Some people are bakers. Some bakers are strictly scratch bakers. My
grandmother was mostly a scratch baker but sometimes she used a mix and
she "doctored" it up as she liked to call it. However, her cake frosting
or glaze was made from scratch. Anne Byrn, the Cake Mix Doctor,
is famous for her cake mix cookbooks. She has developed many recipes
using cake mixes. These recipes are used as a springboard for
creativity. It is perfectly fine to use cake mixes or to bake from
scratch using a recipe. I don't believe in baking snobbery, since it is
still baking. What matters is how the cupcakes look and how they taste.
Personally, I have been grocery shopping and spotted a new cake mix
flavor and I was curious to try it out. The thing about cake mixes is
that they can free up some of your prep time and facilitate creativity.
I am not sure if the advent of the popularity of cake pops would not have happened were it not for cake mixes. Bakerella, who is the foremost authority on cake pops, uses cake mixes to make her cake pops.
The key to box mix hacking is to know when to add or substitute
ingredients. First think of the cake mix is having the dry ingredients
measured already. With most scratch recipes, the dry ingredients are
mixed together first. If you want to add a dry ingredient like cocoa
powder, than do it right after pouring the cake mix into the mixing but
before adding any wet ingredient like eggs, oil or water. Good wet
ingredients to add to mixes include fruit, preserves or instant
pudding. Bananas and strawberries hold up well, but if you add fruit
like apples or peaches, then you should cook them first.
Chocolate
and nuts are great add-ins for cake mixes. Be sure to use finely
chopped nuts as nuts can be an unexpected surprise in a cupcake. Dark
chocolate can chopped up and sprinkled on top.
Sandwich cookies like Oreos and/or ginger snaps are fun to put in the cupcake liners first before adding the cupcake batter.
For
holidays, you can add candy as toppers. Halloween is great for autumn
cupcakes. Candy canes are wonderful for Christmas cupcakes. Valentine's
Day and Easter candy are also useful.
There are two things you
must keep in mind: baking is a science so be smart about substitutions
and additions. The bottom line: cupcakes made from a box mix can be just
as delicious as cupcakes made from scratch. Cupcakes can be a canvas
for creativity.
