mocha flavor. You might need an extra Tbsp. of butter to keep it soft enough to spread. Stir it all in first. All canned frosting are not created equal.
I taught Creative Cooking for a Cultural Art Center at one time, and these are the types of things busy women wanted to learn, so we tried some of everything.
Have fun in your kitchen. Teach your children how to cook with pleasure and creativity. It's becoming a dying art.
By Julia from Boca Raton, FL
Sometimes I bump into a boxed cake mix on sale for SO cheap, I can't say no. Having it handy helps save precious time, but it just doesn't taste nearly as good as a cake made from scratch.
When using boxed cake mixes, add a half to a level teaspoon of baking powder. Being taught this by my grandmother has been a blessing. We don't always check the date on the box and as the box sits on the shelves, it loses it's strength.
To add flavor to a chocolate cake mix add a tablespoon of powdered cocoa to your cake mix before blending. Personally I use anywhere from one to two tablespoons of cocoa depending on the flavor of the cake mix.
To make a basic cake mix (white) taste delicious, add a teaspoon of flavoring. My favorite addition is coconut in the batter. Be sure to mix well before baking.
I am making a wedding cake in June and would like to doctor a Duncan Hines butter golden cake mix to make this cake. It will be a four-layer cake with butter-cream icing. I have made a doctored wedding cake with Betty Crocker cake mix, but Duncan Hines butter is my favorite.
By Fran from St. Mary's County, MD
If it was me I wouldn't bother to doctor it. It tastes ok as is, most people don't even eat the cake at a wedding, and no one expects it to be that tasty, so I wouldn't bother, especially if you're making homemade frosting.
For each box of mix, add a box of vanilla instant pudding. Change nothing else. When baking put a pan of water on the rack below the cake that you are baking. Super moist cake this way. I myself do not care for yellow cake- I LOVE white cake with cream cheese frosting. Yum. It's always a good idea to at least try something out ahead of time if you make changes to be sure it will turn out the way you want it to.
I add pudding even to mixes that say "pudding in the mix" and it always turns out good for me.
All you have to do is to add an extra egg and use whole milk in the recipe. Sometimes I also add just a tiny bit of almond flavoring. However, I usually add it to the frosting but I have added it to the batter as well. I have had rave reviews with my cakes. I hope this is helpful to you.
I am going to be making a diet cake (or maybe you call it soda cake) soon. I want to know if instead of the can of soda, if I can use 12oz. of sparkling water? It is flavored, carbonated water, so pretty much like diet coke. Would this turn out the same? For those of you who don't know, you just mix a can of soda with a box of cake mix and bake. It's delicious.
By Becca25 from NY
Yes, you can use sparkling water, use as you normally would use your soda.
When making a cake from a mix, place mix in bowl, add the water, mix it up, oil, mix it up and mix after each egg, then scrap the sides and beat for 2 minutes, your cake will be bigger and lighter!
My grandson only likes yellow cake, so I buy a 9 oz. box of yellow Jiffy cake mix. I follow the instructions, plus I add 1 Tbsp. of butter and 1 tsp. of pure vanilla extract.
What would you add to the assorted flavours of cake mix to make them taste like homemade? I don't feel confident enough in my ability to follow a cake batter recipe, so tend to rely on cake mixes. I would really prefer to be able to say that I did something to make my cakes my own! Any clever ideas for delicious fillings between the cake layers would be much appreciated too. Thanks very much for the advice.
By Hanna Miller from Canada
There are suggestions on this website:
www.ehow.com/
I received an email not so long ago about cake mixes, pancake mixes, brownie mixes, & Bisquick. It was a true story about a teenage boy who ate some pancakes from a mix that his mother made him for breakfast. After her son left for high school, she met up with a friend and went to a gym together. She normally doesn't take her cell phone with her to the gym, but decided to take it with her that day.
So much for packaged mixes.
Homemade cakes are very simple to make. I don't buy any mixes, make everything from scratch. Just read the ingredient label on a cake mix. I don't want to ingest all of those chemicals, or take a chance and get food poisoning.
There are recipes out there that tell you how to dress up a box cake. I would try allrecipes.com.
Meanwhile, the key to any recipe is to read the whole recipe all the way through first. This way you can check to be sure you have all you need and understand all the directions given.
Second turn on the oven to preheat.
Third is gather your ingredients.
Baking can be fun and rewarding, but only if you put the fun into it yourself!
