5 Hacks Every Baker Should Know

Even pro bakers use cake mix—and here's proof. Erin Gardner, who has worked as a pastry chef in New England, owns a bake shop in New Hampshire and has won baking championships, shares this cheat for turning the boxed stuff into a rich, moist cake in her new book Erin Bakes Cake. Just add one extra-large egg yolk and a 3.5-ounce box of instant vanilla pudding mix to a box of vanilla or yellow cake mix, along with the rest of the ingredients called for on the cake-mix box, and proceed with the directions. It works with chocolate cake, too; use chocolate instant pudding mix with chocolate or devil's food cake mix.