Hello,

So my I'm doing a cake for my niece and she was born on Valentine's day but her party is this weekend... so I wanted to do the wilton alternating pan with white cake and red velvet cake.

Anyway, I have a box of white cake mix so I'd like to make it vanilla, how should I go about this without tinting the color too much?

I thought about adding a box of vanilla pudding but that might change the color?

So should I add some clear vanilla extract? If so how much?

I also have 1 vanilla bean at home that I could add, haven't baked with actual vanilla beans too much, I love the look but I'm nerver sure how much to add... what do you think?

THANKS SO MUCH ... I would appreciate ANY info or advice!

S

white cake *is* vanilla. To make it more vanilla throw a teaspoon or two of vanilla into the batter. You can't mess it up.

As leah stated, White cake is vanilla cake. White is a color, vanilla is a flavor. Since vanilla cake is the color white somewhere along the lines people just started calling it by the color instead of flavor. I add vanilla pudding or cheesecake pudding to my white cake batter all the time and it is a little off white, but you won't notice it much, expecially next to a bold color like red, it won't look too off.

I can understand the confusion on this. Better Crocker sells both white and vanilla cake mixes.

As was said above though, if you want more of a vanilla flavor in the white cake mix, then just add in some vanilla.

Thanks so much ladies.

Yes I was confused because they sell both White cake which bakes so white and French Vanilla cake which bakes a bit yellow/beige but is sooo yummy.

Any thoughts on the vanilla bean? I want to use it up bc it's just sitting there... So should I just go ahead and add the 1 vanilla bean?

French vanilla is a different flavor than regular vanilla. Better Crockers golden vanilla has a bit of a color to it.

I have heard that if you add 4 egg whites, instead of 3 whole eggs, it will keep the cake more "white" in color. I would also add clear vanilla instead of the brown stuff.

If you look at the back of BC's white and vanilla cake mixes, you'll see that the white mix calls for egg whites and the vanilla calls for whole eggs. So, add a teaspoon or two of vanilla and use whole eggs instead of just the white. It will have a slight color, but not a lot.

You could try substituting the liquid for Vanilla creamer. That won't change the color.

Just add the real vanilla, not the clear, especially if you're vanilla is real. The clear is artificial vanilla and I never think it has a real vanilla taste. If you want to use vanilla bean paste, then you use it exactly like vanilla extract in the same measurements.

thanks ladies, I added a vanilla bean, and just used the whole eggs, meant to try it just with the whites but my lil guy was getting me distracted and I ended up using the whole eggs.

It baked with a slight color but I'm happy with it!

S.