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Here’s a secret: even a lot of bakeries use boxed cake mix! These simple tips for how to make a box cake mix taste homemade will take all your cupcakes and birthday cakes to the next level!
I don’t know about you, but I don’t always have time to make a recipe from scratch. There’s no shame in the boxed cake mix game, but of course, we want it to taste as good as homemade. And that’s where these tips for doctoring up box cake mix come in! (These doctored up cake mix recipes will come through in a pinch too.)
How To Make a Box Cake Mix Taste Better
While I love my homemade cake mix, I’m assuming you’re here because Betty Crocker is your sous chef today. And that’s okay! Because like I mentioned before, a lot of professional bakers use boxed cake mixes.
I had no idea until I saw one of our town’s biggest wedding cake bakers checking out at the store with powdered sugar, butter, eggs, and several boxes of Duncan Hines White Cake Mix! What a scandal, right?!
I could have sworn her cakes were homemade! Nope. Instead, professionals start with the boxed stuff and add the right ingredients to make it taste like it was made from scratch.
First Step: Start With a GOOD Cake Mix
A trusted friend who is known for her amazing cakes let me in on a secret: they teach bakers in classes that you really can’t beat Duncan Hines and Betty Crocker. These two options are considered the best boxed cake mixes, with the right mix of ingredients for a perfectly finished cake, every time!
While you can definitely try other brands and I think you’d likely have good results, I can’t vouch for them personally. I only tested these hacks with Duncan Hines and Betty Crocker cake mixes.
Tried-and-True Hacks for Making Boxed Cake Mix Taste Better
I tested these hacks with boxed cake mix and my homemade buttercream frosting. Then, I had my family try the doctored up cake mix cakes and rate them against cakes made by following the package directions. The results?
The doctored up cake mix cakes tasted more like homemade and we all thought they had better flavor and texture.
Here are the tricks to improving the taste of box cake mix:
- Use milk instead of water.
Using whole milk or buttermilk gives the cake a richer texture like homemade, with an improved taste. - Add extra eggs.
To get an extra rich and moist cake, stir in two extra egg yolks along with the eggs the recipe calls for. - Add sugar and flour to the dry mix.
Add 1/4 to 1 cup sugar and flour to your cake mix. - Use coffee instead of water for chocolate cakes.
For chocolate cakes, use strong brewed coffee instead of water to deepen the flavor. - Add sour cream for an extra moist cake.
Add in 1/2 cup of sour cream for more moisture and richness. - Jazz it up with pudding mix.
Add a small box of instant pudding to the cake mix for extra moisture and flavor. - Give it a boost with vanilla and salt.
Add in a teaspoon of vanilla and 1/4 teaspoon of salt to the mix. - Swap butter for the oil.
Use melted butter in the place of vegetable oil for a richer taste. For an extra decadent cake, add two tablespoons of mayonnaise, like this Copycat Portillo’s Chocolate Cake. - Level up the flavor with mix-ins.
Add a handful of chocolate chips, fruit, or nuts. - Upgrade your cake mix with homemade frosting.
Make homemade buttercream frosting! This cream cheese frosting is also excellent!
More Baking Tips and Hacks
- This free printable shows you How Many Cups in a Quart, Pint or Gallon so you don’t have to guess or Google it every time. Just hang it on your fridge!
- You’ll love this list of the The Best Easy Cake Recipes, which can be whipped up super fast!
- If you’re completely new to baking and need to know How to Bake a Cake, I have you covered, too!
- Out of eggs? Try this Baker’s Guide to Egg Substitutes and find the perfect replacement!
- Do you really need cake flour for that recipe? And what is cake flour, anyway? Learn more: Cake Flour vs. All Purpose Flour.
- It’s also important to know When to Use Salted vs. Unsalted Butter in all your baking recipes.
How to Make A Box Cake Mix Taste Homemade
Ingredients
- 1 15 oz. ounce box box devil’s food cake mix
- 1 3.4 oz box instant chocolate pudding (dry)
- 3 eggs
- 1/2 cup butter melted
- 1/2 cup milk
- 1/2 cup sour cream
- 1 teaspoon vanilla
Instructions
- Gather your ingredients. Preheat oven to 350°F. Grease a 9×13 baking pan.
- Place all cake mix ingredients in a bowl. Mix with an electric mixer on medium speed until well combined and fluffy for about 3 minutes.
- Pour into baking pan and bake until a toothpick comes out clean, about 35-40 minutes.
- Cool completely before frosting.
Video
Nutrition
Click Below for My FREE Printable Cheat Sheet 
10 Tricks For Making A Box Cake Taste Homemade – Printable
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Quick & Easy Desserts
Ooey Gooey Butter Cake
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Chocolate Chip Cake Mix Cookie Bars
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I’ve also used a pie filling to replace the water and oil.
An example is cherry filling with a chocolate cake mix or an Apple pie filling with a spice cake mix
That sounds like a great idea! We’ll have to give it a try!
This site won’t render properly on my iphone – you might want to try and repair that
Wonderful recipe and enjoyable chef!! Hope Ella had a great birthday bash!!
My cake fell after i took it out of the oven, I was shocked. I baked it at 325 for 80 minutes to be sure it was done since it had extra ingredients.
I read what you posted I want to know about a lemon cake what should I do to get that lemon taste for my cake.
Thanks,
Brenda
Whenever a lemon recipe asks for water I substitute freshly squeezed lemon juice, lemon flavouring (instead of vanilla) and grated lemon zest. Friends and family RAVE about the real lemony taste.
Do you add plain or self-rising flour?
I upgraded my boxed spice cake, as you suggested, with milk, extra eggs, extra flour, extra sugar, salt and vanilla. Added a little sour cream, ginger and nutmeg. Fantastic!
Good to know!!!
I add 1 cup sugar, 1 cup flour and 1 cup of sour cream, to a cake mix besides what the box directions call for. Plus extra vanilla, this makes a wonderful & delicious cake with any cake mix! It makes a 9×13 a full pan, several more cupcakes also!!
I used one stick of melted butter in place of the oil. I used everything else you suggested. The cake was super moist and delicious.
Can I make a round cake out of this rather than cupcakes?
Does these changes make the cakes less stable if I am making a tall cake?? I just don’t want it to collapse.
Keep doing your awesome work
When making aWhite Cake can you use ANISE EXTRACT instead of Almond or Vanilla Extract and if you do how much Anise Extract would you use to get the flavor of ItalianCookies(Anise) and would you use the ANISE EXTRACT in the icing and how much would you use if so.?THANKS
Can I add both the pudding and the sour cream to the box cake mix? Also I would like to add the extra egg I need milk instead of water is that possible? Please advise as I need to make a cake this weekend. Thank you so much,
Kristen
Kbgfeldman@gmail.com
Did she reply to you? I don’t see any answers to any of the questions. I wanted to know if I could do more than one of the hacks on the same cake, like use milk instead of water but also add sour cream, or if I add the sour cream too do I also need to have more dry ingredients, like more sugar and flour. If she never answers I guess there’s no point in asking and I’ll just experiment.
So I tried it with a lemon cake mix that had pudding mix in it already. Added 1/4 C each sugar and flour, 1/2 C sour cream, and used milk instead of the water. The texture was great but the lemon flavoring was so diluted that I wish I’d added lemon extract too. Maybe using pudding would boost the lemony flavor but it doesn’t make sense to me to add pudding mix AND extra sugar and flour, so I’ll try another cake mix with just pudding mix and not sugar and flour but still do the other add-ins.
You can 100% use multiple hacks on one cake. I always sub water with milk (coffee for chocolate), add extra eggs, sour cream, sub oil with butter (and usually double the amount). This produces a very tender cake. Great for cupcakes, bundt cakes, and your standard 2 layer 8” round cake. If I need more stability I like to add a little extra flour+sugar to make tall layer cakes.
Hope this helps.
HEY
I too am on the “ever going ever wandering journey of cake hacks”. I actually have used MOST HACKS in many articles in the SAME CAKE and NO ISSUES. However! This is the FIRST ARTICLE OF MANY MANY MANY read which “suggests one consider” using extra flour and sugar in the dry mix. ALSO- I am personally confused about the flour and sugar. Are these MIXED IN EQUAL PARTS PRIOR TO ADDING? Then does one add a 1/4 cup? 1 + 1/4 cup? I have never seen it written like top #3 is written. It totally could just be me and the way I’m used to writing. If I recall it’s written like this in tip:
“Add 1/4- 1 cup flour and sugar to dry mix.”
I would love to try this because it’s a totally new hack which I’ve yet to try or even KNOW OF, but I just need clarification on it.
Again- is this combined then measured out in 1 measuring unit? How much? How much of each? If combined, what’s the ratio?
Also curious if this would make my cake drier in any way. I’m curious what its overall intentions are. Hahaha. It is a “suspicious” boxed cake hack tip!
But I’m interested!!
If anyone can help, we would appreciate it!!
How many hacks DO YOU PERSONALLY USE?
DO YOU KNOW WHAT TIP #3 MEANS OR WHAT ITS OVERALL INTENTIONS AND PURPOSE IS?
Personally, I love reading about hacks.
I set out all cool ingredients on counter at least 90 minutes prior to mixing. Room temp. ingredients blend better and the less beating you do, the better. Only beat batter as much as it needs! THEN STOPPP!
HACKS I OFTEN USE- EVEN ALL AT ONCE WITH ONE CAKE:
1)
I regularly swap vegetable oil for butter (Irish butter if possible- anywhere has it but costs more. Yes, salted). This is a 1:1 ratio and a simple google search will tell you what you need to know- if it calls for 1/2 cup oil or 1/3 cup oil, just ask google how much “sticks of butter” that equals. You often get a fraction of a stick. Microwave it for 30 seconds or so, stir in any solid pieces until melted, mix into batter with milk and mix prior to adding egg so it doesn’t cook your eggs, (or allow to cool a bit but not until firm again).
2)
SWAP OUT THE WATER FOR WHOLE MILK. I always do this. I don’t even think I would make a cake if I didn’t have milk. And we only ever have whole milk in the house. 99% of the time it’s Organic and about 15% of the time I have grass fed in addition to regular organic. I would use the grass fed in my cake if I had it on hand. This is the same idea as the Irish butter tip- grass for cows makes MUCH FATTIER, CREAMIER, YUMMIER PRODUCTS. Butter IS cream scraped off the top of fresh milk left to sit (likely refrigerated! Lol) and separate. Grass fed milk I would personally assume is fattier and this is the whole point of using dairy in cake vs. water and oil. I have not much experience with buttermilk besides 1 time and was a long time ago. One website called for this hack ONLY W WHITE CAKE. I say this option calls for research? Or further comments on personal experiences? I’d like to hear comments on chocolate cake w/ buttermilk as well as vanilla & strawberry. Those are our most often made flavors in this house.
#3
Regarding eggs, I personally “Add an extra egg to what box already calls for.” I haven’t seen “copy recipe then add two egg yolks in addition”, (or whatever it said- sorry- memory) but curious to try!
#4
Sour cream- YES TRY IT. NO DON’T WORRY.
Yes you can do all these hacks in one box cake without adding more dry ingredients.
I personally usually just do the first 3 but I’m getting sour cream too for today’s cakes/cupcakes. I am making 1/2 recipes for both Choc and vanilla. This leaves me 1/2 recipes for another day! I like doing a 1/2 recipe even for just one box because it just saves on EVERYTHING, I have to shop WAY LESS and with so few people in house normally, a whole box is just too much.? Doing (2) half recipes today only because we want two flavors. Never could we handle two full boxes unless there was a large party!
***Clarification on the flour and sugar added to dry mix would be great!(i.e. How much of each per 1 boxed cake?
I’ve made dozens of these cake mix cakes with pudding and sour cream and have never used extra flour or sugar. I always use a bundt or Angel food pan which ensures the centre is well cooked. As I mentioned before I use lemon juice instead of water and add zest to the cake as well in the icing. There are sooo many things you can do …like add fresh blueberries for a not quite so sweet as icing cake also.
I add chocolate chunks or Reese’s pieces to a chocolate cake; white chocolate chunks and a white chocolate pudding mix to a white cake (You can add desiccated coconut too); crushed pineapple (drain the juice and add more pineapple juice to the required water ingredient…. INSTEAD of the water). Etc etc etc. your imagination is the limit
I do have a question is this going to be the same amount of ingredients for the yellow cake mix and the chocolate cake mix. Or is the chocolate different. Or is it going to be the same amount of ingredient.
I’m making 2 11×15 yellow Duncan Hines cakes. and and 1 8inch round dark chocolate cake.
2 for April 3rd and one for April 4th
I do have a question is this going to be the same amount of ingredients for the yellow cake mix and the chocolate cake mix. Or is the chocolate different. Or is it going to be the same amount of ingredient.
I’m making 2 11×15 yellow Duncan Hines cakes. and and 1 8inch round dark chocolate cake.
2 for April 3rd and one for April 4th
You can use all these hacks for any flavor cake, but if you make multiple boxes you modify each box of cake mix. Additionally, some hacks lend more to a specific flavor. Like for chocolate cake, adding whole eggs and coffee is amazing, but for a white cake I prefer to add egg whites + mayo and milk rather than coffee. You really just have to play around.
For a vanilla box cake could you add the sour cream and the extra egg yolks or would this be too much?