How To Make Your Homemade Birthday Cake Taste Like It Came From A Bakery

Whether you're attempting to turn boxed cake mix into a bakery-worthy creation or starting from scratch, it can be difficult to replicate the flavors and textures of professionally made cakes. To get the inside scoop on how professional bakers achieve such complex baked goods, Food Republic spoke with chef and cookbook author Jake Cohen, whose new cooking series "Jake Makes It Easy" premieres on Monday, October 28, 2024, as part of A+E Networks' Home.Made.Nation on FYI.

When asked how to elevate a homemade birthday cake to bakery quality, Cohen shared, "I find a hint of almond extract and lemon zest into a vanilla cake batter gives that birthday cake aroma and flavor to mimic the bakery." Adding notes of nuts and citrus to the batter is a great way to enhance the birthday cake flavor without being overpowering.

Remember that baking is essentially a type of chemistry: Whenever you're adding ingredients to a mixture, it's important to consider how they'll affect both the taste and texture. A sprinkle of lemon zest and almond extract can elevate the flavor when added sparingly, but too much can throw off the final flavor profile. When experimenting with additional ingredients, incorporate a small amount at a time. You can always add more extract or zest to boost the flavor until the batter tastes and smells like a cake straight out of a professional bakery.

When deciding whether to tackle a birthday cake recipe from scratch or reach for that box of cake mix, consider your priorities. Measuring and mixing each ingredient by hand is a great option for those who have particular dry ingredients in mind, especially when substitutions are needed for gluten or sugar sensitivities. However, making a cake from scratch won't inherently make it taste any more bakery-like, and it might end up costing you more time and effort than necessary. Contrary to popular belief, many professional bakers do use boxed cake mix to save time and energy during prep.

Boxed cake mixes offer a reprieve from meticulous measuring, but once it's time to add the wet ingredients, you might want to toss the directions on the back of the box aside. To take boxed cake mix to another level, try experimenting with ingredient additions and substitutions — such as adding one more egg than the directions suggest for extra thickness, or replacing the oil with melted butter. You can also swap out plain milk for a more flavorful alternative like buttermilk, sour cream, or yogurt to achieve a fluffier texture and greater depth of flavor. Ultimately, the baking method depends on personal preference, including how much time you're willing to spend measuring, mixing, and testing different additions to your cake batter before you deem it just right.