How to Make Duncan Hines Lemon Cake Better?
Duncan Hines lemon cake mix is known to deliver delicious and perfectly moist lemon cakes that taste as if a professional pastry chef made them. They have made many people smile and starred in many gatherings. However, even the best ideas can be improved. So, how to make Duncan Hines lemon cake better?
Adding an extra egg, melted butter, baking powder, milk, or sour cream can make the Duncan Hines lemon cake fluffier, moister, and softer. Adding an extra tablespoon of sugar can add stability and sweetness to the cake, and some lemon juice will add up the lemon flavor.
As delicious as the Duncan Hines lemon cake, it may sometimes disappoint you if it doesn’t rise enough or lacks flavor. Luckily, you can improve and fix things and learn how to do better next time. Therefore, in the following paragraphs, I will give you a few tips on how to make Duncan Hines lemon cake batter.
An Extra Egg
An extra egg can go a long way with Duncan Hines lemon cake. Not only does the egg make the battered bond better, but it also helps it rise and develop. In addition, a well-beaten extra egg makes the Duncan Hines lemon cake fluffier and airier.
Melted Butter
Although the Duncan Hines lemon cake recipe doesn’t call for butter, it won’t hurt to add some to make the butter a little fattier and richer. The butter will penetrate the mix, making it softer from the get-go. Moreover, the butter fat doesn’t add new flavors per se, but it impacts the overall taste from another aspect.
Namely, since it is fattier, the butter makes the batter softer, allowing the sweetness and the lemon flavor to come more into the spotlight.
Baking Powder
Add a teaspoon of baking powder for extra fluffiness and airiness to your Duncan Hines lemon cake. The mix itself doesn’t contain baking powder, so sometimes, people have reported that it doesn’t rise. Although this rarely happens and results from an older mix, adding a teaspoon of baking powder won’t hurt to help the batter rise better.
Milk
Although the recipe calls for water, you can replace it with milk. Milk always makes baked goods taste richer and creamier. Also, it will add sweetness to the cake and neutralize any potentially overly lemony taste.
Milk is also a flavor-balancer and fluffiness-maker, so adding some to your baked goods is never a bad idea.
Sour Cream
Sour cream is yet another trick in the book to make your Duncan Hines lemon cake creamier, richer, and fluffier. Choose a sour cream that gravitates more to the neutral side so as not to overtake the flavor.
The lacto bacteria in the sour cream will trigger the rising of the batter and will give you a light, airy, fluffy, rich, and creamy consistency. Moreover, your Duncan Hines lemon cake will be moister and chewier.
Vanilla Pudding
Lemon and vanilla flavors go great together; they bring out the best in each other and result in an excellently balanced final flavor you will simply fall in love with. You don’t have to add a whole pudding mix bag, but just a spoonful.
The pudding will develop while baking, giving the cake a spongier consistency, adding a discrete but noticeable vanilla note, and excellently rounding up the flavor.
Buttermilk
If you like your Duncan Hines lemon cake extra rich, then add some buttermilk to the batter and watch miracles happen. However, it will also make your cake heavier, so if you have your mind set on a light dessert, you might want to skip this section.
Extra Sugar
Although the Duncan Hines lemon cake mix already contains sugar, adding an extra half, a spoon won’t hurt the mix or change the flavor significantly, but it will give it stability. When the extra sugar melts inside the batter, it will help the ingredients bond better, resulting in a thicker and more stable cake.
Extra Lemon Juice
While the Duncan Hines lemon cake mix already has lemon juice, adding some more will not hurt the cake. The acidity of the lemon juice will act as a bonding agent and intensify the lemon flavor. Your Duncan Hines cake will taste fresher, more lemony, and also a bit sweeter as the lemon will bring out the sweetness of the cake.
Duncan Hines Lemon Cake With Extra Egg
Ingredients
- 1 pkg Duncan Hines Lemon Cake Mix
- 3.4 oz instant lemon pudding and pie filling
- 5 large eggs
- 1 cup water
- ⅓ cup vegetable oil
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350°F. Grease and flour 10-inch tube pan.
- Combine cake mix, pudding mix, eggs, water and oil in large bowl. Beat at medium speed with electric mixer for 2 minutes. Pour into pan.
- Bake at 350°F for 50 to 60 minutes or until toothpick inserted in centre comes out clean. Cool in pan 25 minutes.
- Invert onto heat resistant serving plate. Cool completely.
