Countdown to Christmas 2015 Day 10 – Tuesday’s Tip with The Kitchen Whisperer: Bakery Tasting Cakes with a Boxed Mix

Happy Tuesday TKW Family! Today is Day 10 in my Countdown to Christmas 2015 – gosh only 10 days left til Old St. Nick arrives!  Did this year fly or what?  Today on Tuesday’s Tip with The Kitchen Whisperer I’m going to share with you a super secret trick on using a boxed cake mix (I know, I know… a boxed cake mix???) taste just like a cake you bought at the bakery.

Boxed cake mixes are easy, quick and pretty straight forward.  I’ve used them, we all have.  There are days when you’re either out of a main ingredients (like flour or cocoa) or just really don’t have the extra time to measure everything.  Now given the choice I will always make from scratch as I like to be in control and more importantly know what’s all going into my cake batter.  With Christmas right around the corner and parties galore, take that shortcut and grab a boxed mix.  But before you whip it all up, use my tricks and tips to make the cake truly bakery-tasting.

The use of a cake mix is convenient but that doesn’t mean you still can’t tweak it.  Actually I highly recommend tweaking it.  Using my tweaks you’ll end up with a richer, moister, more decadent cake that will fool your guests in thinking you either slaved all day or bought it at a bakery.

Bakery Tasting Cakes with a Boxed Mix Tricks and Tips:

1. If you cake mix calls for 3 eggs, use 4 or 5 room temperature eggs instead.  I always go with 2 more.  It adds a richer flavor. And yes the eggs must be at room temperature.
2. Most cake mixes call for water.  No, never.  Instead swap out the water and use equal amount milk. I actually use whole milk.  I’ve use 2% in the past but whole make just adds a more decadent flavor.
3. Oil.  Almost every cake mix requires you to use oil.  Don’t.  If your boxed cake mix calls for 1/3 cup vegetable oil use melted (or very soft) unsalted butter in its place.  Now you can go with an equal swap out of 1/3 cup soft butter for 1/3 cup oil however me, I 1 1/2 times the amount of butter. It adds such an incredible flavor profile to the cake that helps produce such a decadent end result.

That’s it – really.  I don’t alter the time baked or anything else.  But just those 3 simple swap-outs make the difference from a blank standard cake mix to an awesome cake mix on steroid.