homemade

How to Make Boxed Cake Mix Taste Homemade

June 12, 2018

Even though I love making things from scratch, even I have my days where I don’t want to mess with measuring, leveling, etc. That’s why I turn to box mixes, particularly boxed cake mix, more often than I would like to admit.

However…

I rarely ever follow the exact recipe on the back of the box.

Over the years, I have tinkered with that recipe so that I can have the best version of boxed cake mix that I can possibly have. It doesn’t require any more work, just a few different ingredients. Trust me, these ingredients make a world of difference.

Instead of having a semi-dry, crumbly cake that you typically get from a boxed mix. The cake is super moist and has a lot more flavor. Sure it still has that distinct boxed cake mix taste, but there is something so nostalgic about it that I don’t really care.

How to Make It

The first tip to making a boxed cake mix taste homemade is to swap out the oil and water.

Tip #1: Use whole milk and melted butter in place of water and oil for a richer and moister cake.

It doesn’t end there.

Tip #2: Sift the cake mix before mixing in the wet ingredients.

Have you ever noticed how lumpy cake mix is? Then you mix everything together and you still have dry clumps of the dry mix? That stuff doesn’t bake away, they are left in the cake so that you have these little pockets of powdery cake mix.

Sifting the cake mix beforehand will quickly get rid of those lumps so that you have a nice smooth batter.

Once you add the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients, there is one last tip to making sure you have a delicious cake.

Tip #3: Add in extra flavoring (i.e. vanilla, almond, lemon, etc.).

Using a high-quality extract or a natural juice/zest will help the cake taste more homemade.

Once you have everything mixed together into a batter, you can make this mix into anything from cupcakes, to a cake, to cake balls.

In this instance, I baked this batter into a two-layer cake.

Whenever I bake a cake in cake pans I always line the bottom of the pan in a sheet of parchment so that the cake releases from the pan with very little hassle.

All that is left is to ice the cake.

Now my last tip to making a boxed cake mix taste homemade is to avoid using the store-bought frosting.

Tip#4: Frost the cake with homemade frosting.

You don’t have to make a fancy Swiss meringue buttercream. Even a basic American buttercream or cream cheese frosting will work. But please avoid using that store-bought stuff, which has a distinct flavor that makes that whole cake taste like it’s not homemade.

And that’s all you need to know to make a boxed cake mix taste like a homemade cake!

So for those who hate baking from scratch, you can still make a fabulous cake without all the extra work!

Recipe

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Snowflake Peppermint Marshmallows

December 17, 2017

What is better than peppermint and chocolate? I’ll tell you: nothing! Okay, maybe not nothing, but peppermint marshmallows and hot chocolate are pretty high up on my list of favorites after making these snowflake-shaped marshmallows.

It’s the perfect treat on these cold winter days with Christmas music playing in the background. It just gets you right into the holiday spirit!

As I mentioned in this post, marshmallows are super fun to make but oh-so messy! You really have to be prepared for powdered sugar and stickiness to be all over your kitchen. But I promise it’s worth it.

Making marshmallows starts with the gelatin. First, you first bloom the gelatin with water until it forms a thick jiggly blob, like really thick Jello. Next, pour boiling (240 degrees to be exact) sugar and corn syrup into the gelatin while you whisk it on low speed. Then, turn the speed up high and watch the liquified sugar and jiggly Jello blob magically turn into this light, fluffy, marshmallowy substance.

Once the mixture becomes pretty thick (about 10 minutes of whisking), it’s ready!

Before this whole baking experiment starts, you will want to prepare a baking sheet with parchment paper and powdered sugar. In this case, I also crushed up some candy canes and sprinkled them on the baking sheet so that they sticky marshmallow would have bits of candy cane all over. Yum!

Spread the soft marshmallow on the baking sheet and then sprinkle with more powdered sugar and candy cane dust on top.

After a few hours, the marshmallow will set and become, well, a marshmallow!

I cut out my marshmallows using various snowflake cookie cutters to make them extra festive, but I did spray them down with some baking spray beforehand so that they wouldn’t stick as much.

You can cut them out in any shape you like. Candy canes would be fun! Or even just big squares or circles. Eventually, they are all just going to end up in a nice hot cup of hot cocoa!

Which is exactly where my peppermint marshmallows ended up.

I love that these marshmallows not only taste amazing on their own but when you add them to the hot cocoa, they lightly flavor it so that it becomes peppermint hot cocoa. It’s delightful!

Don’t just make these peppermint marshmallows for yourself, though. These would make a great gift or stocking stuffer! Marshmallows last quite a while, so as long as you store them in a bag, people can enjoy them long after the holidays!

However, I have no room to judge you if you keep these all for yourself. I didn’t share these with anyone! They didn’t last long enough.

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Honey Wheat Bread

May 2, 2014

I have heard it said before that there is truly no economic incentive for baking bread at home (I’m sure you can say that about a lot of things). It’s just as cheap to purchase a pre-sliced loaf at the store and a hell of a lot easier. While that might be true, I can think of one thing that makes baking bread at home worth it.

The smell.

Oh my heavens does the aroma of bread baking in the oven is just divine. Seriously. Someone bottle that up and sell it. I’ll be your first customer.

I actually don’t think making bread is all that difficult. It takes time, yes, but it’s just to let the yeast proof and dough rise. Twice. The good folks at The Kitchn really break out the steps pretty nicely.

From start to finish, the whole bread making process took about 4 hours. But only about 30 minutes of that was actual work. I mixed the dough then let is rise in the bowl for about 2 hours. Once it had risen, I punched it down and formed it into log and transferred it to the loaf pan and let it rise again.

Once it had filled up the loaf pan and formed a dome over the top, I scored it down the middle to give it that signature bread shape (and to let the steam out so that the crust wouldn’t crack all haphazardly).

Baking only took about 30 minutes. But man, that was the best smelling 30 minutes of my life.

I let the bread cool for about an hour and I didn’t slice it until the next day. But I am sure you can dig in after about 30 minutes if you what a fresh and warm slice of bread.

Actually, I can think of a second benefit for making bread at home: it taste’s amazing. Sure, that stuff from the store is easy to get and you don’t have to spend 4 hours making it, but homemade bread has so much more flavor too it. Plus you can be assured that it’s fresh and has zero preservatives.

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Whole Wheat Tortillas

April 9, 2014

Like pizza dough and pasta, tortillas are one of those things that you can actually make yourself at home pretty easily. Sure, it might take a bit more time than just running to the grocery store, but I kinda like knowing exactly what is going into my food.

And tortillas really are pretty easy. You probably have all the ingredients in your pantry right now. If you have a partner, it will make the process that much faster. My husband and I have worked out an assembly line of sorts. I roll out the tortilla. He cooks them on the skillet. Roll. Cook. Roll. Cook. We are such a good team.

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