Doctored Cake Mix Cupcakes are based on an old recipe from Recipezaar, now Food.com. It was originally called White Almond Sour Cream Wedding Cake and was double this. That, plus it was made with slightly different proportions that went with the old 18.25 oz boxes of cake mix.
Cake Mix Sizes
Through the years, the amount of cake mix in every box has decreased, and that change has affected the outcome of the recipe. And not just this recipe, but a lot! I've had a hard time keeping up with the box size changes, and because of that I've had to alter the recipe. This latest version was tested in 2022 with a16.25 oz box of Betty Crocker white cake mix.
Like the old version, these cake mix cupcakes call for additional flour, sugar, and sour cream. What's different about this recipe is that it calls for melted butter and milk, which makes the cupcakes are a little richer. The batter is also much thicker than the old version, and makes a very soft crumb. Here's a texture shot.
Here's an improved version of the cake mix cupcakes recipe that works with the smaller size boxes of cake mix.
Small Batch Cake Mix Cupcakes
If you have a scale you can easily downsize this recipe to make small batches of scratch tasting vanilla cake mix cupcakes. Just halve or quarter the recipe and use your scale to weigh out the dry ingredients. Here are the measurements for a half batch of cupcakes. Yield will vary based on the size of your cupcakes. Because I use slightly larger cupcake wrappers, I tend to get smaller yields. For this recipe, I get about 24 cupcakes for the recipe card version or 12 if I make the half batch as written below.
230 grams white cake mix 65 grams all-purpose flour 100 grams sugar pinch of salt ½ cup or 4 oz milk (or water) 4 tablespoons melted butter ½ teaspoon vanilla ¼ teaspoon almond extract ½ cup sour cream 2 egg whites
Frosting Recipes
Cupcakes are a great way to test new frosting recipes. I didn't include one specific frosting recipe to go with the doctored cake mix cupcakes, but some popular ones are the German Buttercream Cream Cheese, this Ermine Frosting (made with cornstarch) and my personal favorite, Favorite Chocolate Frosting.
Recipe
Cake Mix Cupcakes
Ingredients
- 16.25 oz box of white cake mix (Betty Crocker or Duncan Hines) (460 grams)
- 1 cup all-purpose flour (measure with a light hand or weigh) ( 130 grams)
- 1 cup granulated sugar (200 grams)
- ¼ teaspoon salt
- 1 cup milk (12 oz/336 grams)
- 8 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted and cooled or very soft
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- ½ teaspoon almond extract
- 1 cup sour cream
- 4 large egg whites
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 325 degrees F. Line muffin tins with (at least) 24 paper liners.
- In a mixing bowl, combine all the dry ingredients and stir well. Add the remaining ingredients and stir to mix, then beat with a mixer (medium speed, paddle attachment) for about 1 ½ minutes or until smooth and creamy. Fill the cupcake about half full.
- Bake on center rack or center rack and lower rack (changing racks halfway through if using two racks) for 25 to 28 minutes or until cupcakes spring back when lightly touched and are slightly brown around the edges.
Anna says
SC,
I used Pillsbury vanilla with a few drops of blue food coloring. Shhhhhhh ;).
The cupcakes were a last minute addition. My daughter decided that the grown-up cakes weren't good enough for the kids and wanted to make her own cupcakes for the under 10 set. So I baked up a batch of cupcakes using the recipe above, gave her a couple cans of frosting, some food coloring and sprinkles and let her get creative. I had planned to make the frosting myself, but I had just made a batch of cream cheese frosting and a batch of malted milk frosting and didn't feel like starting in on a batch of buttercream.
Excuses, excuses.
sc says
Dear Anna,
What frosting recipe did you use? It looks very yummy...do you mind sharing?
sc
Anna says
I wrote a little Memorial Day poem, but it started bugging me so I erased it. It was about a cupcake who dropped in to say hello ;).
Sue says
Cute cupcakes!
Noble Pig says
Adorable!
VeggieGirl says
Cute poem, and gorgeous cupcake :0) Happy Memorial Day!