Want the Convenience of Cake Mix with the Flavor of a Homemade Cake?
We use cake to celebrate just about every happy occasion. Celebrating your mom’s birthday? You eat cake. Throwing a party for el Cinco de Mayo? You use classic recetas de postres to make a traditional tres leches cake recipe. Having a baby shower? You get the idea.
Unfortunately, because cakes are so commonly in demand and because they’re so time consuming to make, more and more people are making cake with cake mix. The problem? While that takes most of the work out of making a cake, baking cake with cake mix also takes out most of the flavor. That said, with these simple tips for baking cake with cake mix, you can make your cake made from cake mix almost as delicious as a from scratch version — almost.
How to Make Cake with Cake Mix That Will Blow Your Taste Buds Away
- Substitute Coconut Milk for Any Cooking Liquid
- One Word: Butter
- Dust the Top of the Cake with Sugar
- Don’t Be Lazy with the Frosting
The biggest problem with cake mix is that it’s almost completely devoid of fat. Subsequently, using water or milk to bring the batter together isn’t going to do much to rectify the problem. That’s why the budget cooking website One Hundred Dollars a Month recommends substituting full-fat coconut milk for the cooking liquid. Coconut milk is rich in fats, and it will go a long way in buffing up the flavor of any box mix. The coconut flavor works especially well with a dark chocolate cake.
As we’ve said, fat plays a crucial role in how flavorful a cake can be. It’s not just the presence of fat that matters, but the type of fat, too. For the popular cooking blog Lady Behind the Curtain, this means getting rid of the vegetable oil that is typically recommended for cake mixes, opting instead for the more flavorful and natural butter. Simply substitute equal parts real butter — not chemical-laden margarine — in equal parts for the vegetable oil, and you’ll end up with a cake that is both more flavorful and a lot moister.
One of the biggest problems with making a cake with cake mix is that the result too often has terribly grainy texture. Much of that can be solved with the addition of the aforementioned fat, but you need to take it one step farther to ensure you’re really getting something amazing. Celebrity chef Rachael Ray suggests sprinkling a layer of sugar on top of the cake batter before you put it in the oven. The sugar will way down the batter, keeping it from rising too much in the oven, but it will also caramelize and give the cake a great bit of crunch.
You’re already cheating by using a cake mix. The worst thing you can do is make matters worse by using a bottled frosting. As LiveStrong details, you need only combine butter, brown and powdered sugar, vanilla, and a splash of cream in a mixer to create delicious, professional grade buttercream frosting. There are few things homemade frosting won’t make better.
What are some of the things you do when making cake tres leches or other classics using cake mix? Share your confectionery expertise with us in the comments below! More.
