How to Convert a Muffin Mix to a Cake Mix (Simple)

Out of cake mix but have a box of muffin mix stored in the pantry? Then you are in luck! With just a few simple adjustments, you can easily use your muffin mix to bake a delicious cake!

How to convert a muffin mix to a cake mix? The best way to convert a muffin mix to a cake mix is to check the ingredients. The muffin mix must contain flour, baking powder, salt, and sugar. All you need to do is incude additional ingredients like extra sugar, eggs, milk, and vegetable oil to make a cake mix.

Read below to learn more about how to easily convert a muffin mix to a cake mix using simple ingredients!

What’s In Muffin Mix?

Muffins are fluffy and delicious baked products, much like cakes, but they differ in texture and overall flavor. Muffins can be thought of as quick bread that is created in small portions and with simple ingredients while cakes are sweeter, softer, and typically require a greater proportion of ingredients to bake. 

Before the advent of baking mixes, people used to bake muffins and cakes the old-fashioned way which usually required a lot of skill and practice to get right. See, all baking products follow a strict ingredient list with exact measurements. 

If you get the measurements off by even a few grams then you can ruin the overall texture of your baked product. But after the invention of bake mixes, everything changed. 

Suddenly, even people who had no prior experience in baking could bake lavish and delicious cakes by following a few instructions and by using precisely measured mixes. 

Betty Crocker, for example, is a huge brand that creates and sells baking mixes for a wide variety of baking products. The brand is also responsible for bringing about a “baking revolution” among everyday folks. 

Their products have enabled regular people to make extremely soft and delicious cakes with just one pack of ingredients. But how? What is in these mixes? 

Most baking products contain a fixed set of ingredients like flour, salt, sugar, and baking powder. These are the building blocks of almost every baked product and are essential to making both, cakes and muffins. 

Muffins, as we have already explained, are bread product that is made using a combination of salt, sugar, flour, and baking powder that is mixed with milk and vegetable oil. You might notice that these are the same ingredients used to make cakes too – but there is a difference!

The ingredients may be the same but the overall proportions of each ingredient are widely different. 

Muffins use more flour and liquid while less sugar and fat. Cakes, on the other hand, require a greater proportion of ingredients like milk, eggs, and vegetable oil to give them a supple texture. 

Converting a Muffin Mix to a Cake Mix

If you are out of cake mix at home but have muffin mix handy, then you already have half the ingredients required to bake a cake!

As we have explained above, cakes use a greater proportion of wet ingredients than muffins, which means that you can easily use muffin mix as a base and then add the additional ingredients as required. 

Start by checking out the ingredients in the muffin mix! The muffin mix should ideally only contain a combination of flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt. If you find other ingredients like dried milk, dried egg, or fats then you will have to adjust your cake recipe accordingly. 

Remember that most cake mixes contain dried eggs and dried milk so you only have to mix in 1 cup of water and vegetable oil to activate the ingredients.

To make things easier, we will go with a cup measurement to bake the cake using a muffin mix. Using a cup measurement is a great way to determine how much eggs, milk, and vegetable oil you will need to make a cake using a muffin mix. 

Here is how to bake a cake using muffin mix:

Step 1) Scoop out 2 cups of muffin mix in a bowl.

Step 2) Add in 3 eggs and ½ cup of vegetable oil.

Step 3) Mix all the ingredients until a smooth batter forms. Let the mix sit for a bit. 

Step 4) Heat oven to 350°F

Step 5) Once the oven is preheated, give the cake mix a final whisk and then pour it into an appropriately sized cake pan. 

Step 6) Bake according to the following chart for the best experience:

Pan Size	13″ x 9″	Two 8″ Rounds	Two 9″ Rounds	Bundt®
Bake Time  (in minutes)	28-33	28-33	24-29	38-43

Step 7) Once the cake is ready, let it sit out at room temperature for at least 10-15 minutes or until cool. Only apply the frosting when the cake is cool or you might ruin its texture!

If you are using an off-brand muffin mix or loose ingredients to bake a cake then you can use the following cake recipe as a guide for what you will need to bake a cake from scratch:  

• 1 cup white sugar
• ½ cup unsalted butter
• 2 large eggs
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 1 ½ cups all-purpose flour
• 1 ¾ teaspoons baking powder
• ½ cup milk

Instructions:

Step 1) Preheat the oven to 350F. 

Step 2) Grease a 9-inch pan and lightly dust it with flour so that the cake doesn’t stick to it. 

Step 3) In a mixing bowl, mix sugar and butter until the sugar is fully incorporated. Add eggs one at a time and then gently mix the ingredients. Add vanilla and whisk thoroughly. 

Step 4) Combine the dry ingredients in a separate bowl through a sieve to avoid developing lumps. Then simply add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients. 

Step 5) Mix until you have a smooth batter. 

Step 6) Pour and spread the batter into the greased pan. Make sure that you spread it evenly. You can also pick up and lightly drop the pan a couple of times to remove air bubbles and spread the batter evenly. 

Step 7) Bake the batter for 30-40 minutes or until the surface of the cake develops a springy texture. 

Step 8) Let the cake cool for about 10 minutes then enjoy! 

Tips and Tricks

Here are a few helpful tips and tricks that you can use to get the most out of using muffin mix for cakes:

• Try to use the plain version of the muffin mix or cake mix when baking. If you use butter pecan or cinnamon-flavored muffin mix, then your cake will end up tasting the same too! 

• Always check the expiration and quality of the leftover muffin mix before mixing the wet ingredients. Some muffin mixes don’t store well, especially when they contain dried eggs or milk. If the mix develops clumps or web-like growths then this would indicate that the powder has gone bad.

• Start with half a cup of sugar when making a cake using a muffin mix. Since muffins aren’t that sweet you should add in ½ cup sugar at a time. You can even bake a cupcake using some of the batter to see how the cake will come out. 

• Use the toothpick method to determine the doneness of the cake. After the cake has been baked, poke it with a toothpick and then pull it out. Check the toothpick for the wet batter. If you notice wet batter then the cake will need more time to bake. If the toothpick is dry then the cake is ready.

• If you don’t have enough muffin mix, then you can also use some of the dry ingredients using the cake recipe that we have mentioned above. For example, if you only have ½ cup of muffin mix then you can divide the cake recipe above by half and use the remaining ingredients to make a cup of cake batter. 

Related Questions

It is easy to bake a cake using muffin mix. All you need is a few extra ingredients and a leftover muffin mix! Now that you know all about converting muffin mix to cake mix, here are some related questions: 

Can You Mix Muffin Mix and Cake Mix?

Yes, since both mixes contain more or less the same ingredients, you can mix both of them to create a full cup of dry powder. You can then adjust the wet ingredients according to what you want to bake. 

Keep in mind that a cake requires more wet ingredients and sugar than muffins. Always double-check the dry ingredients at the back of the packet to see what you need.

Some cake mixes may include dry eggs and milk powder which you will need to adjust in your recipe. 

Can You Use Cake Mix to Make Muffins?

Yes, although the muffins will end up tasting sweeter, you can easily use cake mix to make any type of muffin.

For the best experience, visit the website of the brand of cake mix that you have and search for their muffin mix. Use the instructions mentioned there to make muffins!