How to Turn a Brownie Mix Into a Cake Mix: The Easy Way

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So you want to make a chocolate cake. You go to the store, grab a box of mix, and drive home, ready to bake, only to find that you purchased brownie mix instead of cake mix. What to do now?

Going back to the store would be a pain, but you still need to make that cake. Well, I am here to help! Your cake dreams aren’t ruined yet!

On a related note, check out these tips for improving a brownie box mix.

Is It Possible to Make a Cake from Brownie Mix?

The short answer is yes. You can turn a brownie mix into a cake mix with a minor ratio adjustment. All you have to do is to play with the ratio of fat, eggs, and the leavener. The eggs and leavener should increase, and the fat should slightly decrease. 

Also, if you ended up making the other mistake (getting a cake mix instead of a brownie mix), you’ll be happy to know that you can still work things out. You can easily turn a cake mix into a brownie mix. 

When you look at what is in a box of brownie mix, you will find sugar, flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, baking powder, and maybe a few other small ingredients that are standard in packaged dry goods.

Cake mix on the other hand has sugar, flour, cocoa powder, baking soda or powder, and again, a few miscellaneous preservatives. Notice anything? The ingredients are practically the same!

Yes, the quantities may vary slightly but the basic ingredients are identical. Therefore, we should easily be able to transform a brownie mix into a cake mix.

By the way, do you simply want to make cake-like brownies? Check out my previous article to learn how!

Difference Between Cake and Brownie

Brownies are much denser than cakes. If you closed your eyes and someone gave you a piece of chocolate cake and a bite of brownie, you would know which was which based on texture alone.

Brownies are dense and chewy, and they feel like a chocolate explosion in your mouth. Cake, on the other hand, is more airy and fluffy. 

So when making a cake from brownie mix, you don’t necessarily want the density that comes along with a traditional brownie.

You want the fluffier mix of cakes. So we will need to make the brownie mix lighter and fluffier somehow. In other words, you won’t even look at the instructions on the back of the box!

What to Change: The Three Pillars

Three main things will need to be altered to turn brownie mix into cake mix. The beauty of the whole thing is that it’s not difficult to do!

A few adjustments to the fat content, the egg quantity, and a quick baking powder adjustment, and that’s it!

The instructions on the side of the brownie mix box will serve as the basis of our new cake recipe, but we will take a few liberties from there. Let’s take a closer look:

The Fat

The first you’ll notice when comparing brownie mix to cake mix is the quantity of fat. Brownie mix calls for more fat into the mix, which is one reason brownies are more dense than cakes.

So, to make a brownie mix lighter, we need to cut or replace some of that fat. One way to easily do this is to use unsweetened applesauce rather than oil or butter.

Applesauce will act in the same moisturizing way as oil but without the heaviness. So bye-bye oil, hello applesauce.

The Eggs

Adding eggs will help with the texture of the mix as well. Adding one more egg to your brownie mix will instantly make it less chewy and more cakey when baked.

So get out those eggs, and if your box of brownie mix says to add one egg, go ahead and add two. The texture will already feel more cakey at this point.

By the way, if you prefer not to use eggs, you still have plenty of options!

The Leavener

There is probably already baking powder or baking soda (which aren’t the same thing) in the brownie mix, but to make it more cake-like, we will need to add more. A teaspoon of baking powder is all you will need to take the brownies up to cake height.

Adding baking powder will make the mix rise more as it bakes. It’ll also make it much fluffier than any brownie (which is what you need in this case).

Add the baking powder to the dry ingredients of the box mix and whisk it together before adding the wet ingredients. Mixing before adding wet ingredients will ensure no baking powder lumps in your batter.

Extra piece of info: Do you know how to make brownies without eggs, oil, cocoa, or sugar? Let me show you how!

Time to Bake!

Baking brownies and baking cakes follow essentially the same rules. The brownie mix box often says to bake the brownies at around 350 degrees °F for about 20 minutes. This applies to our newly created cake batter as well.

The best way to tell if your brownie cake is ready is by using the toothpick test – stick a toothpick or knife into the center of the cake and see if it comes out cleanly, with no sticky batter attached.

A clean toothpick or knife means the cake is ready to come out of the oven! Let it cool, and then flip it out of the pan.

What to Expect

Your cake is now ready, but how should it taste like for you to know that you did it right? Well, it will look and taste just like a rich chocolate cake. In other words, fluffy, airy, and chocolaty, without being too chewy like a brownie. 

While making a cake from a brownie mix will never result in a super light sponge cake or angel food cake, it will be much fluffier than a typical brownie.

No one will ever know that you used a brownie mix, I swear!

Final Thoughts

So, can you turn a brownie mix into a cake mix? The answer is a resounding yes.

It’s simple to transform a simple box of brownie mix into a sweet decadent chocolate cake.

Both box mixes contain the same ingredients, so a brownie mix quickly becomes a cake mix with just the few adjustments we mentioned.

So next time you come home with a box of brownie mix by accident and need to make a cake, don’t worry! You will be eating cake in no time!

Now that you’re in a baking hacks mood, why don’t you check out my post about hacking a boxed cake mix?

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