Hello there,
I just wondering if the cake mix will taste better if I use butter instead of vegetable oil for all cake flavors. But I've seen a lot of doctored cake mix use only vegetable oil. Does pudding really important to be added? I feel like the cake's moist enough already. I usually bake from scratch so I am pretty new with the box. I just want to try since baking from the box soo much easier.

I use oil in my mixes, but I also add milk or even light cream instead of water, and I always put in pudding. the extra fat helps with texture and moistness. While a box cake with oil, water and no pudding can indeed be a tasty thing, a few little touches help make it more individualized. People rave about my cakes, and I NEVER bake from scratch. As to the butter, I have tried it in my mixes and personally I've never had anything but trouble. HTH. Good luck and feel free to ask any questions.

i bake from box mix all the time, to me they both come out the same, i prefer to use oil because it's less expensive. i also doctor my cakes and add pudding plus the extra egg. i love the vanilla taste it gives it and the extra egg makes it more dense, which is good for larger or carved cakes.

so many of you say you add pudding to a cake mix...how much pudding are you talking about for a typical 3 layer box mix?

oops, meant to say 2 layer not 3!

Today I just bake a lemon cake. I used lemon cake mix, milk instead of water, added 1 extra egg, lemon zest and lemon juice and I used vegetable oil. Maybe it's just me, I still feel that it needed something in it. So I think about butter. I also think it might be better use regular yellow cake mix with lemon pudding.

I use the Cake Doctor cookbook. Her recipes are varied. My favorite white cake recipe has 1 stick melted butter. My favorite chocolate cake is oil and sour cream instead of milk. I think it really depends on the cake flavor and your preference.

I think the butter is wonderful in the white cake, but maybe chocolate already has so much flavor that it doesn't need that extra touch?

I ususally add 1 box of pudding to 1 box of cake mix. There's one brand that says on the box that it has pudding in the mix. I don't add extra pudding to that.

If I want to make more than 1 recipe, can I just double/triple everything? I think there's only 4 cups of batter for 1 cake mix.

Thank you soooo much for all your help. Next time I will add the pudding in my cake mix. I also consider to buy the Cake Mix Doctor Recipe Book, it sounds great.

I always use both. 1/4 canola oil 1/4 cup of butter, substitute milk for the water and use Watkins vanilla. YUM.