I gotta be honest with you.
Most of the time I am running around like a crazy woman. I am usually pretty scatterbrained and frantically trying to get to everything that needs to be done in a day.
So I decided that I needed to simplify my baking a bit. Remove some steps. But NEVER sacrifice quality and taste!!
Which leads me to today’s post. I LOVE that I get to share this with you and I hope that you will try it too!
Did you know you can make your own cake mix?
You can have high quality, delicious tasting cake with the ease and convenience of a box mix.
And it just takes moments to do!
Just assemble your dry ingredients as well as the sugar.
Dry Ingredients:
2 3/4 cup flour
1 3/4 cups SUPER fine sugar (you can buy this or make it)
2 teaspoon baking powder
3/4 tsp salt
(I will post the rest of the recipe I am using below)
Sift together all ingredients and place in mason jar or your chosen storage container.
And *voila! You have your own cake mix! (This recipe totaled about 4 1/2 cups of dry ingredients, so I used an eight cup mason jar)
You will of course need to add the wet ingredients when you are ready to make your cake.
So I just write what I need to add on a little reminder card.
And don’t forget the date! I would probably try and use this within three months. But around here, I usually use at least one jar a week!
Don’t forget the instructions! (I am not saying that from experience or anything…) And any other little annoying notes you might want to write yourself.
I sorta love words like moist and delicious and yum when describing cake. I cant help myself.
Feel free to do this with chocolate cake or yellow cake or any cake that suits your fancy.
Cant wait to show you the cake I am making with this jar! 
*Thank you for pointing out that a viola is an instrument and voila is an expression for completion. Clearly is was unable to distinguish the difference between the two.
*****
UPDATED: This is the cake I made with this jar… Chocolate Covered Cherry Oreo Cake!
That’s awesome! I can’t wait to assemble some cake mixes!!! Can’t wait to see your cake!
Love this idea! I like how you packaged it up too. So cute.
Super, duper smart!! Love this time-saver, Amanda. Thanks!
I almost never make cake from scratch. I do doctor up my mixes just a tiny bit, and I get rave reviews. I should try scratch sometime…usually I just make my carrot cake that way (which is an easy and awesome recipe IMO
) Thanks for sharing!
Found someone else who does EXACTLY that….
http://www.yummly.com/recipes/cake-mix-cake-in-a-jar
Great idea, Amanda. Nice hostess gift, too. Be fun to put together a basket with all the other necessities.
I love moist, delicious, & yum, too! And I really need a white cake recipe that’s all that – so thanks! Can’t wait to try it!!
Terrific idea! Also – you have terrific handwriting!
Love it! How would you modify it for yellow and chocolate cake?
yellow cake generally uses whole eggs instead of egg whites. Use the same basic ingredients and methods – replace 5 egg whites with 2-3 whole eggs, use only vanilla instead of adding almond extract.
most chocolate cakes use 1/2 to 3/4 cup cocoa, require about 1/3 to 1/2 cup more sugar and generally use some baking soda as well as baking powder – it depends on the recipe…. they also may use bettermilk or cold black coffee for the liquid
What an awesome idea!!!
I’ve never made my own cake mix, but it seems like such a great way to have homemade cake when you’re short on time.
I love love love this. So great for gifts too, Amanda!
I love it! I do the same thing when I have a lot to bake for an event, but I just use plastic zip bags instead of pretty mason jars. That lets me do as much as I can ahead of time so the cakes/cupcakes can be baked either the day before or day of.
Great idea! I may hop onto the jarred dessert band wagon when Christmas comes again.
Awesome! I can’t wait to do this!
THIS is a great gift idea! Thank you for posting!
What a great idea!
Holy crap – why have I never thought to do this before! I think I love you. No, I KNOW it.
OMG- this is beeeeyond cool. You are such a smarty pants Amanda! How is that little baby coming along? I hope you are hanging in there this last little while
What a great idea!! I love it!
Yum. This is a great way to have convenience at your fingertips without the box mix additives. Love.
What a fantastic idea! It’s great when you’re busy!
How have I not thought of this before?! I’m anticipating a lot of cakes in the near future, and I was sorta banging my head against the proverbial brick wall for volunteering so much work. This will save me a lot of time! Thanks for sharing!
love this cute idea & cannot wait to see your cake (which will be fab) made with these ingredients!
Wonderful idea, I love glass jars and especially love short cuts!!!
I love your site and the recipes are wonderful. Cannot wait to do my cake mixes! Thank you for the inspiration
That is awesome … I have always thought it would be a good idea to do this, just never have. Also super impressed that you went outside to shoot that picture.
Great idea, can you change the flavor the cake?
Such a fab idea! xo
Thank you – that is a wonderful idea! I think I will put the mix in freezer bags since I have plenty of those on hand. You have the best ideas!! : )
This looks wonderful! I think it would be so fun for gifts… And, great to have on hand when I need cupcakes at the last minute (which seems to happen all the time)!
only one word: LOVE! (the exclamation point doesn’t count in the ‘one word’ part . . .) ok, so one more word: BRILLIANT! (that exclamation point doesn’t count in the ‘one word’ part either . . .)
Great idea…thanks for sharing.
I stumble your website while looking for recipe. I’m very new to baking esp. from scratch, pardon my silly question, how do you make very fine sugar? Do you mean icing sugar?
Thanks.
Carmie
FANTASTIC!!! Thanks Amanda!!
And we can’t wait to see that cake either !!!
Thank you for the tip, I love it. And I’ll try to make some gifts this way.
XOXO
Such a darling idea!
Nifty! Looking forward to seeing the cake. This would be a great idea for a college student. They wouldn’t need to have tons of ingredients in their pantry…just the jar of cake waiting to be made.
Great question Carmie! Here is a link that might explain that better!
http://www.slashfood.com/2006/05/23/sugar-vs-powdered-sugar-vs-superfine-sugar/
Love this, Amanda. What a great time saver!!!! Oh, you are too clever!!
Love. Love. LOVE! Thank you for sharing!
I love love love this. So great for gifts too, Amanda!
I love love love this. So great for gifts too, Amanda!
I love love love this. So great for gifts too, Amanda!
I love love love this. So great for gifts too, Amanda!
What a great idea!! This would make such a great gift.
Now for a gluten free one!!
-jen
This is great! If you want an even fluffier cake you could use cake flour.
Amanda, thanks for saving us tons of time when we are in a pinch!! I need to do something like this too – it might not look quite as pretty as yours though
Thank you, Thank you! I’ve always wanted to do this but never had the courage to figure out how. Thanks for the idea, encouragement and recipe!! I’ll be making a chocolate one as soon as possible.
Great idea Amanda!! You can just add the cocoa right to the dry flour mixture!
You’re a genius!
What a cute idea! Question: Did you mention when to add in the dry mix on your instructions?
Great idea, I love to bake and sometimes resort to mixes for the base cake. I would rather make my own and know what is in it. I would add the milk alternately with the flour mix tho.
That is an awesome idea! Could you give us any pointers on how to make it be chocolate? I would think you just add cocoa to the dry ingredients, but I’m not sure how much. And then I have NO idea how you’d go about making a yellow cake! :-> TYIA!
I love this idea – great for gifts
Fun post. I like to have homemade brownie mix on hand, in jars. But cake mix is a great idea, too
This is a great idea and time saver. I am going to try it. I love your site! You are amazing.
You certainly avoid the preservatives when making you’re own mix.
Great idea, Amanda!
Such a smart idea! Not only is it a great time saver for your own use but it’s perfect in a pinch if you need a homemade gift for someone.
I love this for SO many reasons – but most of all because you know what is in your mix! Plus, it’s in a reusable container and it’s convenient. Hurray!!
Wow! What can you NOT do???
Thank you for sharing!!!! What a great idea!
Looks great! I’m not a cake mix person at all! Thanks
It’s the perfect gift!
How do you make a yellow cake? What makes a yellow cake yellow? It’s my husband’s favorite …
What a nice idea. Are you using cake flour in your mix recipe?
What a great idea! Can’t wait to try this out!
U never seize to amaze me Amanda!!! U alway’s come up with such great idea’s!!! I have no imagination. I can look at something and create it, but cannot think of idea’s on my own…Thank u!!!I luv it~~~
What an awesome idea! The possibilities are endless with this jar of goodness.
My life is really time short but I love to bake and I have often gathered up all the dry ingredients of a recipe and tossed it all into a labelled zip loc bag. That done all I have to do is sift the dry mix and deal with the wet ingredients on baking day.
I like the jar idea better though. It’s so much prettier. I usually have about five different mixes ready to go at any one time.
Well, Amanda, I discovered your baking & mommy blogs last night when I was sleepless, and I think just BLEW your site stats! I’m not a cookie eater at all (gluten intolerant) but I’ve been SOOOOO enchanted by your posts! and photos! and creativity! I just couldn’t stop reading. I think I’m on a creative & sugar high now! Just thought you’d want to know I’m now a totally subscribed reader. =)
this is awesome….I LOVE it!
moist! yum! clever! practical! great post.
I too am wondering how much cocoa exactly to make this a decadent chocolate cake. I am such a chocolate fiend!
I gave my friends brownie mix in a jar for christmas and they absolutely loved it. With the brownie mix I was able to get great layers which was awesome. I’d love to try to make cookie mix in a jar. P.S. I’m so excited to try making the verticle cake. I get to make it in foods class, super excited. Triple thank you on that one.
This is funny idea to me, as in my country the ready mixes doesn’t exist at all, forced to bake from scratch always
Have you posted a regular chocolate cake mix I can make like this? I make my pancake mix ahead of time like this. Hadn’t thought to do cake mix…gonna do it today!!
Wow, I have never heard of making your own cake mix before. What a great idea as a time saver! Thanks for the post:)
Thanks so much! I love this idea!
I, too, have questions about making a chocolate and yellow cake. I kind of figured you’d need to add cocoa for chocolate, but how much!?
Also, I just want to clarify that you do use the entire jar for one cake.
GENIUS idea
i’ve been looking for this everywhere
i made this on my blog
http://www.whatkatiesbaking.com!
This was a great idea. Also a good gift to give away
Love your blog – it has been added to my favorite list.
Thank you so much!
What a fabulous Post! Thank you! This will be my go to cake recipe form here on out!
When creaming the butter with the dry ingredients, how long should we do it? Can you describe it in more detail what it’ll look like before we start adding the egg whites? Thanks!
I’m joining you for the first time, I’m so very happy to have found your blog and, I thank you from the bottom of my stomach for the wonderful recipes.
I Love it..!
<3
i have my own cake mix recipe too..
thanks, i am gonna try this today..!
My little girl & I made this today
Thanks for such a great recipe!!
I can’t wait to try this! And I’m going to scour your site to see if I can find a white cake tutorial. I’ve made two and both turned out heavy and dense…can’t figure out my problem! Thank you for posting!
We loved everything, Suzanne – especially the cake! I actually ate 1/2 of Henry’s piece on the way home because it was THAT good! Thanks for posting the recipe link – I may try it for Easter
This is a fantastic idea, but I need more than just “add cocoa to the dry ingredients”. How much cocoa?
This will be great for teacher appreciation gifts!!
Hi Amanda,
Just loved the way you packaged everything. Thought, I have one quick question, is the flour that you have mentioned above in the recipe..all purpose flour or something else..I look forward to your reply. Cheers, Taru
hello! i was wondering if you would know if i could use the rainbow cake recipe, but with a chocolate mix instead of white mix as the base? or would that not work??? because chocolate if my fave and i wanted it to be that flavour?
Looked in the pantry tonight and saw I was out of cake mix… so I’m using this!! Thanks for sharing.
Carissa
A quick question about this recipe, which I can’t wait to try. Do you use regular AP flour, or cake/pastry flour?
I’d like to experiment with turning this into a red velvet mix. But for uses like these cookies (http://www.bakerella.com/easy-and-easier-valentine-treats/), could you simply add powdered milk to the mix?
A very lovely and frugal idea! Thanks!
Are the cake pans greased or ungreased? Floured or not?
Love the cake mix! I will never go without cake ever again. I used cake flour, but will all-purpose or any other kind of flour work?
I have been making this recipe for a couple of months now and find that it tastes more like a muffin than a cake so i’ve made giant blueberry muffins, orange cranberry and am about the make some blackberry muffins and banana chocolate toffee muffins for christmas!
Hi,
Just wondered what size tin this mix was for?
Thanks,
Leanne
Hi Amanda Thanks for the recipe m loving it
can u please answer my question
I wanna make this cake but not in white colour i wanna make in red colour and m confuse how much i need to add wilton red red gel paste colour in it or local powder food colour?
Can u plaese answer me in 1-2 day bcz my b day is coming on this weekend and i wanna make a cake in red colour (m not big fan of red velvet that’s y m making white cake but in red colour).
Buy Tc
Have a great day!
Hi Sana… I would start with 1-2 drops of red coloring and move from their. It will just depend on what color you are trying to achieve. Happy Birthday!
OMG I just used this recipe to make cake pops. This is the BEST vanilla cake I’ve ever made. It’s perfect for the cake pop machine, use about 1.5 teaspoons in each well and cook for 4 mins and 30 secs. They are delicious! I used a teensy bit more almond extract than the recipe called for and it turned out great! Thanks!
Wow, this looks so awesome! I’m definitely going to try this out. You mentioned that this could be used for different variations, but how much of what would you need to add to make this a chocolate or red velvet or lemon, etc cake? Any suggestions?
Amazing idea!
Can you substitute this for a cake mix in recipes that call for a white cake mix?
I love this idea! I use cake mixes all the time, but I have a little bit of an issue with the whole “what are these weird chemicals doing in it?” This is so awesome. Just a question, though: How do you make a yellow cake mix? How does it differ from a white cake mix?
Great idea! This would also make a great gift during the holidays (teachers, neighbors, etc)
voila / viola
you say tomato I say tomato!
xx
Did 3 huge batches of chocolate chip cookie mix a couple of weeks ago. Just need to add eggs and vanilla and they were fabulous. I love that I can just do a half a batch also. Definitely doing Brownies and cake mix next!
This looks so easy! Would be a great gift for friends who stubbornly still use box mix even after having a food blogger for a friend, who inundates them with easy baking from scratch recipes!
Can you use regular sugar and not super fine sugar?
Please reply
Yes, of course!
Love this! I hate chemicals and I am not a fan of antifreeze that is why I make everything from scratch! Love this idea!
Do you know how much I love you? I’m going to swap out some things and make it GF, but I’m making a bunch of these!
If you want the easy way out for very fine sugar I would use castor sugar.
I suspect the flour listed in this recipe is Plain Flour – it doesn’t say which type it is. I would use SR Flour, then you don’t need the baking powder.
Hey thanks, I really needed a base for a rhubarb cake and this will be perfect.
I just used the recipe for my daughters birthday party and it was a hit. Everyone loved it. Thanks
Thanks i really needed this recipe.
Just came across this blog post. Brilliant idea! Question – does one recipe batch equal one box of cake mix?
thanks.
Hi, please reply as soon as possible!
Tomorrow I’m trying out a recipe from a new baking book, making tiramisu cupcakes for my mother. The first ingredient is a box of white cake mix … Would this do?
Thanks!
Would you be able to use Splenda in place of sugar?
I am not a fan of Splenda, so I cannot recommend it in any circumstance.
How many cupcakes does this make?:-)
How do you make fine sugar.