What can I replace water with in cake mix?
Replacing the water with milk will make your cake instantly taste homemade, while using buttermilk will make it taste rich and creamy. Just replace the water with the same amount of milk, or a little bit more buttermilk (because buttermilk is so viscous, you need to add more liquid than the recipe calls for).
Sour cream adds moisture without thinning your batter the same way that a liquid would. That fact that sour cream delivers moisture without further thinning out a batter results in a cake with a very tender, very fine crumb.
What is this? The best substitute for sour cream is yogurt. Greek yogurt is the best type of yogurt to use because it is thicker than regular yogurts. You will use the same measurement and simply substitute the yogurt in place of the sour cream in the recipe.
Baking with Sour Cream: The creamy texture of sour cream makes baked goods more moist than if you used milk. This makes sour cream an excellent choice for recipes that are known to have drier results, like sponge cakes.
Add a dollop of sour cream for a bakery-style cake.
And, since sour cream contains fat, your cake will also be richer. Per baking blog Liv for Cake, you may want to start by adding about 1 cup of sour cream.
- Make the cake according to box instructions, but consider adding one or more of the following steps:
- Use an extra egg to add moisture.
- Use dairy instead of water.
- Give other liquids a shot such as pineapple juice or espresso.
- Use butter instead of oil.
- Add a few spoonfuls of mayo for a moister cake.
Cooking Substitutes | Herb & Spice Substitutes | Baking Substitutes |
---|---|---|
Sesame Oil | Rosemary (Fresh & Dried) | Cornmeal |
Marsala Wine | Turmeric | Potato Starch |
Dijon Mustard | Celery Salt | Coconut Sugar |
Horseradish | Tarragon | Buttermilk |
If you aren't usually a fan of sour cream, you may be wondering can you taste sour cream in baking? Have no fear; when baked, the flavor *might* be very mildly tangy, but definitely not sour. What is this? Most likely, you won't even taste the sour cream–but you will taste a sweet and delicious cake.
- Brush with simple syrup glaze. Velez recommends adding a simple syrup glaze to your cake layers if they end up coming out too dry. ...
- Soak your cake in milk. ...
- Fill the cake with mousse or jam. ...
- Frost the cake. ...
- Stick it in the fridge.
My whole family is vegetarian and we use sourcream as our substitute. It works for anything, including pumpkin pies, cookies, cakes, and quick breads. Use 1 1/2 Tablespoon sourcream (or one heaped Tablespoon) in the place of one egg. Beat in air when you add the sourcream just like you would with the egg.
How do I make a moist cake?
- Use cake flour. Making a moist cake starts with the cake mix. ...
- Avoid overmixing. ...
- Maintain the right baking temperature. ...
- Avoid overbaking the cake. ...
- Soak the cake. ...
- Add moisture between the cake layers. ...
- Frost the cake right away. ...
- Store the cake properly.
Because emulsifiers hold water and fat together, adding extra egg yolks to the batter enables the batter to hold extra liquid and, consequently, extra sugar. This helps create a moister and sweeter cake that will still bake up with a good structure rather than falling into a gooey mass.

Since fat adds moisture and richness to baked goods, low-fat varieties are not good substitutes for regular sour cream. Instead, the best sour cream for baking with is full-fat with 14% to 18% milkfat.
How to Store and Serve Sour Cream Coffee Cake. Do I need to refrigerate sour cream coffee cake? This coffee cake will keep for up to 3 days at room temperature in an airtight container, without refrigeration. However, it will last longer, up to a week in the refrigerator.
You can try any of the following: adding a 1 oz. package of pudding (any flavor that complements the cake's flavor profile), adding 1-2 egg yolks (along with the eggs called for on the box), or substituting milk for the water called for on the box.
The Duncan Hines cake was more rich and buttery. The others were slightly less flavorful, despite having great textures and baking evenly. Call me Goldilocks, but the Pillsbury cake verged on too sweet, and the Betty Crocker one wasn't quite sweet enough. Duncan Hines' cake was a perfect middle.
For oil, you will just replace the oil with mayo in the same quantity. If the recipe calls for one-third cup of oil, you will use one-third cup of mayo.
Milk: Add MILK, not water, when your box mix calls for liquid. The milk adds density, fat and, most importantly, extra flavor to your mix. Egg WHITES: Not adding the yolks to the cake makes the cake fluffy and whiter!
Sour cream or full fat yogurt can be substituted 1:1 for whole milk. Use this substitute in baking quick breads or for adding creaminess to pan sauces. Sour cream works especially well in recipes calling for buttermilk, too and vanilla-flavored yogurt can be used for sweet quick breads and cakes.
Flavor and texture differences: Baked goods made with yogurt will be tangier and might be less tender than baked goods made with sour cream.
Is sour cream healthy?
Sour cream is generally healthy but best consumed in moderation. You should consider it an occasional garnish or topping.
Sour cream is very similar to its French cousin, crème fraîche, but with less fat, more acidity, and a thicker texture. The lesser fat content of sour cream makes it less versatile for cooking—while crème fraîche can be boiled, sour cream will curdle if heated too high or too quickly.
Buttermilk has more water content and less fat content. Sour Cream is has less water content and more fat content. You can make buttermilk at home by adding lemon or vinegar to the milk.
Using sour cream in a recipe may seem kind of gross, but it's actually just like using Greek yogurt. You can use it to replace half of the butter in your recipe and it's a great way to use up your sour cream before it goes bad.
Don't get caught in the trap of thinking that you must bake from scratch if you sell cakes. Most bakeries do NOT bake from scratch. In fact, I once worked at a bakery that actually claimed to be a “scratch bakery”, but all their cakes started with a Duncan Hines cake mix, the same kind you buy in the grocery store.
Jiffy Golden Yellow Cake Mix is our Best Overall pick because it's a time-tested cake mix at a great price that can be easily adapted. The Duncan Hines Signature Perfectly Moist Rainbow Confetti Cake Mix is our favorite confetti cake, perfect for party cupcakes.
Fill your cupcake cases 2/3 full – around 3 tablespoons – or one decent ice scream scoop. Avoid filling your cupcake cases with too much batter as they will not bake properly and might overflow when they rise.
Most cakes begin with creaming butter and sugar together. Butter is capable of holding air and the creaming process is when butter traps that air. While baking, that trapped air expands and produces a fluffy cake.
Cake flour, which is more finely ground and contains less protein than its all-purpose counterpart, is a major contributor to how soft and the overall weight of a cake. Since cake flour has less protein, less gluten is formed. Without all of that gluten, the cake becomes less dense, airy, and smooth.
A dry cake is usually the result of one of the following pitfalls: using the wrong ingredients, making mistakes while mixing the batter, or baking the cake too long or at too high a temperature. Once you understand how to avoid the common cake-baking blunders, you'll bake a moist cake every time.
What happens if you use 2 eggs instead of 3 in a cake?
Overall, changing the number of eggs in your cake recipe can alter the properties of your cake. Too few eggs will yield a cake that is overly compact and doesn't hold together will. Too many eggs can leave you with a spongy or rubbery mess.
Yes It works for every cake recipe, use 1 or 2 tablespoon in place of 1 Egg and beat it while adding the sour cream.
Both yogurt and buttermilk are good substitutes for eggs. It's best to use plain yogurt, as flavored and sweetened varieties may alter the flavor of your recipe. You can use 1/4 cup (60 grams) of yogurt or buttermilk for each egg that needs to be replaced. This substitution works best for muffins, cakes, and cupcakes.
A cake that is overly dense typically has too much liquid, too much sugar or too little leavening (not excess flour, as is commonly thought). A cake that bakes too slowly takes longer to set and may fall, causing a dense texture. I will go with fluffy cake.
Choosing a vegetable oil is the best option for baking moist, delicious baked goods. Canola oil, the most common vegetable oil used in baking, doesn't add a strong flavor. It allows your cake's flavor will shine through while still achieving a moist texture.
Refrigeration is only necessary if your kitchen gets very hot during the day, if you're making a cake that won't be served for more than three days, or when cake includes a fresh fruit filling or topping, or whipped cream frosting.
Milk: Add MILK, not water, when your box mix calls for liquid. The milk adds density, fat and, most importantly, extra flavor to your mix.
You can substitute juice or milk instead of water in cakes. However, follow these precautionary measures: For juice, you may only use fresh. Canned juices contain methyl silicone that can prevent cakes from rising to their full potential. Fresh juice should be used in ratio with water to avoid a dry, coarse texture.
Prepare the cake mix as usual, but substitute soda for the amount of water called for on the box. The soda provides a degree of extra leavening from its bubbles, making the cake rise better and providing a lighter texture. Use the soda to add a complementary flavor to the cake.
You can substitute all or part of the water called for in a box of cake mix with orange juice. This will intensify the flavor and lend a semi-homemade vibe to almost any basic box of cake mix.
What makes a cake dense vs Fluffy?
Room Temperature Butter / Don't Over-Cream
Butter is capable of holding air and the creaming process is when butter traps that air. While baking, that trapped air expands and produces a fluffy cake. No properly creamed butter = no air = no fluffiness. Aka a dense cake.
A cake that is overly dense typically has too much liquid, too much sugar or too little leavening (not excess flour, as is commonly thought).
Because emulsifiers hold water and fat together, adding extra egg yolks to the batter enables the batter to hold extra liquid and, consequently, extra sugar. This helps create a moister and sweeter cake that will still bake up with a good structure rather than falling into a gooey mass.
Turn any boxed cake taste like it came from a bakery! Just use butter instead of oil, use milk or chocolate milk instead of water and add an extra egg.
Yes, you can substitute milk for water when preparing SuperMoist cake mixes, however, the cake may be slightly drier than if prepared with water. Also keep in mind that milk will add calories and change the nutrition slightly.
The carbon dioxide bubbles in soda pop act as a leavening agent — the element that makes baked goods rise and makes them light and fluffy. Kitchen staple leaveners — like baking soda and baking powder — use a chemical reaction to create carbon dioxide bubbles.
Use pineapple juice to make a cake from a boxed mix.
Simply replace the oil, milk, or water called for in the recipe with pineapple juice in equal proportions. A yellow or white cake works best, since the pineapple flavor could clash or get lost if you use chocolate or another flavor.
- When substituting applesauce for oil in baking, the ratio is typically 1:1. So if the recipe calls for 1/4 cup of oil, use 1/4 cup of applesauce. This works perfectly with muffins and quick breads.
1 cup of Apple Cider – Most of the boxed cakes ask for water or milk but for this cake adding apple cider will give that warm fall flavor.