Soda Makes a Stunningly Good Egg Substitute for Boxed Brownies.
I didn’t know this until recently, but apparently boxed cake mixes are a popular store-bought ingredient to experiment with. Thanks to you, the kind people who read my culinary tips, I learned about another ingredient that can masquerade as an egg in a cake mix. Honestly, who needs eggs when you have soda?
Replacing eggs in baked goods can be tricky
Eggs are still prohibitively expensive, which is especially frustrating for someone like me who used to rely on them for most of our protein. However, I have made some adjustments and now try to only use them for recipes that really need them. It may take a few failed tries, but it’s getting easier and easier to figure out when a recipe calls for eggs, like a Dutch baby with custard, and when you can skip them, like a boxed cake mix.
I’ve tried a variety of egg replacement ingredients, such as applesauce and bananas, in muffin mixes with varying degrees of success, and have also experimented with eliminating the amount of eggs in boxed muffin mixes. Although the eggless boxed muffin mix turns out very well, in these tests I continued to include the amounts of water and oil according to the instructions. But as one reader told me, you can make boxed cake mix with baking soda not only as an egg replacement, but also as a water and oil replacement .
Although I needed to test this sorcery, I had already seen how it worked. While eggs typically provide binding, emulsification, and aeration to the batter, commercial boxed cake mixes are designed to be foolproof. (As if they knew we’d be cutting corners.) While on my mission to turn boxed mix into black and white cookies , I discovered that the cake mix refused to change its consistency or texture. If you add any liquid, be it oil, water, soda, juice or eggs, it will do its best to make the cake fluffy.
However, I was wondering how using baking soda would affect the flavor and texture of the cake, especially without butter or egg yolks (a softener).
Soda beats juice
I decided to try replacing the ingredients with two different liquids: cola and fruit juice. In my previous tests, I eliminated the eggs without changing their volume or weight. I simply removed them from the game and the result was a cake that was flatter than an egg cake, but tender and with the nostalgic taste of a box cake.
I did the same thing here, omitting the eggs and replacing the amount of water and oil (12 ounces total) with juice and cola separately in the two tests. I was actually impressed by how much better soda was than fruit juice. Even after beating thoroughly, enough carbon dioxide remained to lift the batter and make it look nicer than the fallen center of the pomegranate cake.
I used pomegranate juice thinking the fruity flavor would be a nice addition to the cake. Instead, it was too sweet (if you can imagine) and the fruit flavor became muddy against the yellow cake. However, the soda turned out to be very tasty. Even though I’m not a fan of soda, I liked it. This could be a good opportunity to get creative with combining soda and cake flavors.
How to Make Cake Mix in Soda Boxes
1. To make the baking soda mixture, start by preheating the oven and preparing the pans. Kneading the dough takes only one minute. You’ll want to have your pan and oven ready to go so you don’t lose more carbon dioxide than necessary.
2. Once the oven is preheated, simply pour the dry mixture into a large bowl. Look at the instructions on the package and add the required amount of oil and water. If the package says “1 cup water and 1/2 cup oil,” then you will need 12 ounces (1 1/2 cups) of baking soda. Pour baking soda into a bowl and whisk until smooth. Tiny pieces may remain unmixed.
3. Immediately pour the batter into the prepared pans. Bake as directed on package.
How does the texture hold up?
Despite the dipped centers of the pomegranate cakes, both cakes had the same texture: light and completely airy, with a light, rubbery skin underneath. This was likely due to the lack of fat (a shortening agent, as fats shorten the gluten strands) in the missing butter and egg yolk.
However, this difference in texture is completely unnoticeable unless you’re looking for it. Anyone who crushes a vanilla Fanta cake at a summer picnic won’t comment on the lack of shortening. I promise. Baking soda can and should be used as a wet ingredient for boxed cake mix. It’s a fun way to experiment with flavor combinations while saving some money on eggs and butter. Try orange soda, root beer, ginger beer, or dare to dream with Diet Coke the next time you make a batch of cupcakes.