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She never followed the instructions on the back of the box exactly, and neither should you.
Key Takeaways
- Swap water for milk, buttermilk, or coffee to add richer flavor to cake mixes.
- Use melted salted butter instead of oil for a homemade taste and balanced sweetness.
- Add an extra egg for softer, fluffier cakes with better texture.
My grandma didn’t always use boxed cake mixes, but when she did, they were never made following the instructions. I inherited this gene. While I won’t turn my nose up at the shortcut like some folks, I certainly have to put my own touches on anything that starts with Duncan Hines. From an extra egg to subbing in melted butter, her go-to tricks could make even a plain vanilla cake mix taste almost homemade.
Better With Butter
Vegetable oil was saved for frying in her house (and mind you, my grandma wasn’t even Southern). The neutral oil has its place in baking, but when it comes to cake mixes, she always used melted butter. Salted, to be exact.
The extra butter flavor and salt helped the cake mix taste more like something made from scratch. The salt was especially smart, because as I would go on to learn in pastry school, it’s essential for balancing out the sweetness of desserts.
Go Nuts
Now, if you’re allergic, skip this. If you’re not, then do as she always did: Add toasted nuts to the batter. Pecans, walnuts, and almonds were the three she always turned to, but you can use your favorites instead.
Their warmth, textural contrast, and savory nuttiness adds depth and complexity that can make mixes that usually tend to fall flat more flavorful. No matter the cake flavor, she threw them in there—chocolate, yellow, and perhaps most unsurprisingly, spice cake.
Never Use Water
My grandma seldom drank water, let alone baked with it. Instead, she used milk, buttermilk, or coffee, if preparing a chocolate mix (a trick that also works with brownie mixes). It’s an easy way to add more flavor to any cake. She was even known to water down some sour cream and use that instead of water.
Add An Extra Egg
She had no scientific proof, but she always swore by adding an extra egg, for extra tenderness. Eggs were cheaper then, but her cakes always baked up super soft and fluffy, so I stick with her method.
Make The Frosting From Scratch
Store-bought pie crust was always fine. Cake and brownie mixes, too. But canned frosting? Never. Even when she started with cake mix, my grandma always took the time to make the frosting from scratch.
She almost always used a simple American buttercream, which is typically just butter and powdered sugar whipped together. Even in its simplest form, it’s better than anything that comes from the baking aisle of the grocery store and inherently made the layers taste more homemade.
Read the original article on Southern Living
