time hack — Housewife's Whimsy

I’m sure we’ve all been there, we have people coming over soon, and they’re expecting a delicious homemade treat, and you have NO time to make anything yummy from scratch. I ran into this a couple weeks ago. We had people coming over the next day and it was 11 at night. I needed a delicious dessert but I had absolutely no time to make anything.I decided to make a boxed cake mix (gasp, I know!). I never make cake mixes because they are never as good as anything I can make from scratch. However in this instance I needed an amazing dessert and I needed it quickly so I could go to bed.I’ve done this several times in the past when I didn’t have time to make anything. The final result is a moist delicious cake that people will never believe came from a box mix! It simply takes a few alterations to the recipe to take it to the next level. This will work with just about any cake mix you might have in your pantry. I’ve placed the recipe below for the box I used this time around so you can get a feel for what a finished recipe looks like. Don’t hesitate to experiment on your own with the basics below.

In order to make a boxed cake mix taste like a homemade cake you want to first replace the oil with melted butter. This will give you a better crumb to the cake. However if you are running short on butter or want less calories you can skip this step. If you skip this step the cake will still be incredible, just slightly less incredible. If I had to pick one step to leave out this would be it. If you do leave it out simply use the amount of oil the recipe calls for.The real way to take a boxed cake mix from drab to fab is instead of adding water to the mix is to substitute milk and sour cream. Take the amount of water call for in the recipe and halve it. Add that much both milk and sour cream. So if you recipe calls for ¾ Cup of water add ¼ Cup and 2 Tablespoons of both milk and sour cream.Add the exact amount of eggs called for in the recipe. Eggs help the structure of the cake to remain intact and so you need to make certain to keep that portion of their recipe the same. This will insure your cake has the correct structure, not to dense and not too crumbly.The final way to make these cakes amazing is to add a little bit of extract to the batter. This will fill out the taste of your cake. I chose to add vanilla extract to my chocolate cake. Depending on what type of box mix you start with you can choose the extract that will best compliment your cake. The same goes for chocolate chips. You don’t have to use them but if you do your cake just has a little more pizazz to it.I always love to bake cakes in a bundt pan. I feel like this really gives the cake a flair it doesn’t get with a regular pan and it also makes it look WAY prettier with minimal effort. A lot of cakes baked in a bundt pan will be perfect if paired with powdered sugar as a simple dusting. Happy baking!

Homemade Tasting Boxed Cake1 Box Madhava Organic Chocolate Cake Mix½ Cup Sour Cream½ Cup Milk½ Cup Butter (melted)3 Eggs2 Teaspoons Vanilla ExtractWhite Chocolate Chips (optional)Powdered Sugar (for garnish)Preheat the oven to 350 and grease a 12 cup bundt pan.

Mix together the cake mix, sour cream, milk, butter and vanilla. Stir until no lumps remain.Stir in the chocolate chips if using.Transfer to the prepared bundt pan.

Bake for 30-40 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean.Invert the cake onto a cooling rack and let cool completely.Sprinkle with powdered sugar once the cake has cooled.

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