When you make homemade cake mix, it’s a snap to grab from the pantry when a birthday party looms or when you just crave sweet treat. It also saves time and money over driving to the store.
It also doesn’t contain polyglycerol esters of fatty acids or partially 주문제작케이크 hydrogenated soybean oil, so it’s better for you, too!
Flour
Flour is the primary ingredient in most cake mixes, and it can make a difference in how cakes turn out. Professional bakers understand the importance of using the right type of flour for each recipe.
The types of flour used can have a major impact on the texture and taste of baked goods. The type of wheat used, the milling process and blending all impact the finished product.
All-purpose flour is made from the endosperm of wheat and is typically bleached and enriched. It has a medium balance of protein and starch. It can be substituted with pastry or cake flour in most recipes. Self-rising flour is all-purpose flour blended with baking powder and salt. It can be substituted with cake or pastry flour, but you will need to adjust the amount of leavening in the recipe.
Sugar
Because it’s sweet, sugar helps to make cakes tasty and satisfying. It also balances sour and bitter flavors, as well as binds and lightens batter. Sugar is hygroscopic, meaning it attracts and holds water molecules to create a moist crumb.
Some cake mixes use both sugar and corn syrup, which is an inverted sugar that remains liquid at room temperature. This makes for a cake that is more fluffy and moist.
If you’re looking for a healthier option, try replacing the water on the mix with another liquid like brewed coffee or buttermilk (for chocolate cakes) or ginger ale or soda pop (for white or yellow). This will give the cake more flavor and add some extra fat. Just be sure to match the amount of water called for on the package.
Butter
Butter adds richness, tenderness and structure to cakes, cookies, pies and pastries. When creamed with sugar, it creates airy pockets in dough (as in puff pastry and croissant), and when beaten into thin peaks, it helps a cake rise by trapping gases released during baking, such as steam and carbon dioxide.
When melted, it serves as an easy alternative to milk and helps a batter bind ingredients and become smoother. It also allows the addition of mix-ins such as berries, chopped nuts, chocolate chips, or extracts like vanilla.
Choose a high-quality, unsalted butter that has a minimum of 80% fat. This will ensure the best flavor and texture for your baked goods.
Eggs
If you’ve ever made a cake from scratch, you know that the key to light, fluffy, delicious cakes is the emulsion of liquid and fat. That’s why we take extra care to beat butter and sugar thoroughly, let eggs come to room temperature, add them slowly and carefully and beat constantly – all in the name of creating a stable emulsion that gives cakes their springy crumb, sweet flavor, and light texture.
But back in the 1920s, General Mills and Pillsbury had a different idea for making cake mixes easier to use: They added powdered egg. Dichter theorized that adding fresh eggs to a mix would help bakers feel more ownership over their cake and that mix sales would boom. He was right – to an extent.
Vanilla
Many cake mixes incorporate artificial flavorings that give them a distinct, sometimes unpleasant taste. Add one or two teaspoons of a pure extract, like vanilla or almond, to make your cake mix taste more homemade.
Adding milk or another liquid with a higher fat content will also make your cake mix taste more homemade. Try whole milk or even buttermilk for a richer cake.
Try mixing in extras, such as diced crystallized ginger or dried berries. You can also use a cup of rainbow sprinkles for funfetti cake, or swirl in Nutella for an easy lava cake. Another great way to upgrade a store-bought cake mix is to put it in a Mason jar with a pretty ribbon and tag for a simple gift.