If Eggs Are Too Expensive, There's A Cheaper Ingredient To Replace Them In Boxed Cake Mix

High egg prices have many people scrambling — no pun intended — to find replacements they can use when eggs aren't the star of the dish. There are a range of egg substitutes that are best for every occasion. But there's one cheaper stand-in for when you're whipping up a cake with a boxed mix that you might not have thought of: a can of soda.

Using a soft drink instead of following the cake mix directions to add eggs, oil, and water isn't actually a new two-ingredient hack, but was a popular trick decades ago. The soda's bubbles provide lift to help the cake rise up and provide structure, and all the liquid makes for a super moist and tender crumb. Soda also adds its own additional flavor. Just stir cake mix in a bowl with a standard 12-ounce can of soda and transfer the batter into a greased pan or cupcake tin and bake as usual. Try to maintain as many bubbles as possible by pouring the soda into the mix slowly and stirring by hand instead of using an electric mixer. Avoid using flat soda completely. 

The important properties eggs provide in baking include structure, moisture, tenderness, and leavening, even if they aren't beaten into an airy egg foam. Carbonated soda replicates these features and produces a delicious cake, but there are a few differences. The cake can be a little denser, and since eggs are a binder, it can also be more crumbly and break apart more easily. 

Making cake with soda gives you a fun range of flavor combinations to play with and create. Choose the cake mix flavor you want — use our ranking of boxed cake mixes to help — and the sodas you think would make a delicious combo. Or start with a favorite dessert in mind and think about which cake mix flavor and soda you could use to match it. Remember to consider which frosting will best complement your cake mix-soda mashup as well. 

You could try recreating a classic Southern Coca-Cola cake with chocolate cake mix and cola, or go with something that matches, like lemon cake mix with lemon-lime soda such as 7UP or Sprite. Vanilla cake mix and orange soda will give you a creamsicle cake, while a devil's food cake mixes with Cherry Coke for a black forest cake flavor. Some of the many other possible matchups include spice cake mixed with root beer, red velvet cake mixed with Dr. Pepper, and carrot cake mixed with ginger ale.

Soda not only adds flavor, but extra sugar, so the cake can be sweeter than usual. Try cutting the soda with an unsweetened carbonated beverage. For instance, use a blend of 8 ounces of soda and 4 ounces of seltzer. Or use a 12-ounce can of non-flavored seltzer, club soda, or sparkling water instead of soda so you get the carbonization without the sugar. They're also a good choice if you don't want to change the cake mix flavor. Choose diet soda if you like the sweetness, but don't want excess sugar.