Doctoring Cake Mix?

Good morning everyone,

I wanted to know if anyone has doctored the Betty Crocker cake box mix before? If so, what's involved in it? What additional ingredients would you put? And does this give you more batter per box?

Any thoughts or your experience would be great!!

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Permalink Reply by Linda Wolff on January 18, 2012 at 9:36am

I doctor up any cake box mix I have. Doesn't matter what brand. I add the 1 cup of flour, 1 cup sugar, 4 eggs total, 1 tsp. vanilla (or other flavoring, depending on what you are going for) 1 cup sour cream, 1/3 cup veg. oil and 1 cup water.

As far as more batter...it still fills my 8" pans, but just fuller. Sometimes you can fill 2 nine inch pans. Since they are fuller layers, it makes it easier to split the layers so that you can kind of torte them out and fill them with more filling. For a chocolate cake, you would add 1 tablespoon cocoa and you can also use buttermilk in place of the water. This really makes a chocolate taste more like a scratch cake. (Heck, by this time, it is a scratch, with all the added ingredients) Lol.

Another member on here swears that by adding a tablespoon or two of meringue powder to the mix will also give you more batter and higher layers. I haven't tried that yet, but I will.

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Permalink Reply by Mizztry on January 18, 2012 at 9:59am

Hi Linda,

Thanks for your response! :) So do you add all those ingredients above in addition to what is stated on the box? Especially the eggs? Or it would be regardless 4 eggs - does it matter whole egg or just egg whites?

What do you mean by "fuller"?

And so it does alter the taste of the cake box mix?

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Permalink Reply by Linda Wolff on January 18, 2012 at 10:47am

By fuller, I mean the pans are fuller. You should be also able to fill 3 eight inch pans and get a three layer cake. They just aren't very high layers. The 4 eggs are total. What I gave you, you just follow that, and disregard the package directions. Each cake mix is just a little different in the composition so you might get a lot more batter from one over the other. Right after I wrote my first post to you, I needed to make a lemon cake, so I used the DH brand of cake mix, did all that is up above, and took note that I had enough batter left over for a small 3" tier, or a couple of cupcakes. I went ahead and made the tier because I freeze them to have on hand for either a tasting cake during a wedding consultation or I can also use it for an individual cake that I package up and sell like on Valentines day. The 3" Fat Daddio cake pan (very tiny cake pan) cake fits perfectly in the Wilton windowed cupcake boxes without the cupcake insert inside. I can sell those for $5.50 apiece, no problem and it takes hardly any effort on my part. Plus, they are as cute as a button once all packaged up-like a tiny bakery cake. Add a stretchy gold elastic bow/ribbon and it looks adorable.

Also, if the cake box is calling for egg white, then it's 4 egg whites.

I think it alters the cake box mix for the better. It has a much richer and denser texture to it and tastes to me, more like a scratch cake.

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Permalink Reply by Mizztry on January 18, 2012 at 1:13pm

Linda,

Awesome that you for your explanation!! I'm going to give it a try this weekend and let you know how it goes :D

I love the 3" cake idea...i may do something like that for my clients for vday coming up!!! :D How many servings is that? Like 2-3?? A 4" maybe like 5??

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Permalink Reply by Linda Wolff on January 18, 2012 at 1:43pm

I would say that each little cake would feed at least two maybe three people. By the time you slice that one little cake in two horizontally and put icing in between, it makes it a little higher and bigger. If I am making just little cakes from a standard cake mix, I get 12 little cakes per mix, and a box mix says that it makes 12 slices or 24 cupcakes, so each little cake is close to being the equivalent of two cupcakes. If I add all of the ingredients like the sour cream and stuff up above, it will give me another 3-4 little cakes. If I remember right, each one of those little pans takes 1/2 cup batter, and I do try to measure it out so that I have plenty for several cakes. Make sure that you cut out several circles from cake board in advance. They don't sell cake boards that small. My husband has a band saw out in his garage, so I just draw one circle with a compass that I know will fit into the box, and then tape up several squares of cardboard using painters tape, a little bigger than the circle, and go out and cut them myself all at once. Takes me about 10 minutes start to finish. If you don't have access to a band saw, you might ask someone that does if they will do it for you. It is really easy to cut them out.

If you use that little spring form pan that Wilton has, it is bigger than the Fat Daddio one and that little cake will easily feed 4 or more people, but you have to find a box that they will fit into. The smallest cake box works pretty good for that one. I think it is a six inch? It might be a four inch. I don't have any on hand to measure right now.

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Permalink Reply by Mizztry on January 19, 2012 at 8:17am

That's great! Thanks for the amazing and useful information....

I forgot to ask you, what type of flour to use? Is it all purpose or the cake and pasty flour? I use Robin Hood brand. And sour cream does it matter what percentage?