1. Don't buy expensive chocolate for doctoring up a cake mix. It loses its flavor when baked. Bar chocolate, cocoa and chips from the supermarket work just fine.

2. Chocolate likes acidic flavors. It marries well with sour cream, yogurt and buttermilk.

3. Don't worry about the temperature of the ingredients you add to the mix. Unlike scratch cakes, cake-mix cakes turn out well when all the ingredients -- room temperature or cold -- are put in the bowl at one time. Unlike scratch cakes that call for cocoa, the water does not have to be boiling before it is added. The only exception is when you are working with cream cheese: It will lump up if cold ingredients are added, so when making a cheesecake, it's best to have all the ingredients at room temperature.

4. Stock up on vanilla extract. (At the wholesale clubs you can buy it in 16-ounce bottles for a huge savings.) It is a marvelous chocolate flavor enhancer.

5. The devil's food cake mix is both easy and difficult to doctor. The problem is that it is a good mix and doesn't need a lot of doctoring -- perhaps just some coffee, cinnamon or bananas. But it can be powerful in flavor, too. If you want to showcase more subtle flavors, such as zucchini, you're better off using a milder-flavored mix like the German chocolate.