If you have found yourself baking more than ever before since the pandemic started, you’re not alone. A lot of people turned to baking as a new quarantine hobby. After all, it’s fun, it’s not too difficult (depending on what you’re making), and you can eat the results.

We’ve already shared a lot of must-make quarantine baking recipes, but sometimes, especially if you’re new to baking or short on time, you want something easy that you can whip up quickly. That’s where box mixes come in.

There are multiple ways to improve the look and taste of a box mix. For example, if you’re craving brownies, some soda (like Coke or Pepsi) will make them taste even better. If you want to make a boxed cake mix look fancy, it’s all in the presentation, but that doesn’t mean you need to know any complicated frosting techniques.

If what you really want is a gourmet cupcake, we now know how to achieve just that, and yes, it all starts with a box mix. Professional baker Karly Stoddard shared her easy hack for transforming any cake mix into gourmet-tasting cupcakes.

Stoddard admits that even though she’s a professional baker, sometimes a box mix is easier, and she claims that her hack will work on absolutely any cake mix. The trick is looking at the ingredients list and modifying what you add. She says that we should use milk instead of water, 5 eggs instead of 3 and butter instead of oil. She also recommends (and we’re pretty sure this is key) doubling the amount of butter. So, if the cake mix calls for 1/3 cup oil, add 2/3 cup melted butter.

@mrskarlystoddard##quarantine ##baking ##bakingtip ##karlycakes♬ original sound – Karly Stoddard

You’ll want to melt the butter before adding it to your cake mix, but Stoddard says that it’s important to wait a few minutes before pouring the butter into the cake mix. You don’t want the hot butter to end up cooking the eggs while you’re mixing the cake together.

Stoddard’s followers love the hack, but some had questions and wanted to see her demonstrate the hack. She did a follow-up video where she does just that. Watch Stoddard use her cupcake hack to make cupcakes in the video below.

@mrskarlystoddard🧁🧁🧁 Demonstration of the doctored cake mix hack!!!!! 🧁🧁🧁 ##baking ##bakinghack ##cake ##cupcake ##kitchenhack ##getinmybellly♬ original sound – Karly Stoddard

On Instagram, Stoddard pointed out a couple other tips to make sure your cupcakes come out perfectly. “Don’t overmix! Don’t rely solely on the timer, make sure to check your cupcakes for signs of doneness!”

According to Stoddard, this hack also works if you want to make a cake instead of cupcakes, and yes, you can use it to upgrade any cake mix. It’s also worth mentioning that this is not a hack if your New Year’s resolution is to lose weight. This is not health food, but it certainly sounds delicious!

Are you going to try Stoddard’s cupcake hack? What flavor cake mix will you use?