With a few quick tips, you can make your boxed cakes taste better than ever before – like they came from a fancy bakery!
A Cake to Celebrate
We love a good celebration and it’s the perfect opportunity to bake a delicious cake recipe. A yellow cake for a birthday surprise, a moist carrot cake for Easter, the perfect flag cake to celebrate 4th of July and a pretty sheet cake to celebrate a new baby! Honestly, I love celebrations and my friend Julianne from Beyond Frosting is expecting a baby boy so what better time for me to bake a cake and celebrate. Julianne makes the yummiest desserts (including this Nutella Snickers pie recipe from her cookbook). With a new baby around, time (and energy) will be thing of the past, (at least for a little while) so I decided to share some of my favorite tips for whipping up a treat that tastes like you’ve spent hours (instead of minutes) preparing it!
Why I Love Boxed Cake Mixes
They’re great for when you’re short on time and uses ingredients you probably have on hand already. Just like when you make cake mix cookies, you can use ANY kind of cake mix for this recipe. Change up the flavors however you like. You can really make a cake mix into a masterpiece with little effort. Cake mixes can be made into cookies, to parfaits to even cake bars like the recipe below.
How to Make a Cake Mix Better
There are lots of methods to make a cake mix better! These are just extra additions to make it rich and delicious without a lot of effort! Choose one or two of the methods below to make your cake mix bakery quality! ADD EXTRA FAT Butter makes everything taste awesome, so try going a little overboard with the butter (or oil) and add extra. It will make your cake rich and give it that made-from-scratch flavor. While you’re at it, make sure you swap out the oil for butter. ADD MAYONNAISE OR SOUR CREAM Wait, what?! You read that right. I add mayonnaise to my easy banana bread and homemade chocolate cake to make them crazy moist. Adding a few tablespoons of mayonnaise to any standard boxed mix will ensure your cake will stay moist and delicious longer. REPLACE THE WATER Use milk, buttermilk or even coconut milk instead of water to make your cake mix a little richer. It makes for a denser, more homemade taste and texture! ADD PUDDING Up the liquids, you add to the cake and throw in a box of Jello pudding in any flavor. The pudding helps to thicken the mixture and make it rich, dense, and delicious! ADD AN EXTRA EGG If you’re in a rush and don’t have time for all the extra details, try just adding another egg to your mix. You won’t believe the difference it makes! GET CREATIVE Have you ever thrown some yummy add-ins to your recipe? It can take your boxed cake from drab to fab in no time! Try throwing in some crushed Oreos, chocolate candies, sprinkles, or even preserves. The only limit is your imagination!
Make Your Icing From Scratch
Even if you don’t have the time to make the cake from scratch, the icing should be. It is the main difference between the plain flavors of boxed cake and the luscious style of handmade treat. A few favorites:
Chocolate Buttercream Frosting Vanilla Buttercream Frosting Fresh Lemon Buttercream Frosting Best Ever Cream Cheese Frosting Chocolate Ganache Frosting Nutella Frosting Recipe
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