Doctored Chocolate Cake Mix

Learn how to doctor up a chocolate cake mix! Add some homemade frosting and no one will ever know this yummy cake started with a cake mix! Lots of tips and step-by-step photos teach you how to bake this doctored chocolate cake mix recipe!

Ingredients

To doctor up a chocolate cake mix you'll need:

• Chocolate Cake Mix. Use your favorite, after testing many my family decided on Duncan Hine's Devil's Food cake mix. You don't need the ingredients called for on the box.
• Box of Instant Chocolate Pudding Mix. You only need the dry pudding mix, none of the ingredients called for on the box.
• Cocoa Powder. I find that boxed chocolate cake mixes sometimes aren't very chocolatey so I like to add a couple of tablespoons of cocoa powder. I prefer Dutch Cocoa Powder but you can use natural cocoa powder.
• Large Eggs. The eggs should be at room temperature so they can be properly incorporated into the rest of the batter.
• Vegetable Oil. Oil creates an incredibly moist and spongey cake.
• Sour Cream. Sour cream packs fat and moisture for a delicious cake.
• Buttermilk.
• Vanilla. Vanilla pairs beautifully with chocolate!
• Hot Coffee. I love adding coffee to chocolate desserts. It does not make them taste like coffee at all, it makes the chocolate stronger and deeper in flavor.
• Mini Chocolate Chips. Now you don't have to add these mini chocolate chips but I've never heard anyone complain about a little bite of chocolate in their cake!

Frost the cake with your favorite frosting. You could try my chocolate buttercream frosting, vanilla buttercream, or coffee buttercream.

For ingredient quantities please reference the recipe card below. On the recipe card there is a button for US or M (Metric) measurements.

Instructions

Preheat your oven to 350F/180C and spray two 8-inch or 9-inch round cake pans with non-stick baking spray, my preferences are Bakers Joy or Pam for Baking. Set the pans aside.

In a large mixing bowl mix together everything except the hot coffee and mini chocolate chips. Mix until fully combined, you want to make sure you mix well enough that there are no traces of egg left behind but you don't want to overmix the batter.

Then mix in the hot coffee, it will thin the batter out then fold in the chocolate chips.

Pour the cake batter evenly between the two prepared pans and bake. For 8-inch cakes I found they baked in the 25-30 minute mark as opposed to the longer times the cake box suggested.  Let the cake pans cool on a wire rack for 15 minutes before inverting the cake out directly onto a wire rack to cool completely.

Then frost with your favorite frosting.

Here I used the Italian Meringue Buttercream Recipe and filled it with my chocolate whipped cream recipe and added mini chocolate chips on top to be able to tell people that the cake is chocolate without having to tell them.

How to freeze

Cake layers are perfect for freezing. To freeze the cake layers let them cool completely on a wire rack. Once totally cooled wrap an individual cake layer in plastic wrap tightly, then wrap again, and finally wrap in aluminum foil. The three layers prevent freezer burn from happening.

When ready to use the cake layers place the wrapped cake layer on the counter at room temperature for an hour or two to thaw. Depending on how frozen your cake layer is and how warm the room temperature affects how long the cake will take to thaw out.

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★★★★★ Please let me know if you make this recipe by leaving a star rating and comment below!

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Recipe Card

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