A cake topped with berries and a piece cut out.
Make Box Mix Cakes Extra Fluffy With A Water Swap

NEWS

By MATTHEW LEE
A chocolate cake on a stand with a piece cut out.
While they’re super convenient, a lot of times, cakes made using boxed mixes will come out of the oven with a few undesirable traits, like being too dry and crumbly, or too stiff.
Person stirring bowl of batter.
However, a simple solution involves whisking the mix together with sparkling water or seltzer instead of flat water. This is because every cake needs air bubbles to fluff up.
Chocolate cake in a baking pan.
As the cake rises in the oven and the batter expands, these bubbles grow and form micro-structures within the cake, giving it that soft, airy feel that everyone craves.
A bottle of sparkling water.
By incorporating a carbonated drink, you promote the formation of additional air bubbles. For most boxed cake mixes, using sparkling water or unflavored seltzer will do the trick.
A partially sliced vanilla loaf cake.
If you’re making something flavored, like a vanilla loaf cake, mix it with a flavored seltzer, such as vanilla cream to add a level of complexity and amp up the taste of the cake.