The title might be false advertising……….because…………I made this cake with a boxed mix.
I know, I know.
Let’s just cut to the chase.
A quality homemade cake is going to beat out a cake made from a box just about every time.
But making a cake from scratch isn’t always in the cards.
Sometimes it’s a shortage of ingredients, sometimes I don’t have the energy or the time and this case, it was a bit of all three.
I volunteered to bring a cake to my parents house to celebrate my Dad’s 63rd birthday.
With every intention of making him a coconut cake (his favorite) from scratch, it just didn’t work out like that.
We all need a break here and there and this day, for me, it came in form of a boxed cake mix.
Cake mixes are easy, quick and let’s be honest, kinda hard to screw up.
When your using a cake mix the goal is for it to taste like it DIDN’T come from a box, right?
A few tweaks to the directions and adding homemade frosting to this cake, not only did it taste homemade (almost), it was delicious.
Happy Baking!
Vanilla Bean Cake with Butter Cream Frosting & Coconut
Ingredients
- 1 boxed white cake mix
- buttermilk
- pinch salt
- 1/2 teaspoon pure almond extract
- 1/2 vanilla bean, seeds scraped
- Buttercream frosting (recipe below)
- 1 cup shaved or shredded sweetened coconut
Baking Instructions
Prepare cake mix according to box replacing the water with an equal amount of buttermilk. To the batter, add a pinch of salt, 1/2 teaspoon almond extract and seeds from 1/2 of a vanilla bean. Bake as directed and cool as directed on box. When completely cool, frost with buttercream frosting and top with coconut.
Simple Buttercream Frosting
Ingredients
- 2 sticks butter, softened
- 3 cups powdered sugar, sifted
- pinch salt
- 2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
- 2 tablespoons milk
Instructions
Beat softened butter for 2 minutes in either a stand up mixer with the paddle attachment or in a medium bowl with a hand mixer. Add the sifted powder sugar and on low speed (you don’t want it to explode all over you!), mix until the sugar is fully incorporated. Add the vanilla, salt and milk and beat on medium speed until fully incorporated. If the frosting needs to be thicker, add a little bit of sugar at a time until you get the desired consistency. If the frosting needs to be thinner, add 1 teaspoon of milk until you get it just right!
Welcome to my kitchen! I'm a personal chef, wife and mama of two young boys. I Love butter, snowboarding and laughing out loud.
We all have to “cheat” sometimes:) Looks like a delightful cake! Love the additions! Happy Birthday to your dad:)
Yum! I love coconut!
Thanks, Julie!
I say as long as you add stuff to it, it is homemade. Besides, with that delicious from scratch frosting, no one would ever know.