Let’s be honest. Sometimes a last minute baking request happens and you reach for the box cake mix in your pantry.
Oh, but how can I make these cupcakes taste homemade you ask? Fear not, there are loads of tips here to make your box cake mix taste like you spent hours on the batter.
But what about the quality of the boxed cake mix ingredients? Don’t worry – there are now great options for natural, organic and preservative-free cake mixes at your local stores.
Here’s a few of my favorite cake and cupcake boxed mix secrets.
Pro tips for Box Cake Mixes
To add volume and texture:
- Substitute buttermilk for all the liquid in the box cake recipe. Because it’s so thick, you might have to add slightly more buttermilk than a direct one-to-one ratio.
- Or try whole milk for the water ingredient which will make the cake more dense and the texture feel like a homemade cake.
- Add melted butter for all or part of the oil requested.
- Sift the powdered ingredients in your basic cake mixes to add volume and that nice fluffy texture.
To add flavor:
- Make your own vanilla extract to add rich flavor.
- Chocolate or devil’s food cake mix can get a boost of flavor by substituting brewed coffee for the water ingredient (slightly cooled). Also, throwing in a handful of mini chocolate chips or chocolate shavings is one of my favorite tricks.
- Yellow or white cake mixes benefit from adding 1/4 teaspoon of salt and 1 to 2 teaspoons of fresh lemon juice because a lot of the commercial mixes are very sweet.
- Yogurt is a great substitute for part of the liquid measurement in the recipe. Try : 6 oz yogurt + 2 Tbsp. oil + 2/3 cup water or buttermilk, then add the original egg quality from the box.
- Plain or vanilla yogurt will go with any cake mix flavor
- Lemon yogurt adds great flavor to lemon, yellow, spice or white cakes mixes
- An orange flavored cake can be easily made by using a yellow cake mix with orange juice substituted for all of the water. Also adding 1-2 tsp of orange or citrus extract and fresh orange zest will help boost the flavors.
- Adding a box of pudding mix has been suggested by a number of fellow food bloggers, but I’ve had great success altering the original ingredients mentioned above.
To go healthy:
- Use apple sauce to replace all of the oil requested and add 2 tsp. of vanilla extract to any cake flavor. Be sure to reduce your baking time by 2-3 mins to prevent over-baking.
- Try coconut milk (full fat) to replace the liquids in both chocolate and vanilla cake recipes
This week I had a craving for lemon cupcakes, so I grabbed a box of “Duncan Hines : Signature Lemon Supreme Cake Mix”. It was a great base to start with for these cupcakes (and also on sale for $1.99 – so it couldn’t be missed.)
Recipe: Lemon Cupcakes - you won't believe are "from the box"
2016-05-17 06:37:57
Yields 24
Light, fluffy lemon cupcakes made with boxed cake ingredients and easily transformed into homemade tasting cupcakes with a lemon zest cream cheese frosting.
Prep Time
10 min
Cook Time
15 min
Total Time
30 min
Original box cake recipe
- • 1 cup water
- • ⅓ cup vegetable oil
- • 3 large eggs
Cupcake ingredients updated to “Wow”
- • 1 cup whole or 2% milk
- • ⅓ cup unsalted butter melted (and cooled)
- • 3 large eggs
Lemon Cream Cheese Frosting
- Makes about 4 1/2 cups
- • 2 packages cream cheese 8oz each, room temperature
- • 3/4 cup (1 1/2 sticks) unsalted butter, room temperature
- • 4 cups powdered sugar
- • 1 tsp grated lemon peel
- • 1 tsp vanilla extract
Lemon Cupcake Batter Preparation
- Preheat oven to 325F for dark or coated cupcake pans. Line cupcake tray with your favorite paper cupcake liners.
- In an electric mixer or by hand, combine the dry cake mix, milk, butter and eggs in large bowl at low speed until moistened (about 30 seconds). Then beat on medium speed for 2 minutes more.
- Use a ice cream scoop or cup to scoop batter in papers and place in the oven.
- Bake for 15-18 minutes. Cupcakes are done when a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.
- Cool in pan on a wire rack for 15 minutes. Then turn out onto the rack and cool completely before frosting.
Lemon Cream Cheese Frosting Preparation
- Using electric mixer, beat cream cheese and butter in large bowl until light and fluffy.
- Gradually beat in powdered sugar. Beat in lemon peel and vanilla.
- Cover and refrigerate until just firm enough to spread, about 30 minutes.
Adapted from yourhomebasedmom.com
Adapted from yourhomebasedmom.com
lovelivedesign https://lovelive.design/
Inspiration from www.onegoodthingbyjillee.com
Lemon cream cheese frosting adapted from Epicurious
1 Comment
Will you bake some of these and ship them to me?