Food

• Substitute the water with milk

• Substitute the same volume of oil for butter - make sure butter is not liquid but room temp and soft (it’s very important that the butter be allowed to fully melt while only in the oven otherwise it’ll just pool all at the bottom of the pan and it gets gross)

• Add another egg yolk

This takes a box mix from eh to absolutely phenomenal. The box mixes are the way to go since they’re premeasured, they have the perfect ratios of flour, sugar, leaveners, and they’re sized for normal cake pans.

Can't go wrong with America's Test Kitchen buttercream, here's a video for their chocolate buttercream, starting at 7 minutes. You can use a hand mixer instead of a stand mixer, and their vanilla buttercream is even easier to make