Homemade White Cake Mix

Any cake is better from scratch, and if you like to keep homemade mixes on-hand to make life easier on busy days, this makes a perfect cake every time without having to resort to a box from the store–and fast.

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Difficulty: Easy

Servings: 1 cake

Prep Time: 5 minutes   Cook Time: varies  

Ingredients

2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour OR 2 3/4 cups cake flour

2 cups sugar

1/2 cup non-fat dried milk or powdered buttermilk

1 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

Directions

Combine the ingredients. Store in a sealed, labeled container or baggie with the directions to make the cake. (This mix will fit in a quart-size baggie, just barely.) If you want to double, triple, or more the mix to make in bulk and keep it all in one big container, measure out 5 cups of mix each time you make a cake (or a bit more if you used cake flour).

To replace in recipes calling for a store-bought white cake mix:
Use in any recipe calling for a white cake mix as a base (add 1 teaspoon vanilla to the recipe along with the cake mix as the recipe will assume powdered vanilla flavoring was included in the store-bought mix).

Or to make a basic white cake using your homemade mix, use the following instructions.

Cake mix directions:

1 recipe Homemade White Cake Mix
1 1/4 cups water
1/2 cup shortening or lard
4 egg whites
1 teaspoon vanilla

Combine all the ingredients. Beat to mix on low, then beat on high for two minutes. Pour into greased, floured cake pans. Bake at 350-degrees.

8- or 9-inch cake rounds — 20-25 minutes
13 x 9 pan — 35-40 minutes
cupcakes — 12-15 minutes
tube/bundt pan — 45-50 minutes

Don’t overbake! You’ll dry out your cake.

To make this mix without using powdered milk:
Delete the dried milk from the mix ingredients. When preparing the cake, replace the 1 1/4 cups water with 1 1/3 cups milk or buttermilk. I’ve also used coconut milk with this recipe. You can use any kind of milk you want.

Just remember that recipes calling for a store-bought white cake mix are going to assume the mix contains powdered milk. Also remember, if you make the mix in bulk, instead of measuring out 5 cups per cake, you’d measure out 4 1/2 cups (to make up for the 1/2 cup powdered milk that’s not in there).

Categories: Budget, Cakes, Desserts, Ingredients & Mixes, Kid-Friendly

Submitted by: suzanne-mcminn on April 5, 2011