What Is Cake mix, chocolate and How Can I Use It?

If cake mix, chocolate has turned up in a recipe or caught your eye at the store, here's what you need to use it with confidence and how to choose it, cook it, store it, what to substitute, and 72 recipes to try it in.

What is cake mix, chocolate?

Chocolate cake mix is a boxed blend of flour, cocoa, sugar, and leavening that bakes into a soft chocolate cake once you add the wet ingredients. It is the fastest way to a dependable chocolate crumb.

That reliability is why so many old-fashioned shortcuts start with a box of it.

The cocoa in a chocolate mix is mild, closer to milk chocolate than dark. That leaves room to push the flavor wherever a recipe wants, from boozy to fudgy to candy-bar sweet, since the base is sweet and forgiving.

Ways to Use It

The box gives you a cake, but the mix is really a base. Bourbon Chocolate Cake and Easy Chocolate Kahlua Cake both swap part of the liquid for liquor and add pudding mix, turning a flat box cake into something dense and grown-up.

Death By Chocolate Cake#2 layers it with chocolate pudding and crushed candy for a trifle.

It also handles candy-bar cakes well. Mounds Cake, Just Like the Candy! and Peter Paul Mound Cake both build a coconut layer right over the baked chocolate base, and Halloween Bat Cupcakes scoop the same batter into liners.

Cake mix cookies are the other big use. Stir the dry mix straight with oil and eggs into a stiff dough, with no extra flour. It bakes into a fast crackle-top chocolate cookie.

Doctoring and Pairing

For general upgrades like adding an extra egg or browning the butter, see the main cake mix page. The chocolate-specific moves are all about deepening the cocoa.

A spoonful of instant espresso or strong brewed coffee in the liquid sharpens the chocolate without making the cake taste like coffee. Chocolate chips fold in well too, as do chopped nuts or a handful of chopped candy.

The usual mistake is overbaking. Chocolate cake looks set before it is done and dries out fast, so pull it when a toothpick shows a few moist crumbs.

Substitutes

A devils food mix is the closest swap and bakes darker and slightly richer. A plain yellow or white mix plus ½ cup (about 40 g) unsweetened cocoa and a splash more liquid also works in a pinch.

From scratch, one box is roughly 2¼ cups flour with ⅔ cup cocoa and 1½ cups sugar plus leavening, though you supply the fat and eggs the box assumes.

Buying and Storage

Most boxes run 15 to 16 ounces (about 430 to 460 g). Recipes written for the older 18 oz size may bake a touch dry with today's smaller box, so add a couple tablespoons of liquid if the batter looks thick.

Keep unopened mix in the pantry and use it by the date on the box, since the leavening slowly loses power. Once opened, seal it airtight against humidity. If the powder has clumped hard or smells stale, the leavening is likely spent and the cake will bake flat.

Nutrition

Quick facts

Food group: Cake mix, chocolate is a member of the Baked Products US Department of Agriculture nutritional food group.

In Chinese

蛋糕粉，巧克力

British (UK) term

Cake mix, chocolate

en français

le mélange à gâteau, chocolat

en español

mezcla para pastel, chocolate

How much does cake mix, chocolate weigh?

Related

Baked Products

Recipes using cake mix, chocolate

There are 72 recipes that contain this ingredient.

Filled Chocolate Cupcakes

This is a very chocolate flavour cupcakes, if you do love the chocolate, try this recipe, very yummy!

Easy Triple Chocolate Bundt Cake

Intensely chocolatey bundt cake using boxed mix, instant pudding, and chocolate chips. Rich, moist crumb ready in an hour with minimal effort for maximum impact.

Banana Fudge Cookies

Easy banana fudge cookies made with chocolate cake mix, mashed banana, an egg, and chocolate chips. A four-ingredient cookie that yields nearly four dozen in 40 minutes.

Easy Moist Chocolate Bundt Cake

Easy moist chocolate Bundt cake doctors a chocolate cake mix with instant pudding, sour cream, and a full bag of chocolate chips for unbelievably moist crumb. Bake-sale famous, no-frosting-needed.

Halloween Spider Cupcakes

Creepy crawly Halloween chocolate spider cupcakes that are easy to make and a thrill to eat.

Halloween Bat Cupcakes

Super easy to make, and we made our own chocolate cupcakes recipe and chocolate wafers recipes, you can find both of them here too! Not too sweet, not too much butter, and also we used some sour cream to make the frosting, love these cute bat Halloween cupcakes!

Amazing German Festive Cake

Super moist, chocolaty and nutty. It is an absolutely delicious cake that can be served at any occasion.

Easy Chocolate Kahlua Cake

Chocolate Kahlua bundt cake builds on a doctored cake mix base with sour cream, instant pudding, and ½ cup coffee liqueur. Dense, moist, deeply chocolate, and laughably easy.

Bourbon Chocolate Cake

Easy to make rich and delicious chocolate cake spiked with bourbon.

Peanut Butter Halloween Black Cat Cookies

Halloween black cat cookies: chocolate cake mix and peanut butter dough shaped into cat faces with M&M eyes, candy noses, and fork-tine whiskers. The Halloween party treat kids will line up for.

Knock You Nakeds

Knock You Nakeds, a gooey layered chocolate caramel bar made with cake mix, melted caramels, chocolate chips, and nuts. A rich, fudgy Southern potluck favorite.

Looks Like a Pumpkin Cake

Pumpkin-shaped Halloween cake made from two chocolate bundt cakes stacked together, frosted orange with a banana stem and fruit roll-up jack-o-lantern face.

Favourite Butterfinger Cake

Butterfinger poke cake: warm chocolate cake riddled with holes and soaked in caramel and sweetened condensed milk, then chilled and topped with whipped topping and crushed Butterfingers.

Chocolate Ripple Cake, Low Calorie

Lower-calorie chocolate ripple cake baked in a clay pot with a coconut cream cheese swirl. Made with nonfat cream cheese, egg whites, and fat-free sour cream. Serves 12.

Quick Triple Chocolate Cake

Triple chocolate cake using cake mix and pudding mix for a fudgy, moist crumb topped with semi-sweet chocolate chips and crunchy walnuts.

Triple Chocolate Mess

A scrumptious and delicious cake that will satisfy anyone's sweet tooth or chocolate craving.

Mile-High Celebration Cake for a Crowd

Mile-high three-layer chocolate celebration cake for a crowd, filled with raspberry jam and orange marmalade, frosted with mocha cream cheese buttercream. Party show-stopper.

Self-Filled Cup Cakes

Self-filled chocolate cupcakes with a cream cheese and chocolate chip center baked right in. No frosting needed when the filling does double duty.

Coconut Chocolate Cookies

Coconut chocolate cookie bars made with chocolate cake mix, flaked coconut, eggs, and oil. A 4-ingredient, one-bowl recipe mixed and baked in under 30 minutes.

Triple Fudge Brownies

Three-ingredient triple fudge brownies built on chocolate pudding mix, chocolate cake mix, and semi-sweet chips. Dense, fudgy, and fast. The semi-homemade trick that fooled every PTA bake sale.

Quick Chocolate Cake

Surprise the kids after dinner with this scrumptious chocolate cake that doesn't take much to make.

Chocolate Chocolate Cake

A ridiculously easy chocolate cherry cake made with just cake mix, cherry pie filling, and almond extract. Holes poked in the warm cake let a boiled milk chocolate frosting sink in for poke-cake bliss with Black Forest flair.

Chez' Freddy's House Brownies

Poke-style chocolate brownies soaked with condensed milk and chocolate syrup, topped with crushed walnuts and chocolate whipped cream. A fudgy, no-fuss crowd pleaser.

Chocolate Yum Yum Cake

Chocolate yum yum cake bars layer a chocolate cake mix and pecan crust with a sweet cream cheese custard top. A retro Southern dessert that bakes up rich, gooey, and impossible to stop eating.

Picnic Cupcakes

Black bottom cupcakes drop a sweet cream cheese filling studded with chocolate chips into chocolate cake mix batter, baking into a self-frosting cupcake. Travel-friendly picnic dessert with no icing to melt.

Chocolate-Caramel Nut Cake

Semi-homemade chocolate cake with a gooey caramel, roasted peanut, and milk chocolate chip layer baked right into the center. Starts with a box mix and six ingredients. Tastes like a giant chocolate turtle bar in cake form.

Cherry Chocolate Cake (Fitzgeralds & Melissa)

Mom said we had to have this even if Melissa didn't send it in. She's right, there is no way to each just one piece. So....easy.

Barcardi Rum Chocolate Cake

Bacardi rum chocolate cake with a boozy chocolate pudding filling. Dark rum in both the cake layers and the whipped filling makes this a rich, adults-only dessert.

Truffier Au Chocolat a la Cafe De Paris

Chocolate truffle cake à la Café de Paris: layered chocolate cake split and filled with a glossy chocolate-fondant-cream ganache, chilled overnight for clean truffle slices.

Chocolate Pecan Truffles

Rich chocolate truffles with crunchy pecan centers, dipped in smooth melted chocolate and topped with chopped nuts. Easy microwave method makes 3 dozen elegant candies.

Sour Cream Chocolate Cake

Sour cream chocolate cake using a cake mix enriched with sour cream and brown sugar, topped with a broiled sour cream and brown sugar glaze. Extra moist and finished in minutes under the broiler.

Chocolate Ripple Cake

Layered chocolate ripple cake baked in a clay pot with a coconut cream cheese swirl through the center and a milk chocolate cream cheese frosting on top. Lightened with egg whites and nonfat cream cheese.

Chocolate Chunk Chocolate Cookies

Triple-chocolate cookies with a secret ingredient: mayonnaise. Chocolate cake mix, chocolate fudge pudding mix, and semisweet chocolate chunks bound together with mayo for fudgy cookies that come together in 20 minutes.

Double-Chocolate Rum Cake

Grandma's chocolate rum bundt cake soaked in raspberry-rum glaze and drizzled with melted chocolate and white vanilla icing. A boozy, showstopping dessert made easy with cake mix.

Great Chocolate Cake

Triple-chocolate bundt cake made with chocolate cake mix, chocolate pudding, sour cream, and chocolate chips. A dense, ultra-moist semi-homemade cake with fudgy pockets of melted chips.

No-Fuss Chocolate Cake

No-fuss chocolate cake mixed right in the baking pan with a fork. Chocolate cake mix, instant pudding, and chocolate chips create an ultra-moist, triple-chocolate cake with zero bowls to wash.

Gold Medal Caramel Bars

Gold medal caramel bars layer a chocolate cake mix base with caramel topping and chocolate chips, then crumbled cake mix streusel. Four-ingredient potluck bars for the cookie swap.

Terry's Turtle Cake

Terry's turtle cake layers chocolate cake with melted caramel, chocolate chips, and pecans, then tops with more batter for a gooey caramel center. A church potluck classic on a doctored cake mix base.

Chocolate Ice Cream Cake

Four-ingredient chocolate Bundt cake made with chocolate cake mix and softened chocolate ice cream. Incredibly moist with double chocolate richness in every slice.

Ho Ho Cake

Copycat Hostess Ho Ho cake in sheet form: chocolate cake topped with cooked-flour vanilla cream filling and finished with a glossy cocoa-fudge glaze. Childhood snack-cake nostalgia for a crowd.

Chocolate Rich 'N Creamy Squares

Chocolate cream cheese gooey butter bars with a chocolate cake mix base, chopped pecans, and a sweet cream cheese topping. A St. Louis-style gooey butter cake in bar form.

Double Death By Chocolate

Double death by chocolate bundt cake built from a chocolate cake mix doctored with chocolate pudding, sour cream, and a full bag of chocolate chips. A no-fail rich chocolate bundt for parties and potlucks.

Knock You Nakeds (Brownie Type)

Knock You Nakeds are gooey caramel brownies made from chocolate cake mix with a melted caramel and evaporated milk layer sandwiched between chocolate chips and chopped nuts. Sinfully rich.

Winter Wonderland Cake

Amaretto-spiked chocolate cake layered with boozy whipped cream frosting and topped with handmade chocolate trees. A showstopping holiday centerpiece using a simple cake mix shortcut.

Black Cat Cupcakes

Halloween is coming, make these cute yet delicious cupcakes for your Halloween party. Everyone will love them.

Coffee Liqueur Cake

Chocolate bundt cake spiked with Kahlua and instant coffee, made easy with a cake mix and pudding mix shortcut. Drizzled with a coffee liqueur icing that soaks into every ridge.

Neapolitan Torte

Neapolitan torte stacks chocolate, vanilla, and pink cake layers with green cream cheese filling and chocolate frosting. A retro Italian-flag-colored layer cake from boxed mixes.

Ice Cream Cone Cupcakes

Ice cream cone cupcakes: chocolate cake batter baked right inside flat-bottom ice cream cones, then swirled with sweet almond buttercream and showered in sprinkles. The kid party showstopper.

Better Than Sex Chocolate & Coffee Cake

The famous "Better Than Sex" chocolate cake: box mix doctored with pudding, sour cream, real coffee, chocolate chips, and toasted pecans. Tube-baked and drizzled with a glossy chocolate glaze.

Black Forest Bars

Diabetic-friendly Black Forest bars made with just three ingredients: no-sugar chocolate cake mix, sour cherries, and sugar substitute. Quick, simple, and guilt-free.

All 72 recipes