How to Make a Box Cake Taste Like a Bakery Cake

I saw on Pinterest these posts about how to make a box cake mix taste like a bakery cake. Basically it was all about adding things with more fat for the less fatty options on the cake mix box. So, instead of water, use milk. Instead of oil, use butter. Instead of 2 or 3 eggs, add one or two more eggs.

The result...

Everyone at my house LOVED my yellow cake mix with milk, melted butter and 5 eggs. I think I will do this every time. YAY! You can also add coffee in place of water with a chocolate cake, and I have another friend who puts a box of instant pudding mix and 1 cup sour cream in her cake mix recipes along with the additional egg.

PS- The friend who made my wedding cake said she used box cake mixes. When I tasted our cake, I was like, "Wow! That came from a box?" But now I think she may have done the above trick to make my box wedding cake taste FABULOUS!

Update: 10-23-2024

I just made a 13.25 oz. Betty Crocker boxed cake mix with these substitutions:

• I added one small package of instant chocolate pudding mix to the batter.
• I added 1 cup of sour cream to the batter.
• Instead of using the 3 eggs called for on the box, I used 4 eggs.
• I did use the 1/2 cup oil suggested on the package instead of replacing it with 1/2 cup melted butter, but I would certainly make that swap in the future if I wanted to.
• Instead of 1 cup of water, I used 1 cup of coffee. I simply used my Keurig machine to make a standard cup from a pod, and then added the entire mug to my cake mix instead of water. I was worried that replacing the entire amount of water with straight coffee might be too strong and noticeable in the final product, but it wasn't a problem. I also worried that the hot coffee (I was too impatient to wait for it to cool) would scramble the eggs in the batter, so I added it at the very end, REALLY SLOWLY, just a bit at a time until I had at least half of it incorporated to temper the eggs. Then I dumped the rest in and it was fine.
• Instead of making my own frosting this time, I used TWO cans of Betty Crocker chocolate frosting. Homemade is better, but I had a busy day today. (One can of frosting would certainly cover the top of a 9x13 cake, but I like frosting and wanted to make sure that there was plenty of sweet to go along with that 1 cup of coffee in the mix. You may want less frosting (I originally thought I might only use 1 1/2 cans), but in the end I thought it turned out fantastic using both!)