Duncan Hines® Moist Deluxe Dark Chocolate Cake Mix

By LimericksLady

Notes: Let’s say you want to make some chocolate cake -- like the popular mixes that come in a box -- but you don’t have much of a craving for propylene glycol mono- and diesters of fats, polyglycerol esters of fatty acids, cellulose gum, mono-and diglycerides or xanthan gum. Well, if you’re making cake from a box mix, that’s what you’ll be eating. Many of those additives are what give the cake you make with Duncan Hines cake mix its deluxe moistness. The good news is we can come very close to duplicating the store-bought cake mix with very simple dry ingredients and a little shortening. By combining the dry stuff, then thoroughly mixing in the shortening, you will have a mix that is shelf-stable until you add the same wet ingredients in the same amounts required by the real stuff. It’s a great way to make good, old-fashioned chocolate cake without the hard-to-pronounce additives. Plus, this mix is the same stuff required for the Oreo cookie clone here on the site. If you can’t track down the cake mix for that recipe, you now can make it from scratch.

Ingredients

• 2 cup All Purpose Flour
• 3/4 cup confectioner's sugar
• 3/4 cup cocoa powder
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 4 tablespoons butter
• To make cake
• 1 1/3 cups water
• 1/2 cup vegetable oil
• 3 large eggs

Preparation

Step 1

1. Combine flour, sugar, cocoa, baking powder, baking soda, and salt in a large bowl. Stir to combine. Add shortening, then use an electric mixer on medium speed to blend shortening into dry ingredients. Mix until no chunks of shortening are visible. This is your cake mix, which you can keep in a sealed container for several months until you are ready to make the cake.

2. To make the cake preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Grease the sides and bottom of two 9-inch baking pans or one 13x9-inch pan. Lightly flour the greased pans.

3. Blend dry cake mix (from step #1) with water, oil and eggs in a large bowl with an electric mixer at low speed until moistened. Increase speed to medium and beat for 2 more minutes.

4. Pour batter into pans and bake for 30 to 33 minutes for 9-inch pans, and 35 to 38 minutes for 13x9-inch pan. You can also make cupcakes with the mix. They take 19 to 22 minutes.