5 tips to pimp your ready-made cake mix

Say wine, snacks or haute cuisine and the gourmands at online food magazine FavorFlav know where to drink, how to eat it and what to cook. This time our cheffies serve you: tips to pimp your cake mix.

Baking a cake or brownies from a package every now and then is perfectly fine. After all, those gooey brownies are my favorite guilty pleasure of all time. Still, a ready-made baked good could use a little boost sometimes. And with these tips, it becomes a breeze.

With a few simple tricks, you can elevate that cake from a package to the next level. It will taste so good that many guests to whom you serve that slice won't even notice that you pulled it from the supermarket shelves. Also nice: you usually have most of the ingredients on hand.

Vanilla extract
Many instant cake mixes often only contain flour, sugar, leavening agent, and salt. A golden tip is to add a splash of vanilla extract to the batter. This way, the cake gets extra flavor.

Replace water or milk
Instant brownies taste much better if you replace the water with coffee. Coffee and chocolate are indeed a match made in heaven. The coffee will enhance the flavor of the chocolate. Baking a regular cake? Then try using half regular milk and half buttermilk or cream, which will keep your cake moist longer and give it a fuller flavor.

An extra egg
No panic: adding an extra egg to the batter won't ruin your cake. An egg also contributes to a fuller and moister flavor and makes the cake just a tad lighter. Even adding two egg yolks will surprise you.

From cake to cookies
Making cookies from instant cake mix? It’s possible. The mix actually contains the basicingredients for a cookie dough. By adding less moisture (so less butter and eggs) to the batter, you get a firmer dough that you can easily scoop onto a baking sheet lined with parchment paper, just like with chocolate chip cookies, .

Add what you like
You can easily transform any instant cake into a unique homemade cake by adding things like chocolate chunks, poppy seeds, lemon, coconut flakes, blueberries, colored sprinkles (for a birthday cake), Oreos, and so on. No kids wanting to snack? Then make a gin and tonic cake, delicious!