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I put to much water in my box cake mix and I already mixed the cake.. What can I do to save the cake. Could I add another box of cake mix to the Batter?

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Wait, if you have an extra box of cake mix, just discard the first one and start over. Its not like we're talking expensive ingredients here! – derobert Jun 6 '12 at 19:56
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If (s)he added twice the amount of water, (s)he can just make two cakes, without adding water for the second one. – Mien Jun 6 '12 at 20:03
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Step 1: Add second box box. Step 2: Adjust for water for two cakes. Step 3: Make two cakes. Step 4: Send me spare cake. :-) – talon8 Jun 6 '12 at 20:17
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I think what we need to establish first is whether the OP knows exactly how much extra water was added. If it was an accident and the OP has no idea how much extra then starting from scratch is prudent. If the OP knows exactly how much water added, then make a double batch by adding more water to double the batch. – Jay Jun 6 '12 at 22:22
If you don't know how much extra water you've added, but do have an extra box of cake mix, you could probably do pretty well by mixing up a fraction of the second box separately, then dumping the rest in the original batch and adding the remaining water until it's the same consistency as the small test batch. – Jefromi♦ Apr 13 at 18:39

3 Answers

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If batter just looks a bit too loose then switching to a sheet pan should take care of it.

Sprinkling something absorbent onto the base of pan before pouring batter also helps: raisins currents even cookie crumbs (I save gingersnaps for baking) or fistful of fine semolina

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If you are only over by a small amount (¼ cup or less) just add half the volume of flour(±). If you added a moderate amount of extra water(½ to 1 cup) add half the volume of flour and ½ tsp baking powder and sugar equal to ⅓ the flour. Cakes fixed this way will be slightly dry but serviceable, particularly given that you started with a boxed cake anyway.

Beyond that point just make a double recipe.

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I just did this this morning when making cinnamon chocolate swirl cake added 1 3/4 cups of water instead of 3/4 cups of water worried and not sure what to do I just added 1 cup of pancake mix the complete kind and hoped for the best. It took a little longer to cook but no one was the wiser and it was really good not too dry. I guess I lucked out on this one. Next time I will put my glasses on before mixing. Hope this works for you also.

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Thanks for the answer! Complete pancake mix is a good idea if you have it; it will probably have leavening similar to the cake mix, along with some dry milk and maybe other things to make it less plain, so it'll be a little closer to the cake mix than just flour and baking powder. It won't be sweet, though; you might still find you want to add sugar. – Jefromi♦ Apr 13 at 18:43

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