Nothing like the golden glow of a lemon cake for summer weddings or dinner party sweets. There’s something utterly magnificent about that wonderful blend of flavor, texture, color, and overall atmosphere.
These cakes are even better when the lemony goodness is coupled with a golden tint.
Lemon cakes, unlike their fruit cousins, do not grow on trees, nor does yellow cake mix; they must be made.
Why shouldn’t you be that person?
Let’s see how to build your own yellow cake mix and combine it into a delicious lemon cake.
Contents
- Mixing up Yellow Cake Mix
- Creating Your Lemon Cake with Yellow Cake Mix
- A Few Tips and Tricks
- FAQs
- Can I add lemon juice to store bought cake mix?
- What can I add to yellow cake mix to make it better?
- Can you put lemon zest in a cake mix?
- How do you increase the flavor of lemon in a cake?
- What does lemon juice do to a cake?
- What is the effect of lemon in cake?
- How to hack box cake mix?
- What can I add to a box cake to make it taste homemade?
- How to spice up yellow box cake mix?
- Do you add lemon zest before or after baking?
Mixing up Yellow Cake Mix
If you’ve never prepared a lemon cake before, you may believe the yellow hue originates from nature.
Nothing could be further from the truth. You must mix it yourself, which entails determining what hue you want and how to best achieve it.
You may assume yellow is yellow, but ask a florist, artist, wedding planner, or, yes, cake maker how many yellows there are, and youll receive a plethora of replies.
For example, do you want a brilliant, vivid yellow like sunflowers in nature or Van Gogh’s paintings? Or are you looking for a more subtle, almost beige or whitish-yellow that will look beautiful without taking center stage?
The yellow cake mix recipe provided here is for a light-ish, middle-of-the-road yellow cake, but you may adjust the hue by adding food coloring or other ingredients.
To begin, gather the necessary ingredients:
- Flour for all purposes
- Sugar, granulated
- Salt
- Milk
- Eggs (ideally on the bigger side) (preferably on the larger side)
- Oil from vegetables
- Butter (ideally pre-softened) (preferably pre-softened)
- Baking soda
- Vanilla flavoring
Precise proportions may vary, but the recipe link offers their guideline.
You’ll also need a stand mixer and a quart-sized mason jar to combine all of these components.
Fill the mason jar halfway with flour (the ideal ratio is 2 cups). If it’s the right size, this should fill a significant portion of the jar, at which point it’ll be time to start adding sugar, baking powder, and salt on top, in that order. This should practically fill your mason jar to the brim if you use the quantities suggested.
It’s time to shake things up.
Mix a suitable quantity of softened butter in a stand mixer for one to two minutes on an usual Medium speed.
After that, combine the dry ingredients you just combined in the mason jar with the butter in the mason jar for at least 30 seconds.
Mix in the milk, eggs, oil, and vanilla extract. If feasible, turn the volume up somewhat, but not too loud; a Medium High level for one minute would be great.
You’ll want to look at the color of the batter you just made. Is it enough yellow? This combination should provide a light yellow hue.
If you want something more bright, you might try adding food coloring or switching to yellow frosting.
At this stage, your yellow cake mix batter should be ready.
If you wish to continue cooking with it, put it in a baking dish and bake it at 350 degrees Fahrenheit for 20 to 25 minutes.
See below if you want to use your new yellow cake mix to make a lemon cake.
Creating Your Lemon Cake with Yellow Cake Mix
In addition to the cake mix you just produced, you’ll want to have a few more ingredients on hand, such as pudding mix and lemon juice, which will give your cake a lemony flavor.
If you’re daring and talented enough, you may even add genuine lemon slices.
In your cake mixer, combine the cake mix and pudding mix, along with a touch of vegetable oil, and beat on Medium for around 10 minutes. After that, take the newly whipped cake mixture and pour it into a pre-greased tube pan.
It is now time to bake your cake once again. This time, cook for much longer, around 50 minutes at 350 degrees.
As you take it out of the oven, add a splash of lemon juice to give even more lemony flavor.
In a saucepan, mix this with powdered sugar, then bring to a boil and whisk until it begins to congeal into a consistency that can be easily drizzled or spread over the top and edges of the cake.
A Few Tips and Tricks
Yet, you don’t want to go overboard with the lemon taste.
When it comes to baking, more isn’t always better, and lemon cakes are no exception. If you use too much lemon, you may end up with a cake that is too sour to eat.
Instead, aim for the perfect balance of sweetness and sourness that makes lemon cakes so delectably tart. If you’re using both lemon juice and lemon pudding mix, be sure you don’t overdo it on either.
A typical lemon yields roughly three teaspoons of lemon juice. Two lemons should plenty for the above-mentioned recipe, particularly if you’re also using lemon cake mix.
To get the finest lemon juice, cut your lemon in half and apply gentle pressure to each end of the half, or use a citrus squeezer. The latter approach may be effective for extracting pulp and seeds.
Lastly, some advice on your powdered sugar game. To get the best results, sift the bag a little before pouring it out, otherwise it will come out in clumps that won’t evenly distribute with your lemon juice.
Following these procedures, you may make a beautiful lemon cake using yellow cake mix that is as good as gold.
FAQs
Can I add lemon juice to store bought cake mix?
You may add lemon juice or zest (or both!) to help reduce the natural sweetness of the mix, while the lemon flavor will shine through and bring additional flavor to your cake.
What can I add to yellow cake mix to make it better?
A Pro’s 6 Simple Ways to Improve Your Boxed Cake Mix…
Add one additional egg. If you just use one tip from this article, make it this one. …
Pour in some milk, coffee, or soda. …
Replace the oil with butter. …
Mix in the Instant Pudding. …
Enhance the flavor with a citrus extract or zest. …
Decorate the cake with homemade icing.
Sep 19, 2022
Can you put lemon zest in a cake mix?
Want to jazz up the taste of almost any white cake? A little amount of lemon zest goes a long way! A tablespoon of lemon zest may give a delicate tang to any vanilla, yellow, or angel food cake. Try this for a little additional zing to complement the bright insides of this Funfetti cake!
How do you increase the flavor of lemon in a cake?
With a Microplane, zest lemons into the batter until the desired taste is achieved. Lemon zest adds a lovely lemon taste to your cake but has no affect on how it bakes. You won’t have to make any changes.
What does lemon juice do to a cake?
Acidic elements are essential in cake preparation. They enrich and enhance tastes while also aiding in the leavening and tenderization of cakes. Acidity in batter may be derived from a number of sources, including vinegar, lemon juice, chocolate, buttermilk, coffee, brown sugar, fruits and vegetables, to mention a few.
What is the effect of lemon in cake?
That acid has the ability to increase and amplify the chemical processes that take place throughout the baking process. If you don’t use animal products in your baking, lemon juice (or plain citric acid powder) may assist compensate for animal-based items like eggs and buttermilk while also contributing to leavening.
How to hack box cake mix?
Hack for Creating Boxed Cake Mix
Replace the water in the package instructions with milk. DOUBLE the quantity of butter and replace the oil in the package instructions. Add one more egg than the package directions ask for. Combine the ingredients and bake according to the package instructions.
What can I add to a box cake to make it taste homemade?
8 Easy Techniques & Strategies to Improve Box Cake
Ingredients should be at room temperature.
Use milk or buttermilk for the water.
Substitute Sour Cream for the Butter…. Increase the number of eggs…. Add Vanilla Extract.
Make It a Chocolate Lovers’ Cake… Decorate It Like A Pro.
How to spice up yellow box cake mix?
Add 12 to 1 teaspoon vanilla essence to boost the taste. Are you making a spice cake? Mix with some rum, almond, or orange essence. Add a teaspoon or two of fresh lemon or lime zest or juice to white or yellow cake batter.
Do you add lemon zest before or after baking?
To avoid bitterness, add it in the final few minutes of cooking. If you’re making a vinaigrette at home (which you should be), why not add some citrus zest for 30 seconds?