Save money and help your family eat healthier by cutting out unnecessary preservatives and food colorings! You can make your own yellow cake mix to have on hand in the pantry for easy, inexpensive throw-together desserts or snacks.
Oftentimes, with homemade cakes, the flavor is fantastic, but the cake is dense and heavy. This is usually caused by a couple of different factors. First, the type of flour that is used, and second, the amount of flour due to improper measuring.
Flour is ALWAYS measured by Weight and the weight per cup is entirely dependent on the type of flour. In this case, we’re using cake flour, which should weigh exactly 4 ounces per cup.
Make Your Own Yellow Cake Mix
2 1/3 cups (9.3 ounces) cake flour
1/3 cup nonfat dry milk
3 teaspoons baking powder
3/4 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 cups white sugar
1/2 cup plus 1 tablespoon shortening
Measure the flour by weight and then transfer into a mixing bowl.
Measure the dry milk and add it to the bowl.
Add the baking powder, salt, and sugar. Stir to mix!
Cut in the shortening until mixture resembles fine crumbs.
Combine all ingredients, mixing well and transfer to a 1 Quart Jar until needed. Label the jar using a dry-erase marker. Makes 1 Quart Jar Mix
How to Prepare Baking Pans
- Tear off a piece of parchment paper about the width of the pan.
- Fold it in half.
- Place baking pan on the paper and trace halfway around it, leaving a tab.
- Cut out the shape, leaving the tab in place, then unfold it.
- Spritz the bottom of the baking pan with non-stick spray, then seat the parchment paper in the bottom of the pan.
To Make the Yellow Cake
2 eggs
1 cup water
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 Jar Mix
- Preheat oven to 350F.
- Combine all in a bowl, mixing well.
- Pour the batter into a greased and floured 9″x13″ baking dish, or two greased and floured 8″ round pans.
- Bake for 25-30 minutes. Then remove the pans from the oven and place on a cooling rack for about 10 minutes.
- Using the tabs on the parchment paper, gently lift the cake from the pan and place it on the cooling rack to cool completely before frosting or glazing.
Make Your Own Yellow Cake Mix- Printable
MYO Yellow Cake Mix
Equipment
Ingredients
- 2 ⅓ cups cake flour (9.3 ounces )
- ⅓ cup nonfat dry milk
- 1 tablespoon baking powder
- ¾ teaspoon salt
- 1 ½ cups white sugar
- ½ cup plus 1 tablespoon shortening
- 2 eggs
- 1 cup water
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1 Jar Mix (as listed above)
Instructions
Prepare Cake Mix
- Combine all ingredients, mixing well and transfer to a 1 Quart Jar until needed.2 ⅓ cups cake flour⅓ cup nonfat dry milk1 tablespoon baking powder¾ teaspoon salt1 ½ cups white sugar½ cup plus 1 tablespoon shortening
To Prepare Cake
- Preheat oven to 350F.
- Combine all in a bowl, mixing well.2 eggs1 cup water1 Jar Mix1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- Pour the batter into a greased and floured 9″x13″ baking dish, or two greased and floured 8″ round pans.
- Bake for 25-30 minutes. Cool & Frost as desired.
Equipment
If you altered the ingedients above by doubling or tripling the recipe, you may also need to change the pan/dish size and adjust the cooking/baking time.
not sure if it was my fault or not but this mix was not light and fluffy like i like. it seemed a bit hard and dry.
What do you by the Mix was hard and dry? Did you use fresh ingredients? I’ve made a bunch of these and they always come out great.
They aren’t supposed to feel like store bought cake mix and the powdered milk can be measured separately and put on top (in another baggie) if you’re going to store it for a long time. Maybe the dry milk is absorbing the moisture and making it seem harder.
so for the mix…do you add in the shortening with everything even if you are going to put it in a jar in the pantry or is that if you are going to make it right away? i saw you should put the dry milk in another baggie also if storing for a while
what is meant by 1 Jar Mix listed under “To Make The Cake?” Is it the previous ingredients mixed together, if so, what size jar is used to measure the mix with the eggs, water and vanilla extract?
The Mix recipes are often given as gifts, as such they state how many “Mixes” each one makes. In this case, 1 jar of mix. The mixes either fit in a pint size or Quart size jar. The easiest way to tell which jar they fit in is by looking at the quantities of ingredients. If they = 2 cups or less they fit in a pint size jar. If they = 4 to 5 cups or less they fit in a quart jar. (Dry ingredients settle)
i also found this mix to be hard and dry. not at all moist or fluffy like a box mix would be.
to those who complained of the cake being hard and dry: i haven’t tried this recipe yet as i’m not at home this month, but i always beat my mixes longer than called for to incorporate more air, then i leave them “rest” while i grease/flour the pan. i pour the batter carefully, as not to disturb the mixture. i also bake on the shorter side of the time, making sure it’s ‘just’ done as it will continue to bake after removal from the oven.
also, mom always taught me to drop the cake pan a time or two on the counter to get the air bubbles out but that makes the cake hard and dry. my cakes, even the ones from scratch some out light.
wonder if anyone has tried this before i go wasting the ingredients. most boxed mixes call for water, eggs and oil to be added to the dry mix. has anyone omitted the shortening from the initial dry mix and added the 3 usual boxed additions, and how did it turn out?
Just wondering if leaving out the shortening for storage purposes would increase shelf life? Thanks for any answers!
this is an awesome mix…everything that goes in the jar or ziploc bag is just like a cake mix – dry ingredients…so the shortening needs to wait til the final prep. to make 1 Jar of Mix: 2 1/3 cups all-purpose flour
1/3 cup nonfat dry milk
3 teaspoons baking powder
3/4 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 cups white sugar
store this in an airtight container – i keep in frig.
when ready to cook the cake add:
2 eggs
1 cup water
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 cup plus 1 tablespoon shortening
1 Jar Mix (see above!)
I love this mix since I no longer am paying almost $2 for a single box of mix… I like knowing exactly what I put into this cake… This is a fantastic site n am extremely glad to have something like this available for FREE!!!
All of the recipes are just like what you would buy at the store so think about that when looking at one of the recipes. Some people may be fine adding the shortening n storing but I don’t add it due to the shorter shelf life of shortening… happy baking…
adding the shortening into the dry ingredient is not a bad thing and can be stored in your pantry for at least a couple months. i make a ‘bizquick’ type mix that you incorporate shortening into it. i leave it in my pantry up to a few months.
if you are weary still, throw it into a ziploc and throw it into your freezer where it will keep indefinitely! just make sure to warm back up to room temp before using. just when you make the mix, cut the shortening in well til it’s very finely course.
i would bet you any money the store bought mixes have shortening in it to, cept they add junk to keep it more shelf stable. you will be fine adding it in!
i want to make a bunch of these cake mixes (i rarely ever make cake but they make awesome waffles!), unfortunately i am out of shortening at the moment…will have to wait!
going to try this !! have a few recipes i want to use this for & hate to have to run to the store to pick up a box mix.
I bake and decorate cupcakes and have been looking for a good homemade cake mix. I can’t wait to try this!
Some people have mentioned the cakes aren’t as fluffy as boxed. Perhaps cake flour instead of all purpose? I will let you know after I try it.
Don’t use mixes any more because they contain propelyne glycol. Same stuff in radiator fluid!
Look closely, it does call for cake flour.