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Topic Title: how to doctor up a box cake mix to taste homemade?
Created On Thursday March 12, 2009 8:41 AM

tffnevans
Posts: 4

Posted: Thursday March 12, 2009 8:41 AM

I want to use a box cake mix for my cakes because of time sake. I have been reading online that you can doctor up a box cake mix to taste homemade, but there are so many I do not know which to go with! I just need to doctor a basic white and yellow box mix. Does anyone else do this? Do you have a wonderful recipe??? Thank you!!

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Elligant HillBilly
Posts: 2

Posted: Thursday March 12, 2009 9:07 AM

I put 1 tsp. of almond extract, or lemon, or coconut, etc... in my cakes mixes..it really is a hit to my customers.
Good luck

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Jeanne G
Posts: 17115

Posted: Thursday March 12, 2009 9:36 AM

I use box mixes because I think that they are better tasting than homemade, so I certainly wouldn't want to make them taste like homemade -- that would be a step backwards.

But there are tons of ways to enhance the flavor of cakes from mixes. Adding flavoring such as vanilla, almond, or creme bouquet is one. Some people switch the liquid to milk or use butter instead of oil or follow one of the hundreds of "doctoring" recipes available in books.

You can get ideas to try from others, but in the long run it is up to your personal taste.

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wannabebaker
Posts: 1

Posted: Thursday March 12, 2009 11:23 AM

My mother was famous for her "homemade" birthday cakes. She substituted 1 cup of orange juice for the 1 cup of water in the Duncan Hines Yellow Cake Mix. Even my purist "everything form scratch" friends love it!

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dottiepark
Posts: 1398

Posted: Thursday March 12, 2009 10:42 PM

The Cake Doctor books have great recipes for, well, doctoring cake mixes. For yellow cake, the recipe starts with a box of plain butter recipe golden cake mix and adds 8 oz reduced fat cream cheese (room temp), 1/2 cup water, 1/2 cup sugar, 1/2 cup oil, 4 eggs, and a tablespoon vanilla. The additions give a mix cake more heft...but I still prefer scratch.

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hpjmom
Posts: 14052

Posted: Friday March 13, 2009 11:08 AM

I use recipes from The Cake Mix Doctor, by Anne Byrn. I don't know if they taste more like scratch cakes, but they sure are tasty!

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krknight
Posts: 9

Posted: Friday March 13, 2009 1:10 PM

i also use the cake doctor books. i have found that the best cake mix to use is pillsbury. its always moist and tase wonderfull.

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GTNx2
Posts: 96

Posted: Sunday March 15, 2009 7:46 PM

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flower child
Posts: 3

Posted: Tuesday March 17, 2009 11:31 AM

The Cake Mix Doctor book suggests using a mix w/o the pudding in the mix if you're going to add other ingredients because otherwise you'll end up with glop. One cup of sour cream is an easy fix for a white cake. I also love the one where you substitute one can of cherry pie filling (the entire contents) instead of the liquid in a devil's food mix.

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brikl
Posts: 195

Posted: Sunday March 22, 2009 1:23 AM

Check out this post: http://www.wilton.com/forums/messageview.cfm?catid=7&threadid=100835&FTVAR_MSGDBTABLE=

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hpjmom
Posts: 14052

Posted: Sunday March 22, 2009 7:26 PM

flower child--It is true that the books mention using no pudding mixes (like Duncan Hines), however, I've had good success using Betty Crocker mixes. I used to post on the Cake Mix Doctor website a lot & the people on there use pudding-in-the-mix mixes all the time without any problems. There is a problem using Butter Recipe mixes when they aren't in the recipe, but there is a fix for that. (Don't ask me the fix, however. You'll have to look it up on their website.)