We've talked a little bit about box mixes this week, and tomorrow we're going to look at what's better, when it comes to cake — boxed, or from scratch. But we also wanted to interject this note into the discussion: Did you know that you can make your own cake mix?
This bright tip comes from I Am Baker. She assembles this cake mix out of flour, sugar, and a few other staples and throws it all into a jar for quicker cake-making down the road. A jar of cake mix like this also makes a great gift!
• Get the recipe: Homemade Cake Mix at I Am Baker
Do you ever make cake mixes for quicker baking? Or for gifts?
Related: Beat the Box: Is a Box Mix Really Faster?
(Image: I Am Baker)
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Love it!! This a great solution for some of the recipes I really love but don't use often since they call for cake mix!
i've done this and then put the 'mix' in a ziplock, with instructions, into my freezer. measuring out the dry ingredients takes time, and i just line up several bowls, and work as an assembly line - a cup of sugar in each, 2 c. flour, baking soda, etc. etc.
My 13 year old just helped with this the other day and asked 'why would anybody buy a mix if you can just do this?'
Yes, for homemade cake mix! I've often made my own, mostly because some recipes call for it and I never want to buy cake mix. Like when samples of pumpkin dessert squares at Williams-Sonoma are so so very good but then the recipe card calls for yellow cake mix. And every cake mix at the supermarket has a list of weird stabilizers in the ingredients, is more expensive, and less delicious. So making your own cake mix is pretty much better in every way.
This is *such* a great idea! And I'd trust ANYthing from Amanda at i am baker....she's a baker extraordinaire!
I do this with muffins...those few saved minutes are especially great in the morning!
I make my own pancake mix. I love to have pancakes on the weekends, so I mix the dry ingredients of about 4 batches worth and store them in a dry food container. Then when I want to make them, I just measure out the right amount for one batch, add the milk, egg and oil (or butter). It's so fast and good. Now I need to try this for the cake mix. I think I'd like to try a chocolate version. I assume you can just find a chocolate cake recipe you like and just assemble and store the dry ingredients in the same way.
We did this at the bakery I used to work at. It saves SO MUCH time from not having to scale out the dry ingredients every time, just working out how many ounces/lbs you needed of it.
What a fabulous idea! PERFECT for gifting! Wouldn't it make a darling Mother's Day or teacher gift?
I should totally do this with gingerbread cake. I LOVE gingerbread cake, but rarely make it from scratch because it calls for so many ingredients (read: spices) which I am too lazy to assemble. Having it already jarred up and just having to add the wet ingredients would make consuming large amounts of this cake so much easier. Not that that would be a good thing...
Just one question: is superfine sugar a requirement for all cake mixes? Or just the recipe the I Am Baker lady uses?
This is in my vacation food arsenal - when we are going somewhere with a kitchen but unknown access to pantry staples, I bag up a cake mix (often keeping the sugar in a container with butter, but separate from the flour mixture). I also pack wet ingredients in a separate container. This way, you don't have to buy a bag of flour or a carton of eggs you won't use up, but can still have a homemade dessert!
Similar to vintagejenta, could I just take any cake recipe and mix the dry ingredients? I love the idea of a homemade cake mix, but 5 egg whites is a lot! All that time I saved with the mix, I lost in separating eggs.
I do this all the time with baked goods: corn bread, muffins, coffee cake, even pancakes and waffles. Those few minutes saved can make the difference between having corn bread with dinner and skipping it.
But I still use boxed cake mix for layer cakes, for all the reasons I mentioned in the discussion of box mixes. I just haven't mastered the light, fluffy layer cake, and a mix dolled up with butter and flavoring is better than what I'd make from scratch.