Melted Ice Cream Is The Ultimate Hack For Upgrading Box Cake

When it comes to desserts, nothing beats ice cream — well, maybe cake — but sometimes it's hard to choose. Still, not everybody has the time to bake or make ice cream from scratch, so many prefer to grab a box mix from their nearest grocery aisle or snag their favorite pint if that's still too much work. However, one hack is the best of both worlds: using melted ice cream with a package of your favorite ready-mix to make a cake. Utilizing this trick lets you enjoy any leftovers from your favorite frozen treat, making eating the proverbial baked good a reality. 

Regarding pre-blends, you can find many tips on how to make boxed cake mix taste homemade. Additionally, plenty of recipes can turn boxed cake mix into all types of desserts. Nevertheless, in terms of simply making a delicious cake, this one takes it.

Although no one knows where the idea came from, Anne Byrn learned about the hack from "Pillsbury test kitchen home economists," as she stated in Epicurious, and initially provided the recipe (and the phrase) within her book, "The Cake Mix Doctor," back in 1999. Whatever the case, this is one shortcut that's a must-try, especially since there's a reason why it works so well: melted ice cream increases the moistness of a boxed cake mix, which is an excellent upgrade.

As Anne Byrn explains, "Your liquid, your fat, and your flavorings are all in the melted ice cream," and she's right. A video from Vivian Chan on Food Network's Facebook page also highlights this: "Why am I using melted ice cream? Because it has everything you need for wet ingredients for a normal cake ... I'm also gonna be using box cake mix because it has everything you need in dry ingredients." However, there's a little more to it. 

A 2022 study from the journal Food Research provides the details, and its findings determined that within a controlled study, a ready-mix cake baked with the melted dessert and three eggs contained the most moisture (at 39.09%) compared to cakes baked with less or no eggs. The authors' explanation? Since ice cream contains many of the same ingredients as cake, such as "fat, protein, sugar, emulsifier, stabilizer, and water," all a box requires is a little more binding agent (hence, the eggs). 

Still, most of the recipes for this nifty hack seem to only call for two eggs, so give that a shot before you move onto what could conceivably be the moistest excuse to eat frosting. That aside, it only requires three ingredients, and as Chan emphasizes in the Food Network video, "Melted ice cream is a great way to personalize" your cake (which is achieved through the versatility of the many interchangeable pre-mixes and ice creams).

As Vivian Chan notes, one of the main reasons this trick is worth experimenting with is the sheer selection of flavors available. Grabbing a neutral base like white or yellow cake will allow you to mix in any ice cream, such as coffee, peanut butter cup, or peaches and cream, without clashing tastes. In truth, the sky's the limit regarding which box or pint you grab. Chan chose cinnamon bun ice cream and spice cake mix for her video. You could also try boosting red velvet mix with strawberry ice cream or mixing butter pecan ice cream into a carrot cake mix.

All it takes is combining eggs with 2 cups of melted ice cream that has naturally been brought to ambient temperature, then mixing the liquid components with a standard boxed cake mix. However, as Anne Byrn points out, that's only if you're working with a high-quality frozen treat with little air incorporated. A lighter product might require extra ice cream.

A note of caution: There's no guarantee that a cake made with gluten-free or sugar-free boxed mix (let alone sugarless ice cream) or mixes that need only water will turn out as well since most recipes seem to call for conventional ingredients. You may want to proceed with caution if that's what you're looking for.