Not sure what to make with your box of cake mix? Make something delicious using one of these 15+ Box Cake Hacks! Box cake mixes contain the dry ingredients, sweeteners, and flavorings that go into many recipes. By adding just a few ingredients, changing baking times, or a few creative steps you can transform them into something new and exciting!
The Best Box Cakes
Want to know the ultimate life hack? Use box cakes for other recipes to save time! Here are a few of our favorite Box Cake Mixes:
2. Betty Crocker Super Moist Vanilla
4. Duncan Hines Strawberry Supreme
>> Sign up for our email list to get recipes delivered straight to your inbox!
15+ Box Cake Hacks
1. Use Box Cake for Brownies
You can easily swap box cake in a brownie recipe. Substitute a cake mix for the main brownie batter by adding 1/2 cup melted butter and two eggs to the box cake mix, stir, and bake in an 8×8″ pan for thicker brownies or a 9×13″ for thinner brownies!
Here are a few recipes to add things to your cake mix brownies for fun flavors:
2. Use It for Biscotti
Biscotti is delightful to have with coffee or tea and is much easier to make using a box cake mix. With the box cake mix as your base, and just a few added ingredients like nuts or chocolate, you can make homemade biscotti in no time! These recipes make it simple:
3. Use Box Cake to Make Cake Pops
This is one of my favorite of the 15+ Box Cake Hacks! Cake pops or cake balls are so versatile and perfect for a party. The baked cake gets mixed with the frosting of your choice, rolled into balls, and then covered with chocolate and sprinkles. So easy! Talk about yummy!
4, Make a Trifle
A trifle is a showstopper! The layers make a beautiful dessert and using a box cake makes this one of the easiest desserts you can make. Baked cake is one of the layers in these desserts and using box cake saves you so much time. Bake a box cake of your choice, let it cool, and then use it in one of these delicious recipes.
5. Use Box Cake to Make Muffins
Muffins are so great to have on hand for an easy breakfast or quick snack. This is a great box cake mix hack and helps you throw them together in no time! Just swap the cake mix for the dry ingredients, sweeteners, and extracts.
- Cinnamon Streusel Muffins – Add 1 Tablespoon cinnamon, 1/2 cup milk, 1/4 cup oil, and 2 eggs to a yellow cake mix, and top with the streusel.
- Pistachio Muffins – Use a pistachio cake mix and add 1/2 cup ground pistachios, 1/2 cup milk, 1/4 cup oil, and 2 eggs.
- Lemon Poppy Seed Muffins – Use a lemon cake mix, add 1/3 cup melted butter, 2 eggs, 1 Tablespoon of poppyseeds, and 1/2 cup milk.
6. Use Box Cake to Make Cookies
The flavor combinations for cookies just got even more exciting and fun by using a box cake as the base! Most of the work is done for you in these recipes because the cake mixes contain flour, sugar, baking powder/soda, and flavorings. These recipes explain what else to add to make the cookies turn out perfectly:
7. Make a Quick Bread
Quick bread is so comforting and nostalgic for many of us. Banana bread, zucchini bread, or pumpkin bread are all delicious and made so easily with a box cake. With each of these recipes, a cake mix is the base and a few ingredients quickly transform it into a flavorful treat.
8. Use a Box Cake to Make Cobbler
The crumbly topping on fruit cobblers is the best part and box cake is the perfect sweetness and tender texture to take your cobbler over the top! By combining only cake mix and melted butter, you can make the perfect topping for any flavor of cobbler.
9. Dump Cake – The Ultimate Cake Mix Hack!
Dump Cakes are the “OG” of the 15+ Box Cake Hacks – using cake mixes to level up super easy and quick desserts for decades, so we had to include some of our favorite recipes! Dump cakes are known for how easy they are to make. You simply “dump” all of the ingredients into a 9×13″ baking dish, throw it in the oven, and a magical dessert is created!
10. Make Mini Cakes
Whether it’s for a birthday party or tea party, mini cakes are so fun to serve and decorate. Because they’re mini, they can feel more time-consuming so cut down on the time by baking your cake mix in muffin tins, or small cake pans.
Top your mini cakes with this delicious buttercream recipe or follow one of these recipes below:
11. Use Box Cake to Make Cake Crumbles
Cooked Box Cake can be crumbled and used as toppings just like sprinkles! Bake the cake mix as directed, allow it to cool, and then crumble it into small pieces. Store them in the fridge for a few days or the freezer for 1-2 months.
Here are a few recipes that would be delicious topped with cake crumbles.
- Birthday Cake Ice Cream
- Strawberry Swirl Cheesecake Ice Cream
- Vegan Salted Caramel and Chamomile Ice Cream
12. Make Mug Cakes with Cake Mix
Using just a little of a box cake at a time is fine when you make a mug cake! It’s the ideal dessert for one person, cooked up quickly in the microwave. Chocolate Cake Mix is my favorite for a mug cake. Just store the remaining cake mix in an airtight container.
13. Use Box Cake to Make Coffee Cake
Coffee Cake is rich, indulgent, and tastes oh-so-yummy with a cup of hot coffee. Check out these recipes that you can easily swap out with a cake mix!
- Aunt Anne’s Coffee Cake – For the cake part of the recipe – add the butter, egg, and milk to a vanilla cake mix. Follow the instructions for the streusel.
- Easy Fruit Coffee Cake – This recipe uses a yellow cake mix as the base.
- Coffee Cake with Walnut Streusel – Pudding mix and yellow cake mix are the main ingredients in this coffee cake. So easy!
14. Use Box Cake to Make Pineapple Upside Down Cake
What may seem like a complicated or time-consuming recipe is no longer when you use a box cake mix! Follow the instructions on your box cake mix, and use one of these recipes for the rest of it. It’ll look and taste just like you made it from scratch.
15. Make a Bundt Cake
Bundt cakes are so pretty and can be made in so many different flavors. Adding sour cream and extra eggs gives you the denser texture of a bundt cake. Each of these recipes begins with a box cake. You’ll love how easy they are to make!
16. Use Box Cake to Make Donuts
All you need is a donut pan and a few creative recipes and you’re on your way to a treat for a weekend breakfast! Warmed canned frosting is an easy drizzle over your cake donuts. These would also be great for a bridal or baby shower.
Loving these recipes? Be sure to sign up for our email list to get recipes delivered straight to your inbox!
Leave a Reply