Following boxed cake directions will give you an acceptable result, but why settle for just fine when there are simple hacks that can take it to the next level?

Crumb Cake from a Muffin Box Mix Crumb topping ingredients: 1 cup boxed muffin dry mixture. 5 tablespoons butter, melted and cooled. ½ cup brown sugar ...

“Vanilla extract [adds] that homemade touch,” says Adams. If you’re baking a white cake, you can also add a splash of almond or cardamom extract, or coconut extract for a coconut cake.

If you come to boxed cake mix for a quick, cheap way to make a cake, King Arthur Baking Company Golden Yellow Cake Mix is not the mix for you. It requires about as much work as baking from scratch.

When you need to supplement any flavor cake mix so that it is a full 18.25 ounces, remove 3 ounces of the yellow cake mix and add to the 15.25-ounce cake mix.

Single Serve 3-2-1 Cake is bound to become an instant classic. Start with two cake mixes and create a mix that in minutes produces four dozen single servings of a sweet something resembling a cupcake.