11 Best Hacks to Making Boxed Cakes Taste Homemade | Can Food Professionals Tell the Difference?

Nicole shares 11 of the best tricks to making your boxed cake mix taste homemade. We’ll see if professional tasters can tell the difference between a homemade cake and boxed cake mix.

0:00 Introduction
0:18 Ditch the Water
0:32 Butter is Better
0:41 Up Your Eggs
1:02 Swap in Coffee
1:14 Increase Your Vanilla
1:25 Add Some Sour Cream
1:45 Break Out the Instant Pudding
1:56 Try Some Mayonnaise
2:10 Customize Your Cake
2:21 Make Your Frosting From Scratch
2:33 Get Creative with the Layers

#cakemix #cakes #baking
Ingredients
2 cups sugar
1 cup butter, softened
3 large eggs
2 teaspoons vanilla bean paste
1/4 teaspoon vanilla extract
3 cups cake flour
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 cup buttermilk
How to Make It
Step 1
Beat sugar and butter at medium speed with a heavy-duty electric stand mixer until creamy and fluffy (about 5 minutes). Add eggs, 1 at a time, beating until yellow disappears after each addition. Beat in vanilla bean paste and almond extract.
Step 2
Whisk together flour, baking powder, and salt in a small bowl; add to sugar mixture alternately with buttermilk, beginning and ending with flour mixture. Beat at medium-low speed just until blended after each addition. (Batter will be thick.) Use immediately.

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11 Pro Secrets to Making Boxed Cakes Taste Homemade | Can Food Professionals Tell the Difference?

[debrabeier]

I am not a good baker. I always used the box cake hacks Nicole recommended for 30 years. Milk, butter, 1 extra egg and vanilla extract. My family always thought my cakes were homemade. They were. I made them in my home.

[jeah]

A professional taster? My dream job!😱😱😱

[pamelawebb]

I’m so glad you told of mayonnaise. I taught my son this trick. And he learned to beat the whites and yellows of eggs separately then beat together until foamy and fluffed a bit. His cakes are better than mine now. And people request him to make cakes. Yes people turn noses up at this but I’m telling you, it doesn’t add a mayonnaise flavor at all. But a rich moist cake that’ll keep you coming back for more. He uses 3 heaping spoonfuls

[elizabethdeleo]

I use the Duncan Hines lemon cake and I jazz it up with lemon juice, some grated lemon peel, and instant lemon pudding, turns out great. I also make a glaze using confectioners sugar a bit of lemon juice, and grated peel. Turns out great.

[Jannie]

those are all great hacks. I've got one to add. Sift your cake mix and mix all dry and wet ingredients separately first before blending. thanks for posting.

[winddrinkerarabians]

I won second place at my state fair with a boxed cake mix. They never knew it was a mix! Lol Triple Chocolate cake with raspberry jelly filling and dark chocolate ganache.

[samanthasponder]

If you grew up with boxed cake mix, you end up loving it more than homemade

[staceyloke]

i LOVE box mix. don’t care that i grew up working in my family’s iconic philadelphia bakery. there’s no award for “i have more refined taste buds than you.” if you love it you love it so eat it

[doloreswienhold]

I have also found that if you make them and freeze the layers for later when needed, thaw and then add the icing, the cake is so much moister.

[marilynroberts]

I've secretly used about half of those ! Thanks for another batch of secret ingredients. You are incredibly easy to listen to..

[ashleywilliams]

Thanks for the tips, I enjoy baking and homemade is definitely worth the effort, but sometimes time and money dictate a quick fix and I'm always looking for ways to improve the flavor when doing so, so this video was great.

[kpace]

I've replaced the water with whole milk and it turned out great. I imagine that 2% might have worked almost as well but skim milk probably would have been no different than water. My aunt always used sour cream and her cakes were delicious. I've made cakes from scratch and from a box. I don't think there's any shame in that.

[lenniewatson]

This is my favorite box cake mix. It makes a terrific banana nut, blueberry poppyseed, carrot or zucchini pineapple breads. All I've ever added was milk, eggs and sometimes the butter. Her other suggestions are wonderful!! Also, there is a Pampered Chef recipe that uses boxed cake mix for cookie gun cookies that taste like the butter cookies in the blue tin you see around the holidays.

[lnorrisnorris]

It's homemade if I made it at home.... southern girl.❤️✝️🕊️♥️😝

[lleetee]

Great video! Many people will never know that there are MANY famous bakeries in NY City use Box cake mix!

[lesliecram]

I love watching your videos! With your facial expressions, added sounds, and witty comments...it just makes me happy! Great hacks and recipes too! lol

[philasupv]

I always do butter, sour cream, milk in my box cakes. Tried 7up in a pound cake, will try the coffee in my chocolate cake. Thx...

[SewTexas]

Thanks for this comparison. It is so true, I always gussy up cake mixes, using all your suggestions but not all at same time. I just recently tried the sour cream and that flavor and texture was amazing! Great video, thank you.

[dinahkruppa]

In 1961 I was adding a stick of butter and extra flavoring to cake mixes. Pudding cake recipes were the latest thing. Time flies!
Enjoyed your ideas. Yum!

[keninthekitchen]

Excellent video! Thanks for the tips to jazz up a box mix, Im definitely going to give this a try. Also, I struggle with the speaking (intro/out-ro) parts of my cooking videos, its good that you show that side of your out-takes. Shows us how natural it is to be anxious/nervous in front of the camera.