The Hummus Swap To Make Boxed Cake Mix Healthier

We really dig a chocolate swirl as one of the underrated ingredients you should add to boxed cake mix, but we aren't always behind adding a boatload of sugar to an already-sweet batter by tossing in chocolate chips or chunks. What if we told you that there was a way to not only enhance your cake mix with more cocoa, but also jack up the protein content, putting a little nutritional substance into your dessert? The answer, friends, is dark chocolate hummus. 

Of the mistakes everyone makes with homemade hummus, it seems that, all along, the biggest one was not adding it to your cakes. While plain hummus can get a little "bean-y," the chocolate variety masks the garbanzo-ness of it all with good old cocoa. We had previously heard of cake batter hummus, but a hummus-y cake batter was a new one to us, which made us so excited to roll up our sleeves and experiment with a yummy-sounding new kitchen hack.

You can grab your favorite brand of dark chocolate hummus from the store, or whip up some homemade cocoa hummus. To avoid added sugar, find a recipe or store-bought hummus that uses a sweetener like dates, or maple syrup. In your cake mix, feel free to substitute the chocolate hummus for chocolate chips or chunks on a 1:1 basis in your batter. 

As a bonus, the natural oils in hummus may be able to substitute for oil or butter in your cake mix — or, at least, decrease the amount you need. Adding oil to boxed cake mix is already an instruction that might be worth disregarding even in normal circumstances, but especially when adding hummus. The added "bulk" of the ingredient is likely to make your cake denser and richer. 

Not a fan of having to experiment with your ratios, but still intrigued by adding a healthy sweetness to your boxed cake without chocolate chips? We've seen cakes frosted with chocolate hummus instead of icing. You might want to stir a bit of liquid into your hummus to soften it up into proper frosting consistency, but then you just need to grab a silicone spatula and apply a thick layer to the top of your cooled cake.