Got a Box of Spice Cake Mix? Here’s What to Make With It
Got a box of spice cake mix? Discover easy ways to turn it into cakes, cupcakes, bars, cake bites, carrot cake, and cozy fall treats.
There’s something about spice cake that you can almost smell before you bake it.
Maybe it’s the cinnamon. Maybe it’s the nutmeg, ginger, cloves, and allspice tucked into the mix. But you know the aroma I’m talking about. It starts drifting through the house about halfway through the baking time, and before long somebody wanders into the kitchen and asks, “What are you making?”
That, my friends, is the magic of spice cake.
And if you happen to have a box of spice cake mix sitting in the pantry right now, don’t automatically assume it has to become the cake pictured on the front of the box. Around here, that box is merely a starting point.
We can turn it into pumpkin desserts, carrot cake, apple treats, cake bites, cupcakes, bars, muffins, and all sorts of other wonderful things.
So open the pantry, grab that box, and let’s see what we can come up with.
Spice Cake: An Old-Fashioned Flavor That Never Really Went Away
A few years ago I went to a birthday party for a friend who’s about the age of my daughters. Her sister had made her birthday cake, and I was surprised to discover that the birthday girl had requested spice cake.
Spice cake? For a birthday?
For some reason, I had mentally filed spice cake away with other old-fashioned desserts—the sorts of things our mothers and grandmothers baked. But clearly I had underestimated the staying power of those warm, cozy flavors.
And when you think about it, that shouldn’t be surprising at all.
We live in a world that goes slightly bonkers every fall when pumpkin-spice drinks return. We love cinnamon, maple, caramel, brown sugar, apples, toasted nuts, and all of those warm fragrances that make a kitchen smell like something wonderful is happening.
Grandma knew a good thing when she tasted it.
What Spices Are in Spice Cake?
Traditional spice cake gets its warm flavor from a combination of cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger, cloves, and allspice. Cinnamon tends to lead the way, while the others add warmth, depth, and that unmistakable fragrance we associate with fall and holiday baking.
And this is where I want you to stop thinking about the cake pictured on the box and start thinking about the spices inside it.
What tastes good with cinnamon and nutmeg?
Apples certainly do.
So do carrots. And pumpkin. And bananas.
Then there are pecans and walnuts, brown sugar, caramel, maple, orange, cranberries, cream cheese, and cookie butter.
See what just happened?
We haven’t even turned on the oven yet, and we’re already baking.
A Box of Spice Cake Mix Is Just the Beginning
If you’ve spent much time at Out of the Box Baking, you know I have a hard time leaving a perfectly innocent cake mix alone.
I’m always wondering, What else could this become?
Spice cake mix is especially fun because so much of the flavor work has already been done for us. Unlike yellow or white cake mix, which gives us a relatively blank canvas, spice cake arrives at the party with plenty of personality.
So, what are you craving?
If You Want to Start With a Really Good Spice Cake
Sometimes you really do want cake. And when you do, there’s absolutely nothing wrong with taking that box and making it even better.
How to Doctor a Spice Cake Mix
How to Doctor a Spice Cake Mix
This is a terrific place to start if you want to see just how flexible spice cake mix can be. I added carrots, toasted coconut, dried cranberries, and pecans, but the recipe is deliberately adaptable: change the add-ins and you can take that same box in all sorts of directions.
In fact, this recipe might be the best illustration of my whole cake-mix philosophy. The directions on the box are suggestions. The possibilities are much bigger.
Christmas Spice Cake from a Doctored Cake Mix
Christmas Spice Cake from a Doctored Cake Mix
This festive cake combines those warm spice flavors with apples, dried cranberries, and nuts for a dessert that feels right at home on an old-fashioned Christmas table. It’s exactly the sort of cake I can imagine Grandma slicing after supper while everybody lingered around the table.
If Pumpkin Spice Season Has Arrived
Of course we have to talk about pumpkin.
Pumpkin and spice cake mix are natural partners because that box already contains so many of the flavors we associate with fall baking. Add pumpkin, and suddenly we’re firmly in sweater-weather territory.
Easy Pumpkin Dump Cake with Spice Cake Mix
Easy Pumpkin Dump Cake with Spice Cake Mix
This easy fall dessert lands somewhere between pumpkin pie, cobbler, and coffee cake. Creamy pumpkin filling, buttery spice-cake topping, and crunchy pecans make it especially good for Thanksgiving and fall potlucks.
Pumpkin Spice Bundt Cake from a Box Mix
Pumpkin Spice Bundt Cake from a Box Mix
Pumpkin puree turns an ordinary cake mix into a soft, moist Bundt cake filled with fall flavor, and a simple cream cheese glaze finishes it beautifully. This is the sort of easy cake that looks right at home on a Thanksgiving dessert table.
Easy Pumpkin Pound Cake from a Cake Mix
Easy Pumpkin Pound Cake from a Cake Mix
Want something a little richer? This version uses spice cake mix with pumpkin, butter, sour cream, and eggs to create a dense, moist pound cake that’s especially lovely with coffee or tea.
And don’t stop there. If you already have favorite pumpkin muffins, cupcakes, bars, or quick breads made from yellow or white cake mix, consider whether spice cake mix could do some of the seasoning work for you.
That’s the fun of all of this: swap the box and suddenly an old recipe becomes something new.
If Apples Are Calling Your Name
If there’s one ingredient that understands spice cake mix, it’s an apple.
Cinnamon, nutmeg, brown sugar, pecans, caramel, streusel—there are so many ways to take this combination.
Apple Spice Skillet Cake
This warm, rustic apple cake is made right in a skillet and has all of those cozy apple-and-spice flavors we crave when the weather cools down. It’s simple, comforting, and especially lovely served warm.
Cinnamon Apple Cake Mix Muffins with Streusel Topping
Cinnamon Apple Cake Mix Muffins with Streusel Topping
These bakery-style muffins were originally developed with white cake mix, but spice cake mix would be a terrific fall swap. Fresh apples and buttery cinnamon streusel already bring the autumn flavors, so imagine what happens when the cake mix joins the party.
You can also add chopped apples directly to a doctored spice cake, pair them with pecans, or even replace part of the fat with applesauce. There’s plenty of room to experiment.
Yes, You Can Turn Spice Cake Mix Into Carrot Cake
Here’s one you might not have considered.
Carrot cake.
Think about what makes carrot cake taste like carrot cake. The carrots matter, of course, but so do all of those warm spices surrounding them.
Spice cake mix has already given you a head start.
Add freshly grated carrots, bring in some orange juice, and consider pecans or walnuts, coconut, pineapple, or dried fruit. Finish the whole thing with cream cheese frosting and suddenly that box has taken on an entirely different identity.
Easy Apple Carrot Cake
This chunky Bundt cake combines shredded carrots with apple pie filling, dried cranberries, and pecans. The original uses carrot cake mix, but the flavors make it a natural candidate for experimenting with spice cake mix instead.
Easy Carrot Pound Cake with Frosting in the Mix
Easy Carrot Pound Cake with Frosting in the Mix
This fun carrot Bundt cake uses grated carrots, orange juice, warm spice, coconut-pecan frosting, and a cream cheese glaze. Swap in spice cake mix and much of that cozy spice profile is already built into your starting point.
And this is where I encourage you to start looking at your own favorite carrot cake recipes differently. If one begins with yellow or white cake mix, ask yourself whether spice cake mix might work instead.
My guess?
Very often, the answer will be yes.
If You Want Something Nobody Expects
Now we’re getting to the part I really enjoy.
Cake mix does not have to become cake.
Say that again for the people in the back.
Spice Cake Bites with Biscoff Cookie Butter Filling
Spice Cake Bites with Biscoff Cookie Butter Filling
These little cake bites take the warm flavors of spice cake and pair them with creamy cookie butter and crunchy cookie crumbs. They’re cute, easy to serve, and a perfect example of taking an ordinary cake mix somewhere completely unexpected.
And once you start thinking this way, the possibilities multiply.
Could spice cake mix become cookies? Absolutely.
Whoopie pies? Why not?
Muffins? Certainly.
Dessert bars? Of course.
Donuts rolled in cinnamon sugar?
Okay, now my wheels are turning.
But Will the Kids Eat Spice Cake?
Grandma might have loved a tall spice cake loaded with nuts and dried fruit, but let’s be fair: that could be a tougher sell to the eight-year-old standing in your kitchen.
That doesn’t mean kids won’t love the flavors.
Sometimes you just need to keep Grandma’s spices and change the delivery system.
Turn spice cake into little cake bites and top them with cookie butter. Make soft cake-mix cookies and sandwich them with cream cheese frosting. Bake cupcakes and pile them high with caramel or cinnamon frosting. Make whoopie pies with fluffy vanilla filling. Turn the mix into donuts and roll them in cinnamon sugar.
You could even set up a little decorating station with cake bites or cupcakes and let the kids choose their own toppings: cookie crumbs, mini chocolate chips, cinnamon sugar, chopped nuts, sprinkles, or a drizzle of caramel.
Who knows? You might discover that the flavors Grandma loved have a brand-new generation of fans.
What If I Don’t Have Spice Cake Mix?
Don’t shut the pantry door yet.
If you have yellow or white cake mix, you can still head in this direction. Add warm spices yourself and use butter in place of oil when you want a richer flavor.
In fact, in my doctored spice cake recipe I suggest turning yellow cake mix in this direction by adding pumpkin pie spice and a little brown sugar.
That’s one of the things I love most about baking with cake mixes.
Those boxes aren’t nearly as bossy as they look.
Yellow cake can become spice cake. Spice cake can become carrot cake. A cake mix can become cookies, muffins, bars, cake bites, or something we haven’t even thought of yet.
Welcome to my brain.
Play Mad Scientist: Build Your Own Spice Cake Mix Creation
Once you stop asking, “How do I make the cake on this box?” and start asking, “What flavors would taste good with the spices already in here?” everything changes.
Try combinations like apple + pecan + caramel, carrot + orange + cream cheese, banana + walnut + brown sugar, pumpkin + pecan + maple, cranberry + orange + vanilla glaze, or cookie butter + cinnamon + cream cheese.
You don’t need all of those things at once. Choose a direction and build from there.
Maybe there are apples sitting on your counter. Maybe you’ve got half a bag of pecans in the freezer. Maybe there’s a jar of cookie butter hiding in the pantry.
That’s often how recipes happen in my kitchen. I start with the box, look around to see what else I’ve got, and stir my creativity much the same way I’d stir a pot of soup.
What am I craving? Where am I going? Who am I feeding? And what would be fun to try?
Sometimes the answer is obvious.
Sometimes I end up creating cake-mix kolaches.
You just never know around here.
Frequently Asked Questions About Spice Cake Mix
What flavors go well with spice cake?
Apples, pumpkin, carrots, banana, orange, cranberries, raisins, pecans, walnuts, maple, caramel, brown sugar, cream cheese, and cookie butter are all natural partners for warm spice flavors.
You don’t need many additions. Sometimes one complementary flavor is enough to completely change the direction of the dessert.
What frosting is best for spice cake?
Cream cheese frosting is a classic because its slight tang balances the sweet, warm cake beautifully.
Caramel frosting, vanilla glaze, maple glaze, or even a simple dusting of powdered sugar can also work well.
Can I use spice cake mix instead of carrot cake mix?
For many doctored cake-mix recipes, absolutely consider it.
Spice cake already contains the warm flavors commonly paired with carrots, so add shredded carrots and the other ingredients appropriate to your recipe. Different boxed mixes aren’t necessarily identical, so watch the consistency of your batter and follow the underlying recipe as your guide.
Can I use spice cake mix instead of yellow or white cake mix?
Often, yes—especially when the other flavors in the recipe complement cinnamon and warm spices.
Apple, banana, pumpkin, carrot, pecan, maple, and brown-sugar recipes are particularly good candidates. Just remember that you’re adding a noticeable spice flavor, so make sure it belongs in the finished dessert.
Is spice cake only for fall?
Absolutely not.
Fall and Christmas might be its glory days, but there’s no rule saying you can’t bake spice cake in March—or make one for a birthday party in the middle of summer.
Apparently I learned that lesson at a birthday party.
One Little Box, So Many Possibilities
Maybe that’s why I’ve grown to appreciate spice cake mix so much.
There’s nostalgia in it. Those warm spices can take you straight back to Grandma’s kitchen, where cakes were often filled with nuts, fruit, and whatever else she had tucked into the pantry.
But there’s plenty of room for something new, too.
Cookie butter cake bites. Cinnamon-sugar donuts. Pumpkin desserts. Carrot cake. Apple muffins. Whoopie pies. Cookies. Cupcakes.
Same warm spices. New ideas.
So the next time you spot a box of spice cake mix in the pantry, don’t just see a spice cake.
Stop for a second. Imagine the cinnamon and nutmeg beginning to warm in the oven. Think about the fragrance drifting down the hallway.
Then look around your kitchen and ask yourself one question:
What could I turn this into?
Around here, that’s usually when the fun begins.
Thanks for Stopping By!
I hope this collection has given you plenty of ideas for that box of spice cake mix in your pantry.
If you make one of these recipes—or dream up a completely new cake-mix creation of your own—I’d love to hear what you came up with.
And if creative cake-mix baking is your thing, be sure to explore my other cake-mix recipes here at Out of the Box Baking. We’re always finding something new to do with that humble little box.
Before you go, why not pin some photos to your Pinterest boards? It makes my day when folks share my recipes!
About the Baker
Hi, I’m Janice, the baker behind Out of the Box Baking, where I’m always asking one of my favorite questions: “What else could I make with this box of cake mix?” I love taking something simple and familiar and turning it into something completely unexpected.
Spice cake mix is especially fun because so much of the flavor work has already been done for you. Cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves, and allspice give you a delicious starting point; from there, apples, pecans, caramel, cookie butter, cream cheese, and other cozy flavors can take you in a dozen different directions. Around here, the cake mix is rarely the finished idea. It’s where the experimenting begins!
