bakery style red velvet cake

Recently I mentioned ways to make a bakery style cake when making box cake mixes. And usually those tips work great for most, if not all, cake mixes. However I also noted that October is Smith family birthday month, and at the end of the month we celebrated my youngest’s birthday. She wanted a red velvet cake, therefore I needed to know how to make a red velvet cake mix better.

I could have made her cake from scratch, but I’m busier than I think I’ve ever been before. Thus time was and is precious. So as long as the cake tasted good, I was fine with using a box cake. Consequently I did a little research, knowing ahead of time the add-ins and switches I was already planning on making and then discovering a couple of new things. The following is the recipe I used for my daughter’s birthday cake.

Ingredients for a better red velvet cake mix

2 boxes of red velvet cake mix
1 cup of melted butter
6 large eggs
1 c of plain Greek yogurt or sour cream
1 1/2 tbsp apple cider vinegar
2 1/2 c buttermilk
2 egg yolks
1 large package of instant chocolate pudding
1 tsp vanilla extract
handful of lightly floured chocolate chips

Originally, when I was in the planning phase of this birthday cake, I wanted to make it a 2 tier cake like the last cake. However, when I went to the grocery store, there were only 2 red velvet box cakes left. So I bought those and 1 box of Duncan Hines dark chocolate fudge. With this recipe you can either make a standard double layer round cake, a 13 x 9 inch single layer cake, or cupcakes.

Instructions for a better red velvet cake mix

Preheat the oven to 350
Grease your pans with non-stick cooking spray
In a large bowl or stand mixer, blend your first 9 ingredients together, starting on low speed
Increase your speed to medium, scraping the sides of the bowl
And beat on medium speed a minute more, a little bit longer if using a hand mixer
Next, stir the lightly floured chocolate chips into the batter
Then pour 5 1/3 cups each of the batter into your prepared pans

Remember, it’s important to measure the batter of your hacked cake mix, because if you don’t, your cake might overflow!

Bake 30-35 mins or until a toothpick inserted comes out clean
Allow the cake(s) to cool ~10 minutes before turning it out, and a further 2-3 hours or overnight to completely cool before frosting

Furthermore, I made the cream cheese frosting, while Hannah decorated the cake and cupcakes.

It’s interesting to note that a lot of people, when doctoring their red velvet cakes, choose instead to make yellow cakes and add food coloring. There are many tasty ways to hack a box cake. I hope you’ve enjoyed this post.

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