Doctoring a boxed cake mix into a masterpiece
You want to bake a cake, but you either don’t have all the stuff to do it, don’t have the gumption, don’t have the time, can’t really afford all the ingredients for one of the fancy-pants ones, or think you don’t have the talent... So there you go. That box of cake mix sitting there in the pantry, looking at you. You wince and grab it. Processed and overly cloying. Let’s fix it. There’s no shame in it. I do it all the time when I’m practicing decorating skills. It’s a win-win. The fam gets a treat and my skills advance. Lemme give you a little secret... pro bakers do this ALL THE TIME, especially for wedding cakes. I’m a little too competitive with myself to do that. LOL
The glory of this is you can use any flavor you want and any liquid you want, even soda. I’m going to give you the recipe for a straight-up white cake and tell you where to sub stuff. You also don’t need a giant stand mixer for this. Hand mixers will work both hunky and dory.
Ingredients
1 Boxed Cake Mix (your choice. White, yellow, whatever)
1 Cup All-Purpose Flour
1 Cup Granulated Sugar
3 Large Eggs (whole, room temperature)
1 Cup Milk (room temperature - you can sub any liquid here... water, soda, buttermilk)
1 Cup Sour Cream (lightly warmed to take off the chill - use either full fat or low fat)
1 or 2 Teaspoons Extract (Vanilla, Almond, Strawberry, etc. This is a guide. Taste the batter. No, you are not going to die from raw egg poisoning by taking a tiny taste.)
That's right. IGNORE THE DIRECTIONS ON THE BOX.
Directions
Preheat oven to 325 degrees F.
In a bowl, SIFT together the boxed mix and flour. Don’t just whisk it. That won’t cut it. Cake mix is lumpy as hell and if you want this cake to have a nice, smooth, airy texture and no floury specks/lumps, SIFT IT . Don’t be lazy. It only takes a minute. Then add the sugar and whisk it around.
In a large mixing bowl, add the eggs, liquid, sour cream, and extract/flavoring. Mix these wet ingredients with the mixer for a minute or so until well-incorporated.
Add the dry ingredients to the liquid mixture. Mix on low until just incorporated, then turn the mixer to medium and mix for 2 minutes. You don’t want to overmix the cake batter because the more you mix, the more gluten develops, which will give you a dense, heavy, chewy cake. Nobody wants that.
Pour batter into pans. This recipe will yield 1 1/2 times the batter than just the regular directions on the box. You can get two 9” layers, two tall or 3 shorter 8” layers, a 9 x 13 x 2 pan, etc. It also makes great cupcakes. You can get around 2 dozen cuppies out of it filling each one to 3/4 full.
Cooking times are going to vary with your pan size. Cupcakes are going to take about 18 minutes. Layer cakes, on average, will take at least 40 minutes. Cakes should not jiggle like a cheesecake middle. They should be springy to touch, and a toothpick inserted into the middle of a cake should come out fairly clean. A crumb or two is ok. Another clue to doneness is seeing that your cake is just beginning to pull away from the pan. If your cake has pulled completely away from the side of the pan, it’s overdone.
A couple of tips... You want some boozy flavor in that cake. Make that liquid a cup of champagne. If you want to add a liqueur like Bailey’s or Kahlua, don’t just sub out the extract. It won’t be strong enough. You will need to make a syrup out of it. Take 1/4 to 1/2 cup of the liqueur and add it to a saucepan. Let it simmer and reduce to half (don’t let it burn, k?). Use THAT as your flavoring. It will still be quite subtle. Your best bet is to use the rest of that reduction in your frosting. What else... Don’t knock buttermilk as your liquid. That stuff is legend in ANY cake. It really works to balance out that sweetness and works gloriously with that sour cream. Don’t have buttermilk? No worries. Take a cup of milk, add 2 tablespoons of white vinegar and let that stuff sit for 10 minutes. Voila. Buttermilk.
OK. I’m done. I need to learn when to stop. This is where. Love y’all, mean it.
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