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Chocolate Cake Mix substitute

Best substitute

From-scratch dry mix equivalent

1 ¼ cups (155 g) flour, 1 cup (200 g) sugar, ½ cup (45 g) cocoa, 2 tbsp cornstarch, 2 tbsp nonfat dry milk, 1 tsp baking soda, ½ tsp baking powder, ¾ tsp salt

Best for layer cakes

Taste and texture differ

A homemade dry blend weighing about the same as a 15.25 ounce box, used exactly as if it came from a box.

Other chocolate cake mix substitutes

Ranked, with the exact amount to use

Substitutes for Chocolate Cake Mix with ratios

  1. 2Devil's food, chocolate fudge or dark chocolate cake mix

    Close match

    Use the same amount no adjustment

    The same product in a darker formulation, using heavily alkalized cocoa.

    What changes
    Best for
    layer cakes, cupcakes, sheet cakes, poke cakes, cake mix cookies

    Effectively interchangeable, and the easiest swap on this page. These mixes use Dutch-process cocoa and often a touch more baking soda, so the cake bakes noticeably darker, almost black in the case of devils food, and tastes slightly less sweet and a little more mellow and rounded. Nothing about the batter, the liquid ratios or the bake time changes. If the recipe is a white-frosted layer cake where the dark crumb would look dramatic, this is an upgrade rather than a compromise.

  2. 3Yellow, white or vanilla cake mix plus cocoa

    Different taste

    Remove ½ cup of the dry mix, then stir in ½ cup cocoa powder and 3 tbsp sugar

    Converting a plain mix to chocolate by trading dry mix for cocoa so the total dry weight stays the same.

    What changes
    Best for
    sheet cakes, cupcakes, dump cakes, poke cakes

    The swap-not-add step is what makes this work. Cocoa is thirsty and mostly starch, so tipping half a cup on top of a full box leaves the batter short of liquid and fat and you get a dry, tight, slightly rubbery cake. Trade it out instead and the ratios hold. Even done right, the result is milder and lighter in colour than a real chocolate mix, with the mix's vanilla flavouring sitting oddly underneath the cocoa. Use Dutch-process cocoa if you can, add half a teaspoon of instant espresso powder, and add 1 extra tablespoon of oil. Good enough for a frosted sheet cake, not for a cake served plain.

  3. 4Brownie mix, converted

    Taste and texture differ

    1 box brownie mix plus 1 extra egg, 2 tbsp flour and ¼ tsp baking powder, using half the oil the brownie box lists

    A much richer, barely leavened mix pushed toward cake with extra egg, flour and lift.

    What changes
    Best for
    sheet cakes, cookie bars, dump cakes, cupcakes

    Worth knowing but manage your expectations. Brownie mix carries far more sugar and fat and hardly any leavening, which is the whole reason brownies are dense and fudgy. The extra egg and baking powder do add lift and the extra flour tightens the crumb, but you will still get something denser, chewier and sweeter than a cake, with a slightly shiny top rather than a matte one. Halving the oil is essential or it bakes greasy. In cupcakes it holds up well; in a tall layer cake it will be too heavy to stack.

  4. 5Chocolate muffin or chocolate pancake mix

    Taste and texture differ

    Use Match by weight to your box, add ¼ cup sugar and 2 tbsp oil for every 2 cups of mix

    Other boxed chocolate mixes repurposed, adjusted for their different sugar and fat assumptions.

    What changes
    Best for
    cupcakes, sheet cakes, dump cakes, muffin-style cakes

    Chocolate muffin mix is the closer of the two and needs only a little extra sugar, since muffin mixes are formulated less sweet. Pancake mix is a bigger stretch: it is much lower in sugar and much higher in leavening, and it contains no powdered fat, so the cake rises fast, tastes bready rather than sweet and goes tough if you overmix even slightly. Add the sugar and the oil, mix only until just combined, and expect a coarser, more muffin-like crumb. Fine for a snacking cake with frosting on top, unconvincing as a birthday cake.

  5. 6Gluten-free chocolate cake mix

    Different texture

    Use the same amount by weight rather than by box

    A gluten-free mix used in place of the conventional one.

    What changes
    Best for
    layer cakes, cupcakes, sheet cakes, poke cakes

    Substitutes cleanly for flavour, with two practical adjustments. Gluten-free boxes are often a different weight from conventional ones, so weigh rather than trusting the word box, and top up with the scratch blend above if you come up short. Gluten-free flours also hydrate slowly, so let the batter rest ten minutes before it goes in the tin, which makes a real difference between a pleasant crumb and a slightly gummy one. Expect a more tender but more fragile cake that bakes a few minutes faster, and let it cool completely in the tin before turning out.

What is Chocolate Cake Mix?

Chocolate Cake Mix is Chocolate cake mix is a boxed dry blend of flour, sugar, cocoa, baking powder and soda, salt and powdered emulsifiers, portioned so that adding eggs, oil and water gives a reliably tender chocolate cake.

Cooking tips

  • A cake mix is doing four jobs at once, which is why you cannot swap in plain flour. It supplies structure from flour, sweetness from sugar, chocolate flavour from cocoa and lift from its own baking powder and soda, all pre-balanced against the eggs, oil and water the box tells you to add. Substituting a cup of flour for a cup of mix gives you a bland, dense slab, because you have removed the sugar and the leavening along with it.
  • Never add extra leavening to a mix. It is already balanced, and more baking powder or soda does not make a taller cake, it makes one that shoots up, splits and sinks, with a faintly soapy or metallic aftertaste. A dense mix cake almost always means overmixing or a cool oven, not too little leavening.
  • Check the box weight against your recipe's age. Standard mixes have shrunk from 18.25 ounces to 15.25 and sometimes 13.25. For a recipe written for the old larger box, add 1/4 cup of flour and 2 tablespoons of sugar to a modern 15.25 ounce box, otherwise the eggs and liquid the recipe calls for will be out of proportion and the cake will be wet in the middle.
  • The three-swap upgrade works on any mix, homemade or boxed: use whole milk instead of water, melted butter instead of oil, and add one extra egg. The milk adds sugars that brown, the butter adds flavour the oil cannot, and the extra egg adds richness and structure. It turns a serviceable cake into a genuinely good one and costs nothing in technique.
  • Cake mix cookies need almost nothing else. One box of chocolate mix, 2 eggs and 1/2 cup of oil makes a chewy cookie dough with no flour or leavening added, because the mix already contains both. If you are using the scratch blend above in place of the box, the same three-ingredient formula works, though the cookies spread slightly more.
  • Half a teaspoon of instant espresso powder whisked into the dry mix makes any chocolate cake taste substantially more chocolatey without tasting of coffee. Blooming the cocoa in the recipe's liquid, if the liquid is hot, does the same thing from the other direction.

Frequently asked questions

How do I make chocolate cake mix from scratch?

Whisk together 1 1/4 cups (155 g) all-purpose flour, 1 cup (200 g) granulated sugar, 1/2 cup (45 g) cocoa powder, 2 tablespoons cornstarch, 2 tablespoons nonfat dry milk, 1 teaspoon baking soda, 1/2 teaspoon baking powder and 3/4 teaspoon salt. That comes to roughly 430 g, matching a standard 15.25 ounce box, and you then add the eggs, oil and water the recipe specifies. The crumb will be slightly more open and less bouncy than a boxed mix, since commercial emulsifiers cannot be reproduced at home.

Can I use devil's food cake mix instead of chocolate cake mix?

Yes, straight across with no adjustment. Devils food is made with heavily alkalized Dutch-process cocoa and a little more baking soda, so the cake bakes much darker and tastes slightly less sweet and more mellow. Chocolate fudge and dark chocolate mixes are the same story. The colour difference is dramatic, the flavour difference is small.

Can I use flour instead of cake mix?

Not on its own. A box of mix is flour, sugar, cocoa, salt and leavening already combined and balanced against the wet ingredients the recipe adds, so replacing it with plain flour alone strips out the sweetness, the chocolate and the rise. Use the full scratch blend above instead, which supplies all of those in the right proportions and weighs the same as a box.

Can I use brownie mix instead of chocolate cake mix?

For bars, cupcakes and dump cakes, yes, with adjustments: add 1 extra egg, 2 tablespoons of flour and 1/4 teaspoon of baking powder, and use half the oil the brownie box calls for. Brownie mix is far higher in fat and sugar and far lower in leavening, so even converted it bakes denser, chewier and sweeter than a cake. For a stacked layer cake it is too heavy and will not hold.

Can I halve a box of cake mix?

Yes, but weigh it. Empty the box into a bowl and whisk it thoroughly first so the leavening and cocoa are evenly distributed, then weigh out half, about 215 g from a 15.25 ounce box, and halve the eggs, oil and water too. Scooping half a box straight from the bag without whisking often gives an uneven portion, which is why half-batch cakes sometimes come out flat or oddly pale.

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