Sneak This Pureed Canned Staple Into Boxed Cake Mix As A Genius Fat Substitute

There are countless different ways to doctor a box of cake mix, including adding sweetened condensed milk or even melted ice cream. One popular hack involves replacing the recipe's oil with melted butter. Although vegetable oil is more economical, some consider it the worst advice from boxed cake mix instructions. Whether you opt for butter or oil, both are quite high in fat. If you're looking for a less-fatty substitute, Vivian Villa, who founded the plant-based butter company, UnButter, suggests using canned beans.

In Villa's experience, "A moist yet dense texture similar to a brownie will be the result of a boxed cake substituting bean puree for the fats." She says that if you're using black beans, " ... the dark color of chocolate cake will mask the use of bean puree [and] the creamy texture will complement the rich flavor of the chocolate." Cannellini or Great Northern beans would be better choices for a yellow or white cake, while pinto beans will work in a spice cake.

To avoid lumps in your cake, puree the beans before stirring them into the dry mix. "If a lighter, fluffier cake is the goal, blending the beans along with [their] water content is the way to go [...]; a dense, rich cake will be achieved with drained beans that have been pureed," Vivian Villa opined. You'll need to blend the beans first and then measure them, using an equal amount of puree (either by weight or volume) to replace the oil in the boxed mix.

There is precedent for using canned beans in dessert recipes — a pie made with mashed navy beans is said to have been a favorite of Muhammad Ali. Even so, if you're hesitant to have your cake taste too bean-y, Villa has a workaround for this. She suggests that brandy, citrus zest, flavoring extracts, honey, instant coffee, or warm spices like cinnamon or pumpkin pie spice can be added to the cake mix to help mask the flavor of the beans. You could also use pureed beans to replace just half of the oil, which will cut the cake's fat content without affecting flavor and texture to the same extent a 100% bean swap would.

Canned beans are, of course, plant-based. If you use them in place of the oil in a boxed cake mix, you're admittedly swapping one non-dairy ingredient for another. But what remains in the can after you drain the beans is something that can take the place of the egg. This means that using the whole can of beans will allow you to transform your cake into something potentially vegan-friendly, depending on the other ingredients in the mix. What is this magical substance? Why, it's our old friend aquafaba, which is one of the best egg substitutes for anyone who doesn't eat animal products.

Vivian Villa suggests pureeing beans along with the aquafaba for a lighter cake, but you may find that you don't need all of the liquid in the can. (The pureed beans should have a consistency similar to that of shortening or butter.) You may also want to puree the beans with no liquid to make a sturdier cake. One can of beans contains approximately 5 ounces of liquid, which comes out to about 10 tablespoons. Three tablespoons of bean liquid can stand in for each egg in the recipe, so for a standard boxed mix requiring three eggs, you'd need nine tablespoons. If you find you need more liquid for your bean puree, however, you can always open another can and use the leftover drained beans in chili, soup, or a salad.