Completely Transform Boxed Cake Mix with a Sparkling Ingredient
One of the great things about boxed cake mixes is that they’re quick to make and only require a few simple ingredients that you usually always have on hand. Typically, you just dump the package of dry ingredients into a bowl with oil, eggs, and water and whisk them together. But if you want to make an upgraded boxed cake mix, you can make a simple change to this process: swap out the water called for with club soda.
While it may seem like an odd substitution, it can be the key to making a lighter, fluffier cake with a more delicate crumb and moister consistency. In addition to creating an airier dessert, club soda also gives your treat an extra burst of flavor. Whether it’s the earthy, sassafras-sweet flavor of root beer or the citrusy kick of 7Up, it can take a boxed chocolate or vanilla cake from good to great.
Read more: Cake Hacks Every Baker Wishes They Knew Sooner
Why Adding Soda to Your Boxed Cake Mix Works
It’s not just happenstance that makes soda a more delicious dessert; the bubbles in your soda can help the cake rise by adding air bubbles to the mixture. At the same time, they interact with the leavening agents in the dry ingredients. In fact, you can actually make a two-ingredient soda cake, because that carbonation means you don’t even need the usual eggs in your mixture. However, simply swapping out the water and using soda as well as eggs can lead to an even moister, cakey dessert.
However, it’s not just the carbonation of the soda that helps you enjoy it. Sodas often contain high fructose corn syrup. This corn syrup allows for better browning of your cake and also adds moisture to the mixture. Plus, it gives your cake a boost of sweetness which can also lead to a more flavorful boxed cake.
Many types of soda, like Sprite, contain citric acid. This ingredient adds acidity to your cake, balancing the pH and bringing out vanilla, lemon, chocolate, and other flavors. Citric acid also reacts with leavening agents, allowing your desserts to rise more. This helps give the light, airy texture that soda cakes are known for.
Choosing a Soda to Add to Your Cake
Before pouring a can of soda into your cake mix, it’s important to think about how the flavors of the drink and dessert pair together. For example, a chocolate cake could benefit from the sweet and slightly spicy flavors of Dr Pepper. Although Dr Pepper’s 23 flavors are a proprietary blend, there are notes of clove and nutmeg, which deepen the natural chocolate flavors in your cake. Another good choice for chocolate cake could be Coca-Cola. This drink has similar flavors of nutmeg and vanilla as well as cinnamon, which can also complement the cocoa in your dessert.
If you have a vanilla cake, this boxed mix flavor can serve as more of a blank canvas. Use 7Up in your cake to transform it into a slightly lemony dessert, for example. Another choice might be to use a fruity flavor, such as with a blood orange soda cake. You can also intensify the vanilla flavor by mixing cream soda, which will give your dessert a touch of sweetness and a hint of butterscotch flavor. Or, if you want a light and fluffy dessert with no added flavor, you can use sparkling water as an ingredient for your boxed cake mix. Get creative and create soda and cake mix combinations that lead to a delicious marriage of unique flavors.
Read the original article on The Daily Meal.
