Yahoo Lifestyle The Italian Way to Make Boxed Cake Mix 10x Better
Gelato, panettone, tiramisu and biscotti—these are desserts that I grew up eating. Italian sweets often highlight simple, high-quality ingredients that don't require complexity but rather patience and tradition. My Italian heritage, especially through my father’s Calabria roots, combined with my mom’s background as a freelance cake decorator, led to plenty of dessert experimentation in my childhood.
While we embraced our rich Italian desserts, a favorite in our house was boxed yellow cake mix topped with canned chocolate or homemade buttercream frosting, celebrating everything from birthdays to casual weeknight cravings.
One day, long before my current baking skills came to fruition, I searched for a milk substitute. That’s when I realized I could upgrade boxed cake mix with one of my beloved Italian ingredients: ricotta cheese. Believe me, there’s nothing more Italian than infusing cheese into a dessert.
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What is Ricotta?
Ricotta, translated to “recooked” in Italian, is a soft cheese that you can shop for at nearly any grocery store. The traditional dairy item is made from whey, a liquid byproduct developed during the cheesemaking process, so it can essentially come from cows, goats, sheep or water buffalo.
Ricotta lends a delicious depth to a variety of different classic Italian recipes. I'm partial to ricotta in cake, but it also tastes incredible in ravioli, lasagna and fresh paninis.
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Why Add Ricotta to Boxed Cake Mix
Like sour cream or Greek yogurt, ricotta cheese will add a significant amount of moisture to baked goods. Due to the fact that it’s considered a mild cheese, it won’t overpower the flavor profile of your treats. However, it is slightly sweet with a touch of tanginess. What's more, you won't believe how simply adding ricotta to boxed cake mix will improve the soft texture of the final cake.
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How to Add Ricotta to Boxed Cake Mix
To make ricotta boxed cake, all you really need to do is add 1/3 cup of whole milk ricotta cheese when you add in the rest of the wet ingredients (eggs, oil and water) called for on the cake mix directions. To amp up the richness without adding another liquid dairy like milk, I will also add in 1 1/2 tablespoons of melted butter. Whisk until all the wet ingredients are completely mixed. Then, dump in your dry cake mix, stir to combine and bake the cake according to the instructions on the box.
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What I Thought of Boxed Cake Mix With Ricotta
Overall, I think ricotta makes for a wonderful ingredient in addition to boxed cake mix. I chose to bake a two layer-cake in an 8x8-inch round pan, and felt that it made the cake so much fluffier, bouncier, and moist. With ricotta consisting of a mild flavor profile, the taste changes it made to the cake are nearly impossible to notice. I topped each layer with chocolate icing, but you can frost with any kind or flavor that you prefer. Cream cheese frosting would be wonderful.
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My Biggest Tip for Boxed Cake Mix With Ricotta
Because ricotta is a dairy product, any leftover cake should be placed in the fridge. I wasn’t a huge fan of the cake the day after baking, because it became slightly more dense in the fridge, presumably from the cheese. Therefore, I believe that this is an eat-the-day-of kind of ingredient addition. Generally though, I'd say it's certainly Italian-American and food journalist approved!
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