Oh boy oh boy, we’re doing Taste Test Tuesday over on the blog today!
If you’re unaware, Taste Test Tuesday is a series I post semi-regularly over on Instagram Stories.
As the name implies, I taste (vegan) things on Tuesdays and rate them 1-10. The tastable items include store-bought vegan snacks, treats, and meals, and you can find a lot of the past Taste Test Tuesday videos as highlights on my Instagram profile (@fooduzzi).
This Taste Test Tuesday is a little different. Instead, I found a cake mix at Trader Joe’s that was vegan*, but the other ingredients required to turn the mix into a cake weren’t vegan.
So it got me thinking: could I turn this $4.99 cake mix into a very easy and delicious totally vegan treat? And if so, should I document how to do it on the blog?
So I tested it! I captured all of my tweaks, trials, and tribulations in some videos and photos and ended up with some pretty tasty (and seriously cute) vegan cupcakes.
It was pretty simple swapping the non-vegan called-for ingredients with some vegan counterparts.
Let’s take a look at our cake instructions to start:
You’ll see that eggs and milk are our two called-for, non-vegan ingredients. Luckily, those ingredients are very easy to replace with vegan options in 2024.
- For the eggs, I used Bob’s Red Mill’s Vegan Egg Replacer (not sponsored, but I’ve worked with them in the past and very much love them).
- For the milk, I used unsweetened vanilla almond milk.
The batter came together incredibly easily (as you’re expect from a box mix!) after allowing the egg replacer to “set” for a few minutes with a bit of water. I simply used the equivalent of two eggs of the egg replacer (2 tablespoons plus 4 tablespoons of water), and I think it was the perfect binder.
Even though I definitely overfilled my cupcake tin (and overbaked everything slightly because of that lol), the crumb was super tender, light, and delicate and the flavor was incredibly nostalgic and fun. Just very vanilla-forward, and that’s about it. But I wasn’t mad at it because it tasted so much like the yellow birthday cakes I used to have at parties as a kid.
I ended up baking these cupcakes the for 23 minutes (due to overfilling). If you fill your cupcake tin to 2/3 of the way full (as instructed on the box), you should be fine to bake for 20-22 minutes.
I would also highly recommend you use cupcake liners––I ran out after lining most of the cupcake tin, and even though I greased the tin where I put the rest of the batter, those cupcakes stuck pretty terribly. Trust me: cupcake liners are the way to go here.
The frosting required me to mix the packet ingredients (the sugar mixture and the sprinkles) with butter as well, and I used vegan butter instead (the Trader Joe’s stick version). I also needed a tablespoon or two of milk to get the frosting to the spreadable consistency I was looking for, as it was pretty stiff without.
In short, this frosting ruled. It tasted like a sugar cookie in the very best way. It was sweet though, so I ended up adding a big pinch of salt to try and balance the flavors.
I also wouldn’t mix all of the sprinkles into the frosting at once––it would have been fun to reserve some for topping the cupcakes with before serving for *aesthetic.* That said, the lack of sprinkles on top didn’t stop me or my taste testers.
So can you turn Trader Joe’s Celebration Cake & Baking Mix into vegan cupcakes? You sure can.
Yes, the cake may be a bit more delicate than one made with real eggs, but man. I really loved these cupcakes.
In fact, I give this baking mix a 9/10 for ease, taste, and overall flexibility. You get instructions to make regular cakes, cupcakes, and even cake pops on the box, so you can really use this mix for pretty much anything.
I loved the sweet, “confetti” cake flavor, and the fact that I had completely edible cupcakes in a little under 45 minutes and a relatively clean kitchen makes this mix a win in my book!
What say you? Have you ever tried to turn a boxed cake mix into a vegan treat? What swaps did you use? How’d it turn out? I’d love to hear about your successes (and lack thereof 😉).
*I’m unsure if the sugar in the mix is indeed vegan. Keep that in mind if vegan sugar is of importance to you.
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