Cake "powder" in beer

My wife has been on a birthday cake flavor kick over the past year. This has led me to wonder if it's possible, or if anyone has already tried (did a search but couldn't find my answer) adding box cake powder mix to a beer. I'd like to clone the birthday cake flavor in a beer. I'm thinking this might go well with an imperial red style beer. I'm wondering, if it's even a good idea to begin with, if I should add the cake powder mix to the mash, or the boil? I'm thinking of possibly adding vanilla or nibs to secondary if this will help to enhance the flavor overall. Any thoughts, questions, concerns? Apologize if I'm in the wrong forum altogether on this. Thanks ahead of time for any help and guidance on this.


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Um really? Cake mix likely has preservatives as well as some oils? Would you include a tub of icing as well...hahaha.

You would need to add to the mash IMO, adding strarch to the boil is not a great idea. Any sweetness to the cake taste will ferment and dry out, unless you use Splenda or the like....

I would figure out what the flavors in the cake are that she likes and attempt to reproduce those.

I'd think if you made a dark sweet chocolate beer and threw in some cocoa nibs and vanilla you'd get a good close flavor?

Probably your best bet is to find a flavoring like the one used for watermelon beers. LorAnn has a nice line up that I've used in beers before. Haven't looked for cake... but I bet it could be found on the net. Good luck. If you add a flavoring, do it in secondary or prior to bottling. Google this: Lorann site:homebrewtalk.com

give it a try. The worst thing that could happen is it tastes like dirty underpants. You still tried to do something nice for SWMBO. Experimenting is what this hobby is all about.

I bet the first guy who fermented up some malted grains probably got laughed at too.

You could try a flavoring or extract for it. I found this Birthday Cake Extract that might work.

nutty_gnome said:

Probably your best bet is to find a flavoring like the one used for watermelon beers. LorAnn has a nice line up that I've used in beers before. Haven't looked for cake... but I bet it could be found on the net. Good luck. If you add a flavoring, do it in secondary or prior to bottling. Google this: Lorann site:homebrewtalk.com

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Awesome, thanks! Didn't think about trying to find an extract that could mimic the flavor.


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wilserbrewer said:

Um really? Cake mix likely has preservatives as well as some oils? Would you include a tub of icing as well...hahaha.

You would need to add to the mash IMO, adding strarch to the boil is not a great idea. Any sweetness to the cake taste will ferment and dry out, unless you use Splenda or the like....

Click to expand...

I dunno about the icing... I'll leave that up to the wife.
Thanks for the suggestion and thoughts.


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WayFrae said:

You could try a flavoring or extract for it. I found this Birthday Cake Extract that might work.

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This might be the route to go... I figured using the cake mix itself was not the best route, but hoped it might be more authentic than trying to use just vanilla beans, cocoa, etc. thanks for the help!


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Bradthoc said:

This might be the route to go... I figured using the cake mix itself was not the best route, but hoped it might be more authentic than trying to use just vanilla beans, cocoa, etc. thanks for the help!


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Click to expand...

I just thought of this: Maybe you could just reduce some birthday cake flavored vodka and add that. I imagine it would be pretty close to the same thing as an extract, possibly more expensive but definitely easier to find.

Bradthoc said:

This might be the route to go... I figured using the cake mix itself was not the best route, but hoped it might be more authentic than trying to use just vanilla beans, cocoa, etc. thanks for the help!

Click to expand...

Using the raw ingredients that go into a cake mix may be slightly more authentic than a prepared mix IMHO.

I think a milk stout for a base might be a good idea- not too much roast barley unless you want a mocha cake. The lactose would leave a nice sweetness and mouthfeel. Add cocoa and vanilla. Maybe a mini mash with a little wheat malt and chocolate malt.

Using "cake extract" isn't a bad idea either really.

prohl84 said:

Using the raw ingredients that go into a cake mix may be slightly more authentic than a prepared mix IMHO.

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Touché!




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It has been done. Let me see if I can find the thread. I seem to remember there was much trub and sediment.

Found it.
https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f36/marie-antoinettes-let-them-drink-cake-394795/

Here you go... I've brewed this a few times and the girlies love it. It's red, slightly malty with a nice chocolate/vanilla finish.


Red Velvet Cake -
5.5 lb 2 Row
3.5 lb Munich
8 oz Crystal 120L
8 oz German Light Wheat
2 oz German Chocolate Wheat 500 SRM
.70 oz Northern Brewer hops (60 min)
WLP004 Irish Ale

16 oz Lactose (10 min)
4.5 oz Malto-Dextrine (10 min)
8 oz Drost or Ghirardelli cocoa powder (boil 10 min)

6 Tbsp. Vanilla extract (not McCormick!) in the secondary

Mash 1 hour @ 154 - 155
Primary - 2 weeks @ 67
Secondary - 1 - 2 weeks, add vanilla extract & gelatin

Zubius said:

Here you go... I've brewed this a few times and the girlies love it. It's red, slightly malty with a nice chocolate/vanilla finish.





Red Velvet Cake -

5.5 lb 2 Row

3.5 lb Munich

8 oz Crystal 120L

8 oz German Light Wheat

2 oz German Chocolate Wheat 500 SRM

.70 oz Northern Brewer hops (60 min)

WLP004 Irish Ale



16 oz Lactose (10 min)

4.5 oz Malto-Dextrine (10 min)

8 oz Drost or Ghirardelli cocoa powder (boil 10 min)



6 Tbsp. Vanilla extract (not McCormick!) in the secondary



Mash 1 hour @ 154 - 155

Primary - 2 weeks @ 67

Secondary - 1 - 2 weeks, add vanilla extract & gelatin

Click to expand...

I might actually give this one a trial run in a month or so.
Might try using a vanilla bean, and the birthday cake extract (mentioned in an earlier post) in the secondary. Now that I know a birthday cake extract exists, I'm leaning less towards experimenting with the actual cake mix. Thanks again all!


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Bradthoc said:

I might actually give this one a trial run in a month or so.
Might try using a vanilla bean, and the birthday cake extract (mentioned in an earlier post) in the secondary. Now that I know a birthday cake extract exists, I'm leaning less towards experimenting with the actual cake mix. Thanks again all!


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Click to expand...

Let us know how it turns out with the extract!

Bradthoc said:

I might actually give this one a trial run in a month or so.
Might try using a vanilla bean, and the birthday cake extract (mentioned in an earlier post) in the secondary. Now that I know a birthday cake extract exists, I'm leaning less towards experimenting with the actual cake mix. Thanks again all!

Click to expand...

The recipe posted already tastes like red velvet cake... Might want to try it before adding the cake extract..

Zubius said:

The recipe posted already tastes like red velvet cake... Might want to try it before adding the cake extract..

Click to expand...

I mean no offense, and I'm just speaking from personal experience, but red velvet cake tastes nothing more than just a slightly sweetened moist cake to me. I've probably had horrible translations of the cake, but it's always seemed like the cake needs more.

Will take your advice though and brew as is first to judge and see if anything is needed (as far as for what in shooting for). Thanks again!


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Bradthoc said:

I mean no offense, and I'm just speaking from personal experience, but red velvet cake tastes nothing more than just a slightly sweetened moist cake to me. I've probably had horrible translations of the cake, but it's always seemed like the cake needs more.

Will take your advice though and brew as is first to judge and see if anything is needed (as far as for what in shooting for). Thanks again!


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Click to expand...

Red Velvet Cake is essentially chocolate cake that is dyed red. It's mainly the frosting that gives it the profile, with the cake playing a decent role. I believe is the frosting used is a simple vanilla butter cream. Can't remember for sure.

I would highly recommend NOT using powdered cake mix in your beer. I recently tried it just to see what happened. One pound of vanilla cake mix and 12oz vanilla frosting in 5 gallons of neutral (100% 2-row) blonde ale barely came through in the flavor. It ended up pretty watery and boring so I added another package of frosting and two vanilla beans for the hell of it. I didn't sanitize the vanilla beans (I usually don't) and the beer became infected so it all went down the drain. I have heard of commercial breweries baking and frosting an entire cake then adding it to the mash with success so maybe the idea isn't totally crazy.

This would definitely be a job for a flavoring drop, in my opinion. Though I guess each will have their own opinion.


I have used Capella flavoring drops before - looks like they have a few cake-related choices. I've used their snickers drops in a milk stout - 160 drops for a 5-gallon batch was a bit light, 200 drops on try #2 was more to my liking. If you go this route, I'd suggest having a beer that matches the style you want to brew and putting drops in a pint until it reaches what you're going for.