Completely Transform Boxed Cake Mix with a Sparkling Ingredient

One of the advantages of boxed cake mixes is that they are quick to prepare and only require a few simple ingredients that you normally always have on hand. Typically, all you have to do is throw the packet of dry ingredients into a bowl with oil, eggs, and water and whisk them together. But if you want to make an improved boxed cake mix, you can make a simple modification to this process: replace the water the recipe calls for with club soda.

While this may seem like an odd substitution, it may be the key to making a lighter, fluffier cake with a more delicate crumb and chewier consistency. In addition to creating an airier dessert, soda also lends an extra boost of flavor to your treat. Whether it’s the earthy, sweet sassafras flavor of root beer or the hint of citrus from 7Up, it can take a boxed chocolate or vanilla cake from good to great.

Read more: Cake Tips Every Baker Wishes They Knew Sooner

Why Adding Soda to Your Boxed Cake Mix Works

It’s not just chance that soda results in a more delicious dessert; the bubbles from your soda can help the cake rise by adding air bubbles to the mixture. At the same time, they interact with the leavening agents present in the dry ingredients. In fact, you can actually make a two-ingredient soda cake, because this carbonation means you don’t even need the usual eggs in your mixture. However, simply replacing the water and using the soda as well as the eggs can lead to an even fluffier, cakeier 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, such as Sprite, contain citric acid. This ingredient adds acidity to your cake, balancing the pH and bringing out the flavors of vanilla, lemon, chocolate and others. Citric acid also reacts with leavening agents, causing your desserts to rise more. This helps give that airy, light 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 will work 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 that deepen the natural chocolate flavors in your cake. Another good choice for a 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 option might be to use a fruity flavor, such as with a blood orange soda cake. You can also intensify the vanilla flavor by mixing in cream soda, which will give your dessert a hint of sweetness and a touch of butterscotch flavor. Or, if you want a light and fluffy dessert without any added flavors, you can use soda 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.