First of all, here's the recipe right up top – because we all hate scrolling through a life story to see a recipe. I'll put some tips and tricks, substitutions, and more information below the recipe, so keep reading after.
This recipe will make baking cakes or cupcakes from scratch just as easy as picking up a boxed mix from the grocery store.
DIY Boxed Cake Mix
Note: This recipe replaces an 18.25 oz. boxed white or yellow cake mix.
Dry Mix Ingredients:
2 c. flour
1 1/2 c. sugar
1 Tbs. baking powder
1/2 c. dry milk powder
Mix these ingredients and either use immediately or store in an airtight container until it's time to bake.
Baking Instructions:
The mixed dry ingredients (approximately 4 cups)
3/4 c. water
1 tsp. vanilla
1/2 c. softened butter
3 eggs
Preheat oven to 350 degrees
Combine the dry mix with the wet ingredients. Pour into a greased, floured cake pan of choice, and bake as directed:
8/9" cake rounds – 20-25 minutes
13x9" cake pan – 35-40 minutes
cupcakes – 12-15 minutes
bundt pan – 45-50 minutes
Preparing Ahead
The hesitation most people have with making cakes from scratch is the extra work they think it will be. And yes, of course, measuring and mixing ingredients is a little bit of extra work, although it's not very much.
If the time is a concern for you – maybe you know you'll need to make a cake on a busy week night or you want to be prepared in case you need last-minute cupcakes – just have a batch of this mix prepped in a mason jar in your pantry. Label it with the baking instructions, and you basically have a ready-made cake mix that's just as convenient as a boxed mix.
Make It Even Easier with Bulk Prep
I don't make cakes often, so I tend to mix up a batch at a time when I need it. However, if you bake cakes more regularly, you can double/triple (or quadruple or more) the dry mix. Store it in an airtight container, and just use four cups (plus a tablespoon if you want to be really technical) of the mix whenever you bake a cake.
Substitutions for Flour and Milk Powder
I've made a couple substitutions to this base recipe that work with my life.
First, I've subbed a gluten-free flour mix for the regular flour, and the cake turned out just fine. I maybe didn't rise as much as a wheat flour cake does, but it was still fluffy and pleasant to eat.
Second, since I generally have milk in my fridge but don't always have dried milk powder, I have dropped the milk powder and just added milk instead of water during the baking step. I start with just shy of a cup of milk and add more as needed to get the desired consistency.
Why DIY Cake Mix is Better than Boxed Mixes
Store-bought boxed cake mixes contain a lot of ingredients that are better to avoid. Just look at the list of ingredients in a Betty Crocker boxed yellow cake mix:
Without digging too deep, I immediately spot several ingredients that concern me:
- modified corn starch
- palm oil
- propylene glycol
- artificial flavor
- yellow 5 & 6
Dyes, synthetics, seed oils, antifreezes – none of these are ingredients I want in my food.
When you mix it yourself, you control the ingredients and quality. You can choose organic, non-GMO, or whatever else is important to you.
Your Cooking-from-Scratch Journey
If controlling the ingredients in your food is a new commitment, my blog 5 Foods to Make From Scratch to Save Money has some easy, inexpensive ideas to get you started.
Otherwise, look for other blogs with the cooking from scratch tag for more recipes and tips.
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