11 Best Hacks to Making Boxed Cakes Taste Homemade _ Can Food Professionals Tell the Difference

I'm gonna show you 11 tricks to make your box cake mix , taste homemade .

At the end , we'll see if professional tasters can tell the difference between a homemade cake and box cake mix .

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So when you start with a box cake mix , you usually have to add oil , eggs and water .

Those are our first three .

Number one in place of water , use milk .

This is going to add some richness and just make it a little more moist .

Number two , instead of oil , sub melted butter , the same amount , we all know that butter equals flavor .

Number three eggs .

The box cake mix usually calls for about three eggs .

You can just increase the egg by one or two .

It's just gonna add a little more richness and fluffiness .

If you don't want to add a whole egg , you can just add the egg yolks for a little more richness or just fold in some extra egg whites to make it look fluffier .

1/4 tip is to use different liquids in place of water .

So you can use something like soda , coffee , stout beer that adds great flavor .

You can even add juices like orange juice to boost the freshness .

Number five , increase the vanilla .

A lot of the cakes come with artificial flavoring um or a little bit of vanilla .

Anyway , so to just add some real vanilla extract would really take it up a notch .

Tips .

67 and eight are all about adding great richness and moisture to your cake .

The first of those is sour cream .

This will add some great tang .

A lot of homemade cakes are made with buttermilk .

So if you add something like sour cream , you're gonna get that same sort of gis um but also a lot of richness .

Next , add dried instant puddings .

We all know how creamy these can be once they're made .

So it's gonna deliver the same results into a cake .

You'll want to mix this into the dry ingredients and don't frown your nose on the next one .

Add a little mayonnaise , just a couple tablespoons .

Think about it .

Mayonnaise is only eggs and oil .

This is going to deliver one of the most moist cakes ever .

Tip .

Number nine , customize your cake .

If you want to add any sort of dried fruit or nuts or extra spices like nutmeg to your cake mix .

Go ahead .

What's stopping you ?

Number 10 ?

And this is a lot easier than it seems .

Make your frosting from scratch .

You're already taking a shortcut by using the box cake mix , use the real butter and some powder sugar and you've got a delicious butter cream and finally be creative with your layers .

You can brush them with a simple syrup or a flavored syrup using some liqueur or why not use some store bought curd .

This is delicious .

Now that I've told you the 11 ways that you can make your box cake mix , taste homemade .

I'm gonna put a few of those to the test .

I'm gonna take this basic vanilla cake mix and I'm going to make a few of the changes .

Now , look , we're not gonna do every single one of them .

I mean , if I add putting mayonnaise sour cream , extra eggs and toppings , we're gonna create a disaster .

But I'm gonna pick a few smart hacks and see if I can pull some professional tasters .

So I'm gonna start with my cake mix instead of my one cup of water .

I'm going to do one cup of milk .

All right .

Instead of my third cup of oil , I'm going to do a third cup of melted butter .

Butter is just so good .

All right , I'm going to use the egg tip as well .

So this calls for three regular eggs .

I'm going to do three eggs and then I think I'm gonna add one extra egg yolk .

OK .

What else ?

I'm gonna add a little more vanilla and I think I'll do one more for richness who the homemade cake I'm using does have butter milk .

So I think I'm going to do a final addition with some sour cream .

You can also do this with plain yogurt .

You want to use about a third to a half a cup .

I'm going to divide this into 28 inch cake rounds that I've already greased and floured , gonna pop these in the oven and then we are going side by side next to a regular box cake mix and then a homemade cake and we're gonna see who can tell the difference .

All right , take a look .

We have three .

What seem like all the same cake , but they're not only I know the difference .

OK ?

They look the same to me .

They're beautiful .

Callie is a portfolio manager here at MEREDITH Food Studios .

She also is a professional taster of food every day , every day .

All right .

So I've got three cakes here .

OK ?

I just need you to tell me which one is homemade .

OK .

Which one is homemade ?

Can do they all have the same homemade butter cream that I'm analyzing .

The cake is what you're analyzing .

So that one looks very tender Nicole .

Are they all vanilla ?

Vanilla , vanilla ?

It has like a bean .

OK .

Let me get you a fork .

I need , do you wanna see them all ?

And that night I might , I might wanna look at the texture before I dive in .

She'll be able to tell it .

I might , but without even tasting it , but that's ok .

That one looks tender too .

So what does tinder mean ?

It's just like , it's just sort of soft , you can tell like the structure of the cake .

You see how , see how crumbly it is and how , how , when you , when you , when you the knife through the frosting , it sort of compressed .

So that's , that's not great .

Well , no , it's good .

It's good .

But cake mixes tend to be extra tender .

I should have done a blindfolded test .

You should have because I , because she kind of already know it's ok .

It's ok .

That's ok .

Let's see .

We go .

Number one , number one for the next test .

Ok .

Hm .

It's good .

I do think it's made from a box .

I do taste some of that artificial sort of vanilla flavor that is often in a box of cake mix enhanced by this lovely vanilla bean .

Should I put this out ?

But I used vanilla bean paste so that we know that I , I intended on having flex in all three and all three to make them appear homemade .

That's a good trick .

That's a good trick .

This one too I'm guessing is a cake mix based on the crumb like we were talking about earlier .

I do , I do think that's a cake mix but it's interesting how different these two cake mixes are .

Do you see how that one is so much ?

I'm learning something .

Mhm .

She already knows let's just go ahead and say that I do .

I do already know .

Number three is our homemade cake .

Am I correct ?

You're correct .

It is delicious .

They all three are delicious .

These are both made from a box of the two boxed cakes , which do you think is better ?

I'm gonna have to go back again .

Let's try .

I'm gonna taste just the cake part which boxed cake taste more homemade .

Let's see .

I , I think number one is closer to a homemade .

OK ?

I'll , I'll take that in texture and flavor in texture and flavor .

I think it's a little bit closer than number two .

You win , you win , you can have .

So would you like this ?

The homemade one ?

All right , next .

All right .

I've brought in a second professional taster MEREDITH .

So because I just learned that you can just tell the difference in a box cake and a regular cake um that we're not gonna let you really look at them .

So she , she's not studying them .

So you're gonna not even do a blindfolded taste test to see if you can do this , which I , I feel pretty confident you're gonna do this .

Well , I don't know .

I'm not a super , super sweet pilot taster like , well , some people can just tell by texture .

So only one of these three are homemade .

So if you can just pick out the homemade one , OK , I'm gonna put the fork .

I left .

OK ?

Don't make it harder than it .

There you go .

That's kind of a big bite .

But there you go , you got it .

OK .

It's cake number one .

It's eggy and the , I don't know , the crumb seem pretty universal , so I just II I can't make it .

Let me , let me have another one .

OK .

It is a little smaller .

Ok .

That one just pretty much disintegrates in your mouth .

Which leads you to think what , that , that's definitely homemade or definitely not .

Ok .

Here's your final going on texture .

That one's the , the most dense .

Ok .

I'm gonna say two is definitely a box .

Yeah , it's between one and three .

Emma .

I try one again .

Yeah .

But hold on .

She's going back to number one , I think number three is homemade .

Ok .

You can undo your fine fold .

Did I win ?

You win ?

You win nothing .

But except you have a great reputation for , for taste testing .

Even blindfolded .

So .

Well , that's kind of weird .

I keep my job .

So at the end of the day , real connoisseurs are gonna be able to tell the difference in a homemade versus a regular .

But that really wasn't the goal here .

We were just trying to make a box cake taste more homemade , which is number one .

So , so this one was uh there was the blend .

Yes , that is box cake jazzed up to taste a little more homemade .

So , would you agree ?

Yeah , I know .

I kind of work .

Absolutely .

Absolutely .

It's a good substitution and I would be pleased with that and knowing that it would not be as hard to do to make the more good commission accomplished .

I mean , the hacks work .

Ok .

And for our final trick we have brought in not so much a professional taster , right ?

Eat .

But you do enjoy some cake .

I do enjoy .

I'm going to let you guess which one of these is homemade .

Ok .

All right .

You have three to choose from ?

Ok .

Here's your bite .

Number one .

A hello ?

That's very good .

I feel like I'm getting married again by the way and I don't have to feed you today .

I think I like it .

Ok .

So I'm guessing which one is made ?

Ok , for our final , final selection ?

Ok .

Hm .

I'm gonna go with number one .

Are uh , am I wrong ?

You're wrong and I love you .

So which one is it ?

Number three is , you're kidding me ?

Ok .

Now I went with number one .

Is that good ?

Number one is a box cake that we hacked to taste more homemade it .

So I wanted you to think it tasted home and now I think I win .

Just call me Betty when it's all said and done .

Nothing beats homemade .

But you can definitely trick the average person into thinking your box cake is homemade .

If you try one of these 11 tricks for more great videos like this .

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When you try these 11 tricks , why is this part always so hot for me ?