Cake Mix Muffins – Quick & Easy Recipe

This cake mix muffins recipe is super easy to make. Moreover, the use of a box of cake mix cuts down on ingredient measurement errors, speeds up your muffin prep and creates more consistent muffin results. To make my cake mix muffins even better, I also like to add blueberries, cranberries, chopped walnuts, chocolate chips, etc.

Version 1 – Cranberry Cake Mix Muffins

Recipe Sections

1. Ingredients
2. Instructions
3. Helpful Tips

My cake mix muffins recipe uses just 5 simple ingredients – Greek yogurt, vegetable oil, eggs, a box of cake mix and your family’s favorite muffin ingredient (e.g. blueberries, cranberries or chopped walnuts). Since this cake mix muffins recipe uses so few ingredients, it takes me only 5 to 10 minutes to prepare. You will love how quick & easy this recipe is to make.

Version 2 – Blueberry Cake Mix Muffins

Ingredients for Cake Mix Muffins

• 1 Cup – Greek Yogurt – You can also use sour cream.
• 1/3 Cup – Vegetable Oil – Use a neutral flavored oil such as corn oil or mild olive oil.
• 2 Large Eggs
• 1 Box – Yellow Cake Mix (15.25 ounces) – You can also use chocolate cake mix, vanilla cake mix, etc.
• 2 Cups – Fresh Blueberries or Cranberries – I like to add 1 3/4 cups to the batter & save 1/4 cup of berries to add to the top of the batter in the muffin cups. If desired, you can replace the berries with chopped walnuts, mini chocolate chips, etc. See the tips section below for more information (as you would use less chopped nuts or mini chocolate chips versus berries).

Servings – Roughly 12-18 standard-sized muffins (non jumbo). Amount depends on whether extra ingredients were added, how much batter was added to each muffin cup/well, the size of muffin cups/wells, etc.

Equipment Needed – Measuring cup & spoons, mixing bowl, long wooden spoon, muffin trays, paper muffin liners (baking cups), oven mitts, cooling racks and an oven.

Blueberries Being Added To Yellow Cake Mix Muffins Batter

Yellow Cake Mix Muffins Batter with Cranberries & Turbinado Sugar

Instructions

• Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
• Lightly beat eggs.
• Stir the yogurt, oil, eggs and cake mix together in large mixing bowl. Stir with a large wooden spoon until completely mixed. FYI – I don’t like to use an electric mixer for this recipe because it can overmix the batter.
• Add the blueberries or cranberries to the batter. Gently stir in the blueberries or cranberries until they are fully mixed into batter. FYI – Stir gently as you do not want to break the berries. Broken/leaking berries can add unplanned for moisture to the batter and the muffins might come out underbaked. Also read the tips section below about adding all the berries at once to the batter or saving some to add later to the top of the batter in the muffin cups.
• Place paper muffin baking cups (liners) inside the muffin trays. Or grease the muffin trays if you are not using muffin baking cups or non-stick muffin trays.
• Add the batter to the muffin baking cups until each one is about 60 to 70% full with batter. FYI – If you want to create muffin “mushroom” tops, the muffin cups should be 75 to 90% full of batter. However, this obviously will result in fewer muffins (as you are using more batter).
• Place the muffin trays into the oven.
• Bake the muffins for 21 to 24 minutes at 350 F. FYI – In my oven, my muffins are fully baked around 21-22 minutes when tested with a digital thermometer.
• Remove the muffin trays from the oven. Use oven mitts when removing the muffin trays.
• Allow the muffins to cool for 5 minutes inside the muffin tray. FYI – This lets the muffins firm up (so they are easier to move without breaking or crumbling).
• Remove the muffins from the tray and place them on a wire cooling rack in order to completely cool down. FYI – It can take 45 to 60 minutes for the muffins to completely cool.
• Please read the tips section below to avoid common muffin mistakes & to learn about different variations that you can make with these cake mix muffins.

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Helpful Tips

• The tips below are designed to help muffin “novices” and/or people with limited baking experience.
• Click on this “print recipe” link if you want to print out this recipe. It includes all of the recipe’s ingredients and instructions. However, the recipe print function does not include my tips section. Please read the tips section in order to avoid common recipe problems.
• This cake mix muffins recipe is part of Bread Dad’s series on Easy Muffin Recipes such as banana muffins.

• Cake mix is a prepackaged mix that already contains premeasured amounts of sugar, flour, salt, baking soda, etc. This saves steps as you don’t have to run around looking for missing ingredients and/or reduces measuring errors since everything is premeasured at the factory.
• Cake mixes are also pretty inexpensive (especially if you don’t want to buy a giant bag of flour or sugar).
• I usually use a 15.25 ounce box of yellow cake mix from Duncan Hines or Betty Crocker in order to make yellow cake mix muffins. However, there are many other types of cake mixes that you can try (e.g. white cake mix, chocolate cake mix, pink velvet cake mix, etc.). FYI – The 15.25 ounce box that I use holds roughly 3 cups of cake mix.
• Of course, if your family doesn’t like the taste of cake mix (e.g. yellow cake mix), they probably won’t like this recipe. Therefore, choose a cake mix that your family actually likes and experiment!
• Visitors – What type of cake mix did you use to make your cake mix muffins? Yellow cake mix? Chocolate cake mix? Vanilla cake mix? Other? Please post your cake mix favorites & tips in the comment section below.

• The younger members of my family liked the blueberry cake mix muffins. Why? Because the blueberry cake mix muffins tasted a little sweeter than the cranberry cake mix muffins. Also blueberries have a milder flavor than the cranberries.
• The older members (including me!) liked the cranberry cake mix muffins better. Why? The tartness of the cranberries seemed to mellow out and balance off the sweetness of the cake mix.
• You have two options for mixing in the berries. You can stir all of the 2 cups of berries into the batter at once (easiest option) OR you can mix 1 3/4 cups of berries into the batter and save the remaining 1/4 cup to place on top of the batter after the batter has been added to the muffin cups. FYI – I prefer the second option because it helps to make the muffin tops look “berrier” and it allows me to fix any muffins that look like they don’t have enough fruit.
• Optional – You can replace the berries with 1 1/2 cups of chopped walnuts (or chopped pecans). Why not 2 cups? Because the berries have lots of air “pockets” between them in the cup. In contrast, the chopped walnuts are packed tighter together (thus you don’t need as many cups).
• If you plan to add any chopped walnuts to the top of the muffins, break the chopped walnuts into tiny bits. If the chopped walnuts are too big & heavy, the muffin top will sink in the middle due to the weight of the nuts.
• Optional – Or you can use 1 1/4 cups of mini chocolate chips. You need less mini chocolate chips (by volume) because they are packed together even tighter than the chopped walnuts.
• Visitors – What extra ingredients do you like to add to your cake mix muffins? Blueberries? Cranberries? Chopped Walnuts? Other? Please post your cake mix muffin variations & tips in the comment section below.

• Optional – You can add some coarse sugar (e.g. turbinado sugar) to the top of the batter BEFORE you put the muffin trays in the oven. The coarse sugar topping adds a different look, a little extra sweetness and a crunchy texture to these easy cake mix muffins.
• However, some of my younger family members didn’t like the coarse sugar (as they thought it tasted sweet but “sandy”).
• Optional – Or if you don’t have turbinado sugar (or don’t like to use coarse sugars), you can simply sprinkle some confectioner’s sugar (powdered sugar) on top of these easy cake mix muffins (AFTER the cake mix muffins have cooled).
• If you like easy baked goods made with cake mix, you should also try Bread Dad’s recipes for Cake Mix Banana Bread and Cake Mix Cupcakes. They make quick & easy snacks.

• You should use a neutral flavored vegetable oil (e.g. corn or canola oil) in order to make these yellow cake mix muffins. A strong flavored oil (e.g. peanut oil or extra virgin olive oil) may negatively impact the muffin taste.
• If you want to use olive oil, I would recommend using “light”, “extra light” or “mild” olive oil as they would have the least impact on these muffins. Unfortunately, extra virgin and virgin olive oil have stronger flavors and are more likely to negatively impact the taste of your muffins.
• Some of my visitors like to use avocado oil in order to make their muffins. Avocado oil has a neutral flavor and is high in monounsaturated fats. However, as you are probably aware, avocado oil is usually significantly more expensive than corn oil.
• Optional – If you want to make more buttery tasting muffins, you can replace the vegetable oil with 6 tablespoons of softened butter. However, muffin recipes that use butter taste a little drier than muffin recipes made with vegetable oils. Why? Because vegetable oils are a liquid at normal room temperatures (and this helps to create moister tasting muffins).

• Fill the muffin well/cup about 60% to 70% full with batter (roughly two thirds) in order to get to get muffins without a mushroom top. If you want a “mushroom” top on your muffins (where the muffin top has expanded beyond the edge of the cup/well), you should fill the muffin cup/well about 75% to 90% full with batter.
• However, be aware if you try to make mushroom tops, they are harder to get out of the muffin cups/wells without breaking the edges of the muffin tops.
• There are a variety of ways to pour the batter into the muffin trays. For example, you can use an ice cream scoop with a trigger release, scoop with a spoon (while using another spoon to scrape off the batter into the muffin tray), use a small cup and spoon, use a homemade “pastry bag” to squeeze the batter into the muffin cups/wells, etc.
• Use paper baking cups (muffin liners) if you want to easily extract the soft & moist muffins from the muffin trays. This also helps to prevent the cake mix muffins from sticking to the bottom of the muffin tray.
• If you want to test these easy cake mix muffins to see if they are fully baked, you can use a digital “baking” thermometer. Muffins are usually fully baked if their internal temperature is around 205 F to 210 F. If the temperature is below this then they will be underbaked and if it is above this range, they might be overbaked and dry. For the most accurate results – Place the tip of the digital thermometer in the center of the muffin.

• You should use relatively FRESH cake mix. Do NOT use an old cake mix that has been sitting in your pantry for months. The flour in old cake mix can go rancid, the baking soda/powder in old cake mix can lose its potency over time, the cake mix can smell/taste strange & stale, etc.
• Benefits of cake mix – The premeasured ingredients in a box of cake mix cuts down on prep time, reduces ingredients measuring errors and helps to create more consistent baking results.
• You probably already know this but baking speed is a key advantage for muffins over banana breads and other similar “quick breads” (e.g. pumpkin bread). Smaller muffins bake faster than larger “quick breads”.
• Downside to cake mix – You can’t adjust the ingredients in the mix very well. You are basically stuck with the premeasured ingredient amounts in the cake mix. This means that you can’t easily tweak the recipe (e.g. cut the sugar in the muffins).

• I prefer to use a large wooden spoon to mix this recipe. An electric mixer can overmix the ingredients and the muffins can turn out rubbery & gummy. Technically – An electric mixer can overmix the gluten in the flour. If you do use an electric mixer, you should only use it on a low speed and for a very short time.
• Make sure that your oven has been completely preheated. If the oven has not been properly preheated, this quick bread could come out undercooked. Use an oven thermometer (e.g. one that hangs inside your oven) to check the interior oven temperature before baking. Depending on the size of your oven & temperature used, it can take 15-20 minutes before your oven is fully preheated.
• Portable oven thermometers are also great for telling if your oven temperature matches what you set on the oven temperature dial. Some ovens (esp. older ovens) can be off by 25+ degrees.

• If you have a problem with a recipe, please make sure that you are following the recipe exactly (e.g. using the correct oven temperature), using the correct amounts of ingredients (e.g. don’t eyeball the measurements versus using a measuring cup or accidentally add a tablespoon when a teaspoon is called for), using the correct ingredients, etc. Please don’t “wing” things with recipes.
• My recipes are based on US ingredient measurements (e.g. US cups & tablespoons). However, as a courtesy to our European visitors, I have also included some very ROUGH European equivalents (e.g. grams & milliliters). Since I rarely use European measurements when baking, please let me know in the comment section below if any of the European ingredient measurements need to be changed (e.g. for XYZ ingredient, milliliters are more commonly used versus the grams information listed in the recipe).
• Always wear oven mitts/gloves when dealing with a hot oven, hot trays, etc.
• For more easy recipes, please visit Bread Dad’s main Muffin Recipes section.

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Reference Sources

1. Wikipedia, Baking Mix (Cake Mix)
2. Wikipedia, Muffin

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