Cake Mix Hack

If you have read this blog for any length of time, you probably know that I love to bake. A lot of times, I actually take a lot of joy and pride in making a recipe from scratch. Other times, I don’t have the time or the patience.

 

I wanted to make some Springy cupcakes to bring to the office for Easter, but I didn’t really want to spend the time making the batter and icing from scratch. So I hacked a Duncan Hines vanilla cake mix and icing and turned it into a lemon cupcake with blueberry icing!

The only ingredients I added to the cake mix were lemon zest, lemon juice, and vanilla. Then I added thawed and mashed frozen blueberries and vanilla to the icing. If I make a cake from a box mix, I like to add vanilla anyways, just to add more flavor.

Why didn’t I just use a lemon cake mix, you may ask. Well, have you had lemon cake from a box? It tastes very artificial. By adding fresh lemon zest and juice, 1) I can control the lemon flavor and 2) it tastes natural not fake.

Moral of the story, if you want to make a fancy tasting cake but don’t want to mess with making a cake from scratch, just add some fresh fruit. Like lemon, lime, orange, raspberry, strawberry, mango….the list goes on.

Easy Lemon Cupcakes with Blueberry Icing
Ingredients 
Cupcakes
1 box of your favorite vanilla or white
zest of 2 lemons
Juice of 2 lemons (about 1/4 cup)
2 tsp vanilla
1 cup water
4 egg whites (replaced 3 eggs)
6 oz. Greek yogurt (replaced 1/3 cup oil)

Icing
1 package of your favorite vanilla icing
1/4 blueberries, mashed
1 tsp vanilla
powdered sugar, as necessary

Directions
Cupcakes
1. Preheat to 350 degrees and prepare a cupcake pan with cupcake liners.
2. In a small bowl, mix together all wet ingredients.
3. In a large bowl, pour in the cake mix. Pour in wet ingredients and whisk to combine.
4. Using a spoon or ice cream scoop, scoop cake mix into the cupcake pan.
5. Bake for 20-25 minutes until a toothpick comes out clean.
6. Let cool for at least 15 minutes before icing.

Icing
1. Pour the icing into a small bowl.
2. Add the blueberries and vanilla and stir to combine.
3. If the icing thinner than desired, add powdered sugar until the desired thickness.

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