Question: What ingredients are typically in a box cake?
By: Stephanie Tucker
Published: July 23, 2010

I have a wonderful recipe that calls for boxed chocolate cake mix. I am interested in making the recipe completely from scratch but am not sure about boxed ingredients and ingredient amounts. I have been dabbling with little success. Please help!!

Answers:
Chris Paulk

A typical boxed cake mix contains most of the following:
Sugar, Bleached Wheat Flour,  Vegetable Oil Shortening  Cocoa Powder  Leavening, Modified Food Starch,  Salt, Partially Hydrogenated Soybean Oil, Cellulose Gum, Xanthan Gum, Maltodextrin, Artificial Flavors.
I like this recipe for a chocolate cake from scratch:
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 cup superfine sugar
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/3 cup best-quality cocoa
1 1/2 sticks soft unsalted butter
2 large eggs
2 teaspoons good-quality vanilla extract
2/3 cup sour cream
Special equipment: 2 (each 8-inch diameter) layer tins with removable bases, buttered
To Prepare:
Take everything out of the refrigerator so that all ingredients are room temperature.
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.
Put all the cake ingredients: flour, sugar, baking powder and soda, cocoa, butter, eggs, vanilla, and sour cream into a food processor and process until you have a smooth, thick batter. or mix the flour, sugar and Baking powder & Soda in a large bowl and beat in the soft butter until you have a combined and creamy mixture. Now whisk together the cocoa, sour cream, vanilla, and eggs and beat this into your bowl of mixture.
Divide this batter, using a rubber spatula to help you scrape and spread, into the prepared tins and bake until a cake tester comes out clean, which should be about 25-35 minutes.  Remove the cakes from the oven, and cool on a  wire rack for 10 minutes before turning out of their tins.
Amy B.

Hi Stephanie, usual ingredients of a box cake would be sifted flour, a little bit of salt, sugar, double acting baking powder and butter. There could be more, but these are roughly the main ones.. Chris enumerated it in detail. :) Hope this helped!
T

/2 cup (50 grams) Dutch-processed cocoa powder
1 cup (240 ml) boiling hot water
1 1/3 cups (175 grams) all purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup (113 grams) unsalted butter, room temperature
1 cup (200 grams) granulated white sugar
2 large eggs
2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
Preheat oven to 375 degrees
n a small bowl stir until smooth the boiling hot water and the cocoa powder. Let cool to room temperature.
In another bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, and salt.
Then in the bowl of your electric mixer, or with a hand mixer, beat the butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add the eggs, one at a time, beating until smooth. Scrape down the sides of the bowl as needed. Beat in the vanilla extract. Add the flour mixture and beat only until incorporated. Then add the cooled cocoa mixture and stir until smooth.
Pour into a greased and floured pan, I find with this cake a silicone pan works best.
Curt

One of the best cookbooks dedicated to cakes is: "The Cake Bible" by Rose Levy Beranbaum. It is full of great, tested cake recipes. You will find lots to choose from.