Pump Up The Fiber In Boxed Cake Mix With This Easy Addition

On Foodie's list of underrated ingredients you should add to boxed cake mix, quick oats were perhaps one of the more surprising additions. Sure, there are health benefits to eating oatmeal every day, but don't we normally think of oats as the complement to a great breakfast? Yes ... and no! Think about delish oatmeal raisin cookies or Little Debbie Oatmeal Creme Pies, which are one of our most enduring faves from the snack aisle, even in adulthood. Oatmeal cake is even a thing, and we can't argue that it doesn't sound scrumptious.

We'd argue that boxed cake mix is the perfect spot for quick oats for a few different reasons. First of all, oats are delicious and will enhance the flavor of the cake you bake up. Secondly, if you are judicious when it comes to balancing ingredients, oats can add pleasant denseness and texture to your cake. At least as important, however, is the fact that you can boost the nutritional profile of your boxed cake with a fiber punch via oats.

One cup of raw oats contains a whopping 8 grams of fiber. The Mayo Clinic suggests that healthy kids and adults should get 14 grams of fiber for every 1,000 calories they consume, so you can see that oatmeal is quite dense in this essential nutrient. Adding oats to your cake is a fun way to "cheat" your fiber intake, although we'd argue that we'd eat the cake either way! Fiber is necessary for healthy bodies, contributing to gastric motility, greater feelings of satiety, and even a lower risk of heart disease.

We've covered tips for cooking oatmeal; now, some advice for baking with oats. Keep in mind that not all oats are made equal: rolled oats (also called old-fashioned oats) aren't as processed as quick oats and therefore don't suck up moisture as readily. That translates to less suitability for baking, since rolled oats are likely to stay coarse and get stuck in your teeth. Steel-cut oats should also be avoided because they take longer to cook through. For adding to cake mix, use quick oats. If you desire a real shortcut to oats in your cake, but want to ensure that it will stay moist, use oat flour or even oat fiber made of ground oats.

Keep in mind that oats work as a flour sub in your cake, and your mix already has flour. You will have to experiment a bit with your batter depending on how much oat product you use, and you might have to add extra liquid and oil to ensure the cake stays moist and doesn't turn into a brick in the oven. Perhaps you want to let the oats soak in milk or water for a while before adding them to the mix. This will kill two proverbial birds with one stone: you'll add your extra liquid in a sensible amount, and you'll also soften the oats, eliminating any risk of lingering crunchiness in your cake. If oat taste is all you're after, oat milk is also an option, which offers one to two grams of fiber per one-cup serving.