Yes, You Can Make Brownies With Store-Bought Cake Mix. Here's How
Sometimes, it really feels like the foodie community is in an all-out race to use store-bought cake mix to make as many different types of baked goods as humanly possible. After all, if you get the urge to make cookies, you can take notes from Live Well Bake Often and throw red velvet cake mix together with white chocolate chips for a deliciously easy dessert. Or if you're craving cinnamon rolls, thanks to Tastes of Lizzie T, you know they'll be no problem to bake with a little bit of pre-made vanilla cake batter at your side. And brownies? Well, while you may be all for using instant cake mix to create the aforementioned pillowy treats, cake-mix brownies may not be a concept you're completely sold on.
Every sweet enthusiast knows that these treats have two very different textures. Brownies tend to be solid and fudge-like while cake has a bouncy and spongy mouth feel. However, despite their differences, both desserts are usually made with the same core ingredients: flour and sugar. And by following one simple rule, Food & Wine reports you can easily bake your pre-made cake batter into a batch of firm, tasty brownies.
Wet ingredients are the difference between baking brownies or cake
A cake should be moist. That's why most cake mixes suggest you throw water into its ready-made ingredients. So, then, what do you need to do to transform your would-be cake into a batch of brownies? You guessed it, as Food & Wine reports you should add in less liquid ingredients.
When prepping your cake mix brownies, you won't need water. You will, however, need to halve the ingredients called for on your box mix. Add two rather than three eggs, and a ⅓ cup, not a ½ cup, of vegetable oil to your batter. According to the Food Lovin' Family, the butter will aerate whatever dessert it's in. That means throwing it into the batter fray will make your brownies come out more cake-like. So with that in mind and all of your ingredients combined, you should bake your batter at 350 degrees Fahrenheit. After 20 minutes have passed, your initial doubts will disappear when you enjoy your very own cake-mix brownies.
As Food & Wine notes, you can make brownies from any flavor of cake mix on the market. Though, if you choose to make blondies with vanilla cake mix, Rachel Cooks recommends adding some vanilla extract for flavor.
More ways to make brownies that may surprise you
If you were surprised that making brownies from a cake mix (which isn't too far-fetched sounding an idea) is actually possible, hold onto your hat. There are many more unusual ways to bake a batch of this beloved dessert.
Let's start off with the healthier version of your favorite dessert. So it turns out sweet potatoes aren't just a superfood. According to Chocolate Covered Katie, they are a superfood that belongs in your brownies. As the outlet reports, sweet potatoes can make your brownies nutritious and fudgy. And to make a batch of this strange but beautiful dessert, you just need to combine sweet potato puree, sugar, peanut butter, flour, mini chocolate chips, cocoa powder, baking soda, vanilla extract, and salt. Then you can bake them, take them out of the oven, and watch as they harden into chocolatey brownies on your countertop.
And while Chocolate Covered Katie's take on the dessert can be made without flour, our final and most astonishing brownie recipe takes it one step further. The Big Man's World reports you can make brownies by combining no more than two ingredients. By melting a chocolate bar, letting it cool some, and then mixing it with an egg you'll be eating delicious brownies in no time. So in short, if you're wary of a brownie recipe, odds are no matter how wacky it sounds it will still somehow work.