Plenty of ways to use cake mix creatively
Cake mixes are a fast and easy way to bake, but sometimes, you want a way to jazz it up. But, how do you know if a recipe is worth trying or that it will turn out?
Bloggers from across Atlantic Canada offered their best tried, tested and true suggestions on what to do to zhuzhup your next cake mix baking project.
Use pop: Jenna Morton of the Pickle Planet blog in Moncton suggests replacing the eggs and water in the cake mix with a can of pop. For chocolate cake, try a cola or root beer, while ginger ale or lemon lime go well with white or yellow cakes. It makes for a tastier, fluffier cake, she says. Plus, it's easy and fun for kids and perfect if you need non-egg options.
Make muffins: Morton says her kids' go-to lunch treat are pumpkin muffins. Simply make with a box of cake mix and a can of pumpkin puree.
Make Cookies: Ruth Ann Swansburg of Everything Unscripted in Moncton says it's so easy to make cookies from a cake mix. For example, her holiday crinkle cookies use only four ingredients: cake mix, oil, eggs, and icing sugar. Or she makes a mean chocolate chip cookie using cake mix. “By changing the cake mix up, you can change the flavours of the cookies,” says Swansburg.
Chocolate chip cookies: Suzi Fevens from Confessions of a Fitness Instructor in Waterville, N.S., makes red velvet cookies from a cake mix. This is a simple recipe that uses a red velvet cake mix, oil, eggs, and white chocolate chips.
Go vegan or dairy free: Instagrammer Alex Maclaren says most cake mixes can be made dairy free or vegan. She uses ground flax mixed with water as an egg substitute.
Liz Shaw, who operates By Liz Shaw, which focuses on holistic wellness principles, says to substitute an egg with a quarter-cup of unsweetened apple sauce. The pectin in the apple helps hold the cake or muffins together and the result is super moist.
Note, however, that this trick only works for recipes with two eggs or less, says Shaw. Anything with three eggs or more and it won't hold.
What to add: “I always get a million compliments on my cakes or cupcakes, and I almost always use boxed cake,” says Fevens. “I just use coconut oil instead of canola oil and it makes the cake lighter and fluffier.”
Gina Bell, from the East Coast Mommy blog in Antigonish, says to add three large eggs, half- cup melted butter (cooled slightly), and one cup water to a cake mix, for delicious results.
Another blogger said to add a box of pudding mix and an extra egg to the cake mix. This makes the cake a little denser, especially if you are trying to stand up pieces for decorating.
Think outside the cupcake liner: Instead of baking cupcakes in a regular muffin pan, try using flat-bottomed ice cream cones. Another blogger suggested standing up ice cream cones in a pan with sides, like a 9x13, and filling each cone with batter. Bake as usual.
Another way is to fill muffin cups with batter and place an ice cream cone upside down on the batter in each cup. Bake per usual, then remove from cups, and flip rightside up, frost and enjoy.
Turn a regular cake into something spectacular:
Kerra Aucoin Mansfield from the blog Eat, Drink & Be You from Dartmouth, N.S., says the best thing to make with a cake mix is a trifle. Make the cake according to directions.
Make chocolate pudding as per directions. Then, in a big bowl, Aucoin Mansfield says start layering chunks of cake, chocolate pudding, whipping cream or Cool Whip and pieces of a chocolate bar like Crispy Crunch or Reese Peanut Butter Cups.
Continue layering until you have used all the ingredients, or your bowl is full. Or make it a fall trifle by using a ginger spice cake mix, butterscotch pudding, Cool whip, and layer with apple sauce, pecans and chocolate pieces.