10 Genius Cake Tips to Make a Box Cake Mix Better!

I love the thought of making a box cake mix better…much better!

I like baking, but often don’t have the time to bake scratch cake.So I *love* using a box of cake mix that has all the dry ingredients, add a couple of simple ingredients…and viola! Cake!

Now let’s look at how to make box cake better You can think of it as the best way to achieve next level cake mix flavor through tweaks of your cake batter.

How to Make Box Cake Mix Taste Like a Bakery Baked Cake

Here are some cake tips of simple things that you can do next time to make your boxed cake mix taste like it came from the fancy-schmansy corner bakery with little effort.  I love bakery cakes, but don’t have the time to scratch bake most of the time.  I also love the ease of using a box cake mixes.

But the box cake taste isn’t always everyone’s cup of tea because you can often tell it isn’t a scratch cake, it lacks homemade taste. So try out some of these tips to get an even better flavor, and watch everyone’s face when you tell them that it isn’t a bakery cake, but a cake YOU baked.

Yep! You can make your box cake better with these cake baking tips…

How to Make a Moist Box Cake

Making a moist box cake starts with the ingredients in the cake batter. Here are our top 3 cake batter ingredient tips for the best moist cake no matter what the box calls for when it comes to wet ingredients. Try one or try them all ignoring the back of the box…

1. Add an Additional Egg

To make a box cake mix a more moist baked cake, add an extra egg. Adding an extra egg then the recipe calls for to your cake mix will make your cake slightly more dense, more moist and less likely to crumble. The extra egg yolks and egg whites make a big difference!

Tasty…and moist!  

2. Use Melted Butter

Another way to make sure your box cake is moist is to substitute any oil the recipe calls for with melted butter. Real butter makes your cake SO moist!  Melted butter makes it easy to manage like oil.

Check out the recipe – 1 Batter, 10 Cupcakes.  

Use butter, real melted butter is the secret!

3. Substitute Milk for Water

Whole Milk

Use whole milk instead of water called for in cake mix recipe. It is crazy how much richer the cake batter will be. If the consistency doesn’t seem right, dilute with a little water or use 2% milk instead.

When you don’t use whole milk daily, it is easy to forget how rich and creamy baking with whole milk can be!

Coconut Milk

For an even more delicious cake consider substituting coconut milk for cake batter when the cake mixes call for water to eliminate the boxed cake taste! If you are baking a cake flavor that would be enhanced by coconut milk, give it a try!

How to Get the Cake out of the Baking Pan

Create a Non-stick surface so cleaning pans is easier.  After greasing your cake pan, dust it lightly with flour before pouring in your cake batter into the cake pan or sheet cake pan.

Cleaning your cake pan will be a lot easier! This has been a lifesaver, I had a problem with my cakes sticking to my cake pans. These easy steps will save your cake and your patience, they did mine!

How to Make a Box Cake Mix Healthier 

If you are looking for healthy fats, or for less fat, consider replacing the oil in your recipe with either applesauce or a mashed avocado.  

You now have a healthier cake that still has the fat content. Also, if you’re recipe calls for oil, you can easily replace it with on of those options, which is great if you find you’re out of oil and in a bind while baking.

I also think this makes it surprisingly moist! Healthy changes are a good thing , even in dessert!

How to Make Your Box Cake Springy – What to Add to a Box Cake Mix

Add 1/2 cup of Angel Food Cake Mix, and 1 tablespoon of water, to any other cake mix.  Your cake will become a lot more fluffy and spongy. And I just love the hint of a flavor the angel food cake gives!

It really shines if you’re using a white cake mix or a yellow cake mix. The flavor is a bit more subtle in say Duncan Hines chocolate cake mix or something similar.

How to Save an Over-baked Cake

Pudding. It will cure any dried out cake.  Did you bake your cake too long? Or a day earlier than you needed it?  

Poke a BUNCH of holes into the top of your cake. Whip up a box of instant pudding mix and as the pudding is still warm, pour it over your cake.

Refrigerate for a couple of hours and you will have a super rich cake.

How to Make a Box Cake for One Person

2 Minute Single Servings of Cake – All you need is two boxed cakes (this Hot Chocolate Cake uses Chocolate and Angel Food), water and a microwave.

It is perfect when you only are making for one person.

This is one of my most favorite box cake mix hacks because quite frankly sometimes I want cake without having a whole cake sitting around.

Don’t forget to add some powdered sugar on top or some homemade frosting!

How to Make Sure Your Cake Bakes Evenly in the Oven

Drop your pan before you bake it.  Not a big drop, just a half inch or so.  The act of dropping the cake batter will force all the air bubbles out of your cake batter and your cake will bake more evenly now.

How to Prevent Splatters When Mixing a Cake Mix

When whisking your cake mix, don’t wear it. Poke your electric whisks through a paper plate before turning it on.

The plate will block the cake batter splatters. What a handy little trick. 

How to Make the Box Cake Mix More Flavorful

Combine flavors to enhance the flavor of your cake. You can mix two box mixes together by layering the batter, or by simply mixing the two flavors of batter together.  

We did that recently with two boxes of Betty Crocker Cakes.  Strawberry chocolate is tasty! 

Try French Vanilla Butter Pecan cake mixes together too!

Yum.

How to Decrease the Time Needed to Bake a Box Cake Mix

Make a boxed cake into cookies.  Super easy to do! Somewhat Simple lets you know how she made hers.

We usually add a tablespoon of flour when we mix up a batch of cake cookies. And use the melted butter tip from above.

This is a great way to make a box cake better, my all time favorite cake cookies is strawberry with chocolate chips!

Don’t Have a Cake Box Mix, But Need Easy Cake?

Don’t have a cake mix, but you still want an amazing cake?  Or did you accidentally leave the ice cream out on the counter till it became soup?

Here is a great recipe for Ice cream Cake.  You dump the melted ice cream along with 3 Cups of self-rising flour and bake. Perfect.

How to Carry a Cake

And if you are taking your cake to school or a party, you will need something to carry it in.  We love these (affiliate) Pie and Cake Carriers….and they come in fun and colorful designs.  Just like our favorite kitchen gadgets, they do all the work.

These hand kitchen gadgets your the cake you spent so much time making will stay looking like the best cake ever.

More Cake Tip Fun from Kids Activities Blog

• Make homemade pancake mix – it is way easier than you might think!
• Let’s say you decide you don’t have time to make a box cake mix, check out our information on Costco cakes…shhhh, we will never tell!
• Use all these box cake mix tips to transform your cake into one of these many Star Wars cake ideas!
• Box cake mix can be used for these fun rainbow cupcakes too!  Or what about mermaid cupcakes?
• You can also make your own homemade cake mix…we promise we found an easy way!
• Looking for some more cake mix recipes?  <–We got over 25 of them right here!

Mmmm…have fun baking cake!  And eating cake!  <–that is my favorite part! I am just about to go make some melted butter…

If you have a cake mix tip or trick, please leave it in the comments below!