Dressing Up Desserts

 

By and large people are okay with box mixes when it comes to desserts. This is known. Now, there are levels of quality in them that can vary just as widely as if you were baking from scratch, but that's usually not a super big issue. If you're baking from ten-kilo bags of cake mix, your customers probably know what they're getting and don't really care. 

For the home kitchen, box baking is a serious timesaver and sometimes an eleventh hour salvation, but it's also something we all know about. So for amateur and professional alike, a great deal of home baking is about subverting expectations, and making things that come from boxes not look (or taste) like they came from boxes!

For that, we turn to flavor combinations, which for me come in tiers based on their intrusion factor with the recipe.

• Is it a flavor addition? Extracts, ground herbs or spices, sometimes liquid substitutions. Unlikely to affect baking time/temp.
• Is it a flavor and texture addition? A little more complex, things like nuts or fruit. Might affect baking time/temp.
• Is it a flavor, texture, and visual addition? Like the previous, but also designed to deliberately alter how the finished product looks. Often involves garnishes. Likely affects baking time/temp.

Now all three of those have their advantages and dangers, and they can be combined in varying measures to greater or lesser effect. Let's break them down with some examples using a neutral medium- say... a generic Yellow Cake Mix.

Flavor Addition: Might not change the look enough that people would notice... until they taste it.

• Extracts like almond, coconut, or citrus in lieu of the standard vanilla.
• Liquid in such mixes is usually water. Consider orange or apple juice. Earl Grey tea. A little orange blossom or rosewater, perhaps.
• The box might ask for neutral oil- could always brown some butter instead. Coconut oil works too, and any oil you'd use could be infused with spices ahead of time and cooled.
• Spices and powders. Ever ground up some freeze-dried fruit and mixed it into the dry ingredients? I have! Into the frosting, too!  

Consider- cardamom, browned butter, a dash of orange blossom water? Suddenly a cake might evoke gulab jamun. Perhaps instead some nutmeg and a splash of bourbon extract, and the cake might bring eggnog to mind. Even a bit further still- coconut oil, pineapple juice, coconut and rum extracts, mix powdered sugar and lime juice for a glaze, and we're in piña colada land. The possibilities are vast, and their presence can often be hidden till the first bite. 

Flavor and Texture Addition: People will notice when they take a bite.

• Coarsely chopped nuts, maybe some toasted coconut. Mix in, match with an extract, and you have a completely different, distinctly themed and flavorful cake.
• Dried fruit such as cherries, or chopped candied items like ginger.
• Minced or grated fresh tasties, such as apple, peach, pineapple, even carrot or beet.
• Chocolate/other chips or sprinkles. Simple but effective.

I've done dried cherries when making cake with lemon zest and lemonade- delicious! Also, there's always Carrot Cake, wherein people add all sorts of things, but I usually keep to grated carrot, maybe a little grated apple if I have it on hand too. A little texture, a little flavor, a little more fun.

Flavor, Texture, and Visual Addition: This thing doesn't look like it could have come from a box.

• Sliced fruit on the presentation side. Pineapple Upside-Down Cake, anyone? Works with apples, pears, peaches, and most sturdy fruit. Layer it prettily in the bottom of your pan (maybe atop some greased parchment to be sure it comes away clean), pour the batter over, and bake away. Invert, serve, enjoy!
• Baking tin variations. Bundt? Cupcake? Square? Whatever! Or do a thin rectangular sheet cake and break out cookie cutters for single-serving layer cakes. Or go even thinner and try to make it a roll cake! That's one tough though, I don't recommend it if you haven't had some practice.
• Icing, Frosting, or Glaze. Learning the magic of a piping bag and a suitable tip takes an hour of practice, and adds so much. Or even simpler- imagine the generic yellow cake with some minced candied ginger, but then topped by a glaze of powdered sugar and lemon juice. Striking!
• Stencils. Cut some stars out of a paper plate, and dust powdered sugar over it. Immediate visual improvement from an unexpectedly simple source.
• Crunch! Sprinkle a little white sugar on top and torch it till it's amber and glassy like a crème brulée.
• Toppings! Ganache, caramel, jam, marmalade, marshmallow, whatever you want- then something solid on that so it stays in place. Candied nuts, chocolate chips, basically anything you'd have put in a cake can go on a cake. Using toppings to clue people in on the cake's flavors is also a common and welcome thing.

So you see, taking a box mix and making it look like something special is easily within the means of almost anyone who'd be baking the cake in the first place. Experiment, explore, and enjoy!