Boxed Cake Mix Pretzels Are The Sweet Twist Every Foodie Needs To Try

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If you're a fan of soft pretzels sprinkled with coarse salt and served warm, there's a sweet twist that you need to try — and it incorporates an easily accessible item as its base. To make a batch of homemade sweet, soft pretzels, all you need to do is combine cake mix with a few pantry staples like yeast, flour, and baking soda. It may seem odd to craft a bread-like dough this way, but it results in a treat that combines the sweet flavor of cake with the texture of soft pretzels.

Essentially, you're just swapping out a portion of the flour in a regular pretzel recipe with the cake mix (we've got a copycat Auntie Anne's pretzel recipe if you need some guidance). The base ratio should be about 1 ¾ cups of your cake mix of choice combined with 2 ¾ cups of flour, plus a package of yeast dissolved in 1 ¼ cups of warm water. You can tweak the proportions slightly once you've made the recipe a few times, seeing whether you prefer them with a bit more or less of the cake mix.

Forming the dough into the signature pretzel shape may take a bit of trial and error if you haven't made pretzels before. The imperfection is part of the charm, but if you're truly struggling to achieve the classic look, consider crafting pretzel bites instead.

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While you could keep things simple and use pearl sugar as a pretzel topping, consider grabbing a tub of frosting while you're in the baking aisle at your grocery store. If you melt it slightly or add a splash of milk to create a thinner consistency, it creates the perfect icing that can be artfully drizzled over your cake mix pretzels, creating a bakery-worthy treat. And the best thing about making them yourself is that you can mix and match different flavors of cake mix and frosting until you find the perfect combination.

For a birthday treat, Funfetti cake mix and vanilla frosting is a classic pairing. Chocolate lovers may want to pair devil's food cake or chocolate cake mix with a chocolate frosting. Red velvet cake mix with cream cheese frosting is a match made in heaven. You can even go for a seasonal variation, mixing up a base with spice cake mix and drizzling on cinnamon or pumpkin-flavored frosting for fall. Take your soft pretzels to the next level by sprinkling crushed cookies atop your drizzled frosting for a decorative touch that also adds some texture.

There are many amazing things you can do with a box of cake mix, including making cookies and waffles. So, even though you likely don't need a full box unless you're making a huge batch of pretzels, the leftovers won't go to waste.