Joanne's Kitchen: Small Batch Cupcakes from a Cake Mix

I love to bake, I find it to be not only enjoyable and a wonderful creative outlet it is also a good stress reliever for me. I find that if I am having a stressful week if I can take a short time to bake something I feel so much better.

For many years I only baked from scratch and I still do sometimes but I do love to make quick batches of cupcakes from boxed cake mix. I know the box makes around 24 cupcakes and that is very far from being a small batch. However, because of the way cake mix is made it is really easy to divide it up to make smaller batches. Think about it, they don't make that stuff box by box they make huge amounts and divide it up to the amount for the box. I am going to show you how I divide it up a bit more to make just a few cupcakes.

The first step is to look at the directions on the back of the box. Check to see how many eggs the entire box needs. That is how many potions we are going to divide into. That's because it is a lot easier to divide the liquids than the egg. (a white and a yolk are different in size and act differently in the batter)

I have found that most of the cake mix in my grocery store asks for 3 whole eggs for most flavors. White cake mix usually gives that option as well an all egg white option that calls for 4 whites. (Angel food cake mix doesn't rely on any added eggs and I haven't tried it yet, that will be a blog post later on) As a note I do prefer my white cake to made from just egg whites so I make 4 portions of white mix and 3 of most others.

I happened to be just about out of cake mix a while back when I came upon a sale, I picked up my 3 standard flavors for $.78 each. I try to keep white, yellow and Devil's Food on hand all the time. Those are my most used flavors and the ones I turn to repeatedly. I do pick up other flavors as I want to or as I see something I want to try.

This time since I was pretty much out of mix in my cupboard I divided all three the same day. Sometimes I wait until I am going to use the box the first time and sometimes I do like I did this time and get all the mess done with at one time. I just do a quick wipe of the measuring tools between flavors and then I can clean up everything at one time.

I only took pictures of the Devil's Food being divided thinking I was going to use it to make a sample batch of cupcakes for this blog post. Then when it came time to make cupcakes I decided to make white ones instead since I had an egg white to use up. More about those cupcakes later on.

Anyway, check to make sure how many eggs the mix calls for and get out that many zipper style sandwich bags. I like to use small drinking glasses to hold my bags upright and open (see the photo)

Also gather some measuring tools- a ¼ cup dry measuring cup, 1 Tablespoon measuring spoon, and 1 teaspoon measuring spoon.

Remove the bag of cake mix from the box and before you cut the bag open kind roll it around to make sure it is well mixed (just in case the ingredients settles during shipment/storage)

Now cut the bag open carefully and measure out the dry mix into all the bags. I use the measuring cup first and put one scoop into each bag. Making sure you put the same number of scoops in each bag. When you get to the point you don't think you have enough to add ¼ cup to each bag switch to the Tablespoon measure and use it the same way followed by the teaspoon measure. You will probably need to eyeball the very end of the mix.

Now just seal the bags up and put them back in the original box for storage. I find they keep just fine for a few months.

Other than the amounts of ingredients to add to the mix there are a couple of changes that you will need to remember.

First when mixing up your batter combine all the liquids together really well before you add the cake mix. (I do this even when I am using an entire box of cake mix though)

Then after you add the cake mix to the liquids only beat the mixture for about 1 minute 15 seconds to 1 minute 30 seconds. I find that most boxes of cake mix tell you to beat the batter for 2 minutes and for the small quantity I find that over mixes the batter and I have problems with the cupcakes falling.

The other change I recommend is to add a bit of vanilla extract to the liquids (another think I do most of the time when I make up a box of cake mix) I find the vanilla kind of hides the “cake mix” flavor and makes the finished cupcakes taste a bit more like scratch made.

I created a PDF for you to print out, cut apart and tape to your box(es) of cake mix so you can write down the amounts of everything you need and the above changes. You can find it here.

Now for those amounts of liquids you will need to use, here is a handy list of the ones that seem to be the most common.

If you are making 3 portions and your mix calls for:

1 ¼ cup use- 1/3 cup + 1 Tablespoon + 1 teaspoon

1 cup use- 1/3 cup

½ cup use- 2 Tablespoons + 2 teaspoons

If you are making 4 portions and your mix calls for:

1 ¼ cups use- ¼ cup + 2 Tablespoons

1 cup use- ¼ cup

½ cup use- 2 Tablespoons

Here are some photos of my cupcakes and the process of making them. As you can see it is pretty much like making the entire box just using the smaller amounts.

When I started making my cupcakes I had every intention of making them with water like the box calls for. Then I remembered I had a carton of milk with just a tiny bit left so I used the milk in my cupcakes. I especially like white cupcakes made with milk because of the texture the milk gives them. If you haven't tried it I do recommend you give it a try.