The holidays are here and everyone is trying to get a leg up on their baking and cooking. Whether for a dinner, treats for the office, or just as a snack around the house this season, here are three recipes if all you have is a box of chocolate cake mix to work with.

First, a few comments about boxed cake mixes in general. All in all they aren’t bad, and with a few tweaks here and there can turn out to be quite good. A major tweak made is adding eggs. Most boxes only call for water, stir and bake, but adding eggs will give you better rise and a fuller, smoother batter. Another tweak is to add a 1/4 cup of corn syrup. This adds to the flavor and tends to enhance the cocoa or the vanilla. Speaking of vanilla, adding 2 tablespoons of good vanilla to white cake mix really enhances the vanilla flavor!

Now, on to some recipes with that box of chocolate cake mix!

1. “Buried Treasure” Cupcakes
– Prepare your box of chocolate cake mix according to the directions on the box (or take one of my tips from above).
– Preheat oven to 350 degrees
– Paper line cupcake pans.
– Add 2 ounces of batter to each cupcake liner.
– Place a single piece of the holiday candy of your choice in the middle of each cup. (I find that ROLOs, Snickers Bites and REESE’S work best, but any bite sized chocolate candy works great!)
– Add another 1 ounce of batter to each cup, right over the candy piece.
– Bake 12-14 minutes.
– Cool and dust with powdered sugar. There is no need for icing, as the real prize is in the middle!

2. “Black Forest Cake”
– Prepare box of chocolate cake mix according to the directions on the box.
– Preheat oven to 350 degrees
– Spray pans with pan spray.
– Divide the batter between the pans and bake 24-28 minutes.
– Take one #10 can of cherry pie filling and drain it through a colander (saving the jelly-like syrup in a pan).
– Puree the cherries in a food processor.
– Once the cakes are cool, divide the pureed cherries between the two cakes and cover.
– Place cake in the freezer for 1 hour.
– Remove from freezer and ice with a simple white icing.
– Once iced, drizzle the top with that saved cherry glaze/jelly from the straining earlier. Add a little chocolate drizzle.
– Cut and serve!

3. “Soft Chocolate Cookies” (cookies from a cake mix? Yes!)
– Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
– Prepare the box mix EXACTLY as directed on the box.
– Add 2 cups of plain white flour and 2 tablespoons of vanilla to the mix and mix well.
– Spray a pan with kitchen spray.
– Drop cookies onto the pan (leaving 2 inches between cookies) from a 2 ounce standard scoop.
– Bake for 9-11 minutes.
– Remove from oven and cool.
– Additions: icing, powdered sugar, chopped up Andes Mints (I would sprinkle these on while cookies are warm.)

Enjoy the holidays and these great treat ideas! Want even more ideas? Check out all of our recipes!