Basic Homemade Cake Mix

It is super easy to bake a cake when you have a jar of Homemade Cake Mix in your party. The recipe calls for just 4 dry ingredients. Ready in 5 minutes. Then store it for later baking or give it as a gift to your friends. Just combine the cake mix with wet ingredients for an easy vanilla cake, yellow cake or lemon cake.

With a jar of homemade cake mix ready in your pantry, it’s really easy to bake cakes, cookies or cake mix cobbler. And if you are after a chocolate flavor, you can easily prepare your own chocolate cake mix and easily make chocolate cookies afterwards.

Why bother making cake mix at home?

 I can hear some of you asking why on earth you should think of making cake mix from scratch while you can easily grab a box from store. Well, we have three reasons for that:

1. Homemade cake mix is healthier than the store bought options. You get what I mean if you have ever read the ingredients written on a cake mix box. You need 4 simple ingredients to make a cake mix at home. These are flour, sugar, salt and leavening (baking soda or baking powder). On the other hand, a boxed cake mix mostly have several chemicals such as modified corn starch, vegetable oil shortening, propylene glycol mono and diesters of fatty acids, palm oil, dextrose, soy lecithin, artificial flavor, guar gum, etc. I don’t even know what some of these are.
2. Easy to make. Really. The only thing you need to do is to combine flour, sugar, salt and baking powder in a bowl and put it in a jar. You can make several of these and keep in your pantry for a later baking.
3. It makes a wonderful holiday gift that you can give to your friends. A DIY gift is always way better than a store-bought alternative. Make sure you prepare several jars of your cake mix for the upcoming holidays. Your friends will love it! You can even print out our lemon cake recipe in the recipe card below to help them bake an easy bundt cake.

What goes in the cake mix jar?

We need just 4 ingredients for this cake mix recipe:

1. Flour, sifted (2 and ½ cups)
2. Sugar (1 cup)
3. Salt (¼ teaspoon)
4. Baking powder (2 teaspoons)

How to make  

Learn how to make cake flour mix from scratch and then you will never buy it from the market. Please don’t let the phrase ‘from scratch’ discourage you. It is literally the easiest thing you can make at home. You need just 5 minutes or less.

There are two super easy steps to make the mix.

First, put all the ingredients in a bowl, in no particular order and whisk them up.

Second, put in an airtight container or in a mason jar. You can keep these in your pantry for three months or make several of these to give your friends as a gift.

Pro Tip: The measurements we use here make 3 and ½ cup cake mix and is for a medium size bundt cake pan (6 cups). You can bake it in a 8 ½-inch standard loaf pan or a 9-inch cake pan too. You can even make 15-16 muffins using this cake mix.

The homemade cake mix recipe I’m sharing with you here is a basic one. So you can customize it with different types or amounts of wet ingredients to make yellow cake, white cake, vanilla cake, spice cake or lemon cake.

What goes in the lemon cake?

We use this cake mix to make a simple lemon cake by adding the following ingredients:

• Cake mix
• Eggs
• Buttermilk
• Oil
• Lemon zest
• Lemon juice

Optionally, you can prepare an easy lemon glaze by combining powdered sugar, lemon juice and lemon zest.

Please read the recipe card below to see the full recipe for the cake.

Homemade yellow cake

You can easily use this basic cake mix to make a yellow cake. Whisk together the following ingredients in a bowl:

• 2 eggs
• 1 and ½ cup milk or buttermilk
• ⅓ cup olive oil

Gradually add in the cake mix you prepare and whisk just until everything is combined. Bake in a greased cake pan for 40-45 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean.

Homemade white cake

You can use your diy cake flour mix to make a white cake too. The most important difference between a yellow cake and a white is that we use 3 egg whites in the batter instead of 2 whole eggs. So we need these:

• 3 egg whites
• 1 and ½ cup milk or buttermilk
• ⅓ cup oil

To use this basic diy cake mix to make a white cake, follow these steps:

1. Beat egg whites in a bowl and put it aside.
2. Put the cake mix in a bowl and add milk and oil.
3. Combine using a spatula.
4. Gradually add in beaten egg whites and mix until combined.
5. Bake in a greased cake pan.

Homemade vanilla cake

A vanilla cake is almost the same as yellow cake. So you can use your homemade cake mix for it too. To make a vanilla cake, whisk together the following ingredients:

• 2 eggs
• 1 and ½ cup milk or buttermilk
• ⅓ cup olive oil
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Combine this wet mixture with your homemade cake mix and bake in a greased pan for 40-45 minutes.

With or without butter

I make this homemade cake mix with dry ingredients only, so it doesn’t have butter because it is easier to store when you don’t add any wet ingredients in the mixture. Just put it in an airtight container and keep in your pantry. Also, it is easer to turn the cake mix into an edible gift this way. You can even send it to someone living miles away. Nothing in the mix goes bad at room temperature.

On the other hand, there are some points you should keep in mind if you want to make your mix with butter. These are:

1. Use cold butter. ½ stick of butter is enough.
2. Cut the butter into pieces and blend well in a food processor with the dry ingredients. Make sure all pieces of butter combine well with the flour mixture.
3. Put this mixture in a zip lock plastic bags and store in the freezer up to three months.

I find the cake mix without butter more practical because of the reasons I mentioned above, but it’s up to you to make your mix with or without it.

Tip: My lemon cake recipe below calls for olive oil, but if you love your cake with butter, substitute melted butter for it.

Frequently asked questions

Can I use self rising flour?

Yes, you can. Self rising flour is basically a combination of all purpose flour, baking powder and salt. So the only ingredient you need to add in your mix is sugar. 

Is this mix dairy free?

Yes, it is. I don’t use any dry or powdered milk in the mix. No butter either. What’s more, you can make the lemon cake recipe given in the recipe card below completely dairy free. Just substitute water or a plant based milk for the buttermilk.

How long does this cake mix last?

You can store it up to three months in your pantry but check the expire date of the ingredients you use. It shouldn’t be earlier.

Can this DIY cake mix be frozen?

If you are making it without butter and using dry ingredients only, you don’t need to freeze the mix. However, you should freeze it if you use butter in your mix and are planning to store it more than two weeks.

More Homemade Edible Gift Ideas

📖 Recipe