Are you looking for an easy way to make a box cake mix taste like a bakery quality cake? Adding pudding to cake mix makes the cake more moist, dense, and flavorful. It is perfect if you want a nice quality cake, but lack a lot of time or experience.
First, let me say that I love cooking from scratch. I love to know what is going into my food, but have found very few cake recipes that can stack up to a doctored boxed cake mix in flavor and moistness. Plus, it’s easy and can be really cheap if you can find the boxed mixes on sale.
Brand names really don’t matter. I tend to buy whatever is the cheapest at the time.
In general, you want a boxed cake mix and a boxed instant dry pudding mix.
If you want to really have fun with it, mix the flavors. Butterscotch pudding would be great with yellow cake mix.
I like to use French vanilla pudding mix with plain vanilla cake mix. It gives it a definite vanilla pudding flavor. It is delicious.
I stick to traditional cake flavors (vanilla and chocolate) when doing a sheet cake for a party. Although, I will say that I prefer German chocolate cake mix as opposed to regular chocolate cake. It just has a richer flavor. If I’m going to eat chocolate cake, I want it to be good.
Originally, I used vegetable oil in this recipe. Now, I use coconut oil because I’m trying to get away from processed vegetable oil.
You will probably need to heat the coconut oil slightly to get it in it’s liquid form. Coconut oil has a very low melting point, so it won’t take much. Don’t get it hot, or it will cook your eggs. Mine is usually a liquid at room temp in the summer.
I’ve seen people suggest butter in place of the oil. The only problem you may have with using butter is that butter has a higher moisture content than oil. It may not be enough to really make a difference, but your cake batter will definitely be thinner.
If unrefined coconut oil has too much of a coconut flavor for you, try refined coconut oil.
Here are a few tools I recommend to help with your cake and cupcake making:
Stainless Steal Mixing Bowls – the silicone bottoms make a huge difference with these bowls
Electric Hand Mixer – there’s really no point in dragging out the big mixer for a single cake mix. Save the big mixer for the icing.
9″ x 13″ Cake Pan – good size if you want a smaller sheet cake. The straight sides of this pan make the cake easy to decorate.
9″ Round Cake Pan – perfect for smaller cakes
Cupcake Tin – for standard sized cupcakes and muffins
Cake Decorating Tips – I consider these tips to be the basics for anyone decorating cakes and cupcakes
Disposable Pastry Bags – I find reusable bags too difficult to keep clean and I worry about bacteria breeding in them. I feel safer using disposable pastry bags.
Paper Mart – If you’re gifting or selling your baked goods, I’ve found Paper Mart to be a really good resource for packaging.
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Ingredients:
1 – 15.25 oz (432g) box Cake Mix
1 – 1.85 oz (52.5g) box Instant Pudding
1 extra Egg
1 extra oz oil (I use coconut oil)
Icing
Follow the directions for the first step of the cake mix. Add the ingredients listed on the box, then add in the pudding mix, one additional egg, and one additional ounce of oil. Using an electric mixer, mix the batter on medium speed until all of the ingredients are incorporated.
Do not over mix your batter. It is ok to still have some lumps, but you do not want a lot of bubbles. Do not mix for more than 2 minutes.
Pour the batter into a cake pan or cupcake tins. Bake according to the directions on the back of the cake mix box.
Ice the cake or cupcakes after they are completely cool.
Note: If you have concerns about the ingredients in boxed cake mix and instant pudding, Thrive Market has some great organic and gluten free options.
Doctored Cake Mix
Adding pudding to cake mix makes the cake more moist, dense, and flavorful. It is perfect if you want a nice quality cake, but lack a lot of time or experience.
Ingredients
- 1 - 15.25 oz (432g) box Cake mix
- 1 - 1.85 oz (52.5g) box Instant pudding mix
- 1 extra Egg
- 1 oz extra oil, I use coconut oil
- icing, for decoration
Instructions
- Follow the directions for the first step of the cake mix. Add the ingredients listed on the box, then add in the pudding mix, one additional egg, and one additional ounce of oil.
- Using an electric mixer, mix the batter on medium speed until all of the ingredients are incorporated.
- Do not over mix your batter. It is ok to still have some lumps, but you do not want a lot of bubbles. Do not mix for more than 2 minutes.
- Pour the batter into a cake pan or cupcake tins. Bake according to the directions on the back of the cake mix box.
- Ice the cake or cupcakes after they are completely cool.
Notes
Calories and cooking times are approximate. Actual times and calorie content will vary depending upon ingredients used. Follow baking times and temperatures recommended on the cake mix package.
Nutrition Information
Yield 12 Serving Size 12 ServingsAmount Per Serving Calories 255
What size of pudding mix do you use?
3.4 oz
WhAt size pudding is used????
I use a 1.85 oz box of pudding, however the size isn’t super important if you can find a size close to that. Sometimes the pudding companies change the package sizes slightly.
Oh, thanks!
Am I able to substitute the oil for melted butter?
You could. The only thing is that butter tends to have a slightly higher moisture content in it than oil, so you may have to adjust the amount slightly. If you don’t mind making an extra batch of cupcakes, it would be a good experiment to try. I’ve actually been substituting the vegetable oil for coconut oil, and it’s really good; however, it does tend to give the cake a slight coconut flavor.
I love putting coconut oil in my morning oatmeal, but only unrefined coconut oil smells and tastes like coconut. Refined coconut oil doesn’t and is good for baking if you don’t like the coconut scent/taste … FYI 🙂
That’s interesting. I hadn’t thought about that. Thanks for sharing. 🙂
Hi Bonnie,
I am using Pillsbury Sugar free cake mix with chessecake pudding mix. Can I add fresh fruit to the mix? How will this alter the receipe?
Fresh fruit is a tough thing to add to a cake recipe. Depending on the fruit, it adds a lot of additional moisture. You can end up with a cake that doesn’t rise. If it were a scratch recipe, I’d say to use a muffin recipe and adjust it for cake, but I haven’t tried it yet with boxed cake. My best recommendation would be to add a little fruit at a time to make sure you don’t lose too much thickness to your batter. Keep in mind that more juice will come out of the fruit as it cooks, so a little bit will go a long way. I’m sorry that I couldn’t be more help, but I’m unsure without experimenting myself. If you do try it, please let me know how it turns out.
Bonnie how many boxes of cake mix you need to make a 1/2 sheet cake?
It depends on if you want to do a double or single layer. For a single layer, you’ll use 3 boxes of mix. I prefer a layered cake with filling, so I use 4 boxes. Typically, I’ll bake two half-sheet pans (2 boxes each), then level and layer them after they’ve cooled. Hope that helps.
i love the cheesecake pudding idea, what would buttercream frosting taste with the cheesecake pudding mix ?
I haven’t personally tried that combination, but I love buttercream icing on pretty much everything. 🙂
Could you use milk instead of water?
Yes, you can.
Just wondering if this recipe is for the current size cake mix (15.25 oz)? I’m not sure when they changed sizes but your recipe doesn’t mention it and this was created a few years ago. Thanks!
That’s an interesting point. I’m not sure since I haven’t made any cake recently. I guess I’ll have to pick up some mix this week and give it a try. I’ll revise the recipe when I do and get back to you.
When you say “extra egg”, do you mean, for example, if the box calls for 3 eggs to add 4 eggs instead? Or just one egg total to the recipe?
If the recipe calls for 3 eggs, add 4 eggs. 🙂
I tried your doctored cake mix recipe recently (adding pudding, 1 extra egg and 1 oz extra oil) and it turned out very heavy , with lots of “dimples” on top. Also at the required baking time, it was very ‘watery’ like I’ve never seen in a mix before. It required considerable extra baking time to pass the toothpick test. It had good flavor but was very dense. This was my first time trying this….can you please share some hints on how to improve my results, or is this how it is supposed to be?
Thanks so much!
Kathryn
It sounds like it was over mixed. There shouldn’t really be any bubbles in your batter, which would cause the dimples on the top. Cake batter should only be mixed long enough to make sure all of the ingredients are moist.
Hi can I make a 2 tiered cake with 3 layers each with this hack? Will it hold up well??
I usually do 2 layers, but it should hold up. It’ll be more dense than straight boxed mix. You’ll probably need two boxes of mix. Bake in your cake pans and slice the cakes into layers horizontally. I’m assuming you’ve done tiered cakes before, so you know how to support a second tier.
I tried this recipe yesterday for cupcakes and they turned out perfectly. Used Betty Crocker yellow cake mix and store brand instant vanilla pudding. Very happy with the taste and texture of the cupcakes!
Thank you. I’m glad you enjoyed it. 🙂
If the cake mix already has pudding mix in it do you still add a pudding mix?
You shouldn’t have to, but I honestly haven’t tried the cake mixes with pudding in them. I imagine it’ll give you less volume than this recipe. You would just follow the box direction.
I’ll have to make the two and compare.
Thanks let me know
Would sugar free pudding mix work?
I don’t see why it wouldn’t. I think it’s the added fat in the pudding that improves the cake’s texture. It’s certainly worth a try.
Do you add the pudding mix dry or do you actually make the pudding and it to the batter?
No, add it dry. The added fat from the pudding mix is what makes it so moist.
We have had our fill of cupcakes this week! Hahaha. Great article, and such sweet insight into the rewards that accompany a self-made life. We’re inspired! Thanks so much for mentioning Paper Mart for your bakery packaging needs. We certainly appreciate it. We added you on Social so we won’t miss out. Please keep up the great work! We’re looking forward to it!
I followed you back on Twitter. Thank you so much for finding me and stopping by. 🙂