Boxed Chocolate Cake Gets 10X More Flavorful And Moist With A Squeeze Of This Beloved Hershey's Staple

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There is nothing wrong with boxed cake mix. Yes, scratch baking can be satisfying. It gives you significant control over every single ingredient and step in the process, and allows you to customize to your heart's content. But boxed cake mix is consistent. It is dependable. All you have to do is measure out your wet ingredients, dump them into a bowl, mix, bake, and pretty much every time what comes out of the oven is cake. It's the result here that matters, and if the result you're looking for is having cake, then a boxed mix is sometimes the quickest, easiest way to get there. There's no shame in that.

If you're in the mood to tinker just a little, though, there's an easy way to add moisture and a huge punch of chocolate flavor to any box cake, and all you need is a bottle of Hershey's chocolate syrup. When it comes to quickie home-baking, this stuff is basically magic. And there are two completely different ways you can use it to level up any boxed chocolate cake recipe with very little effort (or risk of catastrophic cake failure): First, by adding it right into the batter, and second, by using it as a glaze over the top of an already baked and cooled cake.

There are a hundred different ways to fuss with the basic elements of a good boxed cake mix. People add pudding, cream cheese, swap out ingredients, and experiment with different emulsifiers. But adding chocolate syrup directly into the prepared cake batter is one of the easiest. All you have to do is squeeze and stir.

The syrup will add moisture and a rich chocolate flavor to the finished cake. You might want to consider adding a pinch of salt to add depth and offset the added sweetness a little. And if you're willing to make things slightly more complicated, you can use the syrup to make a swirl cake by splitting a white cake batter in half, adding syrup to one bowl, then layering the batters in the pan before baking.

Another option? Make the cake as instructed, wait for it to cool, then pour the Hershey's chocolate syrup right over the top. What you're really doing is making a kind of drizzle cake, only with the liquid being thicker; less of it will absorb into the body of the cake and more of it will stay on the surface, acting like a glaze. The syrup can be brushed or spooned on, depending on what effect you're after, and if you want more of it to end up penetrating the cake, you can do it poke cake-style: Using a skewer to make small holes in the baked cake, allowing the syrup to really get in there and do its thing.