Did you know I bake lots of cakes? Like, lots and lots of lots of cakes? I had a homemade white cake recipe that I love but have been on the search for a good (and it must be GOOD) yellow cake recipe. This Yellow Cake Mix is the perfect way to get rid of box mixes or the perfect gift for a friend! This recipe also makes the perfect Birthday Cake!!!
Yellow Cake (Also Called Butter Cake)
There are two reasons that I finally ended up in this yellow cake recipe:
- It’s a one-bowl recipe.
- It uses whole eggs, not 8 egg yolks.
Oh, and one more… it’s the BEST! Tastes amazing.
(If you want this recipe written out to try my Birthday Cake recipe, it is the same delicious yellow cake only written to be made immediately.)
Homemade Cake Mix
The recipe is written to be stored. You prepare the dry ingredients, label them, and store them in your pantry. When you are ready to bake the yellow cake, you remove it from your pantry and add the wet ingredients.
It is a great option if you have a few extra minutes the week before a birthday or special occasion! Not only can making your own cake mixes save you time, but they taste amazing and are real, natural ingredients!
If you want a yellow cake recipe check out this Birthday Cake version. Detailed tips and tricks on how to make this yellow cake from scratch when you do not need to make the yellow cake mix.
Chocolate Buttercream
I couldn’t help but pair this yellow cake with rich chocolate buttercream, as that is my favorite combination.
Yellow Cupcakes
If you would like the CUPCAKE version of the best yellow cake, try this recipe for the Perfect Yellow Cupcake.
How to Gift Yellow Cake Mix
If you want to give this as a gift simply print out the ‘wet’ ingredients and the directions and attach them to the jar. Be sure to add some instructions, though. Something like, “After the cake is cooled call me and I will be right over.” 😉
More Popular Cakes
Yellow Cake
Equipment
- Stand mixer I like this one from Kenmore!
- Round cake pans (or you can use a 9×13 baking dish)
Ingredients
- 2 ¼ cups (281 g) all-purpose flour
- 1 ½ cups (300 g) granulated sugar
- 3 ½ teaspoons baking powder
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1 ¼ cups milk
- ⅛ cup vegetable oil
- ½ cup (1 stick or 113g) butter, softened
- 1 tablespoon vanilla extract
- 3 large eggs
Instructions
Measure flour into quart size mason jar.
- Add sugar on top, then baking powder, then salt. Place lid on jar. (My ingredients JUST fit)
When Ready to Prepare Cake Batter
- Place softened butter into a stand mixer and mix on medium for 1-2 minutes. (You can also use a hand-held mixer)
- Place dry ingredients into stand mixer and combine with butter for 30 seconds.
- Add milk, oil, vanilla and eggs and mix on medium-high for one minute.
- Pour batter into prepared pans. Bake at 350°F. For 8-inch pans it's 20-25 minutes. For cupcakes start checking around 15 minutes. To make in a 9×13, bake for 30-38 minutes. Cool before frosting.
Video
Did you make this recipe?
Thank you for making my recipe! You took pictures, right? Well go ahead and post them on Instagram! Be sure to mention me @iambaker and use the hashtag #YouAreBaker.
Do you have a spice cake mix from scratch recipe?
Hi Amanda
I made this cake for my birthday today. Can’t wait to try it. Do you have a recipe for a chocolate fudge frosting? Similar to the canned frostings you buy in grocery store? I grew up with the yellow cake and dark chocolate frosting and miss that feeling of the birthday cakes my mother made. I looked at your brownie frosting or the mayonnaise cake frosting and wasn’t sure it would hold up for frosting a two layer cake.
Hi Richard! I think a standard chocolate buttercream is superior to the canned stuff, but I highly recommend this one! It’s amazing. https://iambaker.net/chocolate-ermine-frosting/
I love this cake recipe, although I typically find it’s a tad dry. I am trying it today with buttermilk just to see if that will add some more moisture. It’s possible it’s my altitude(causing it to take longer to cook) or maybe my ingredients aren’t room temperature, but I wanted to try it, to see if that will help. I’ll give you an update once we try it. I do use this recipe all the time as is, so today is a test for me. I like to try out different things when something is a little off. I love baking and I love your recipes!!
I love that you are testing it out! Yes, please let me know what works best for you!
I tried it with buttermilk milk and wow, it’s soft and fluffy! It was always good but this just takes it to a new level. It’s not easy making a yellow cake that tastes good everytime, this one is. Adding the buttermilk just brought it to a whole new level! It’s a little tangy, but it’s really good. Maybe adding a little more sugar next time will help, or it could have been a more tangy buttermilk, it was strong (not bad just had allot of punch to it), I will be trying it again. Either way it’s still the best yellow cake recipe I’ve made.
Can you tell me how much buttermilk and if you replaced another ingredient
I just replaced the Milk for buttermilk. That’s it. I think it was my buttermilk that made it more tangy, I’m making this today for my daughters birthday party tomorrow. It’s really good and super easy to make. I like Hood buttermilk, I used a different brand last time that had allot more tang to it. The Hood Brand is way better.
Can I use this recipe (dry ingredients only) when a recipe calls for a box of yellow cake mix? It’s one of those recipes where you use the mix only with other ingredients (not from the back of the box). Hope I made sense 😅
Yes you should be able to, that’s what I use it for! Just note that this recipe doesn’t equal one box of cake mix, it’s more than that. So figure out what a standard box of cake mix is and then take that many ounces/grams.
I used this in place of a cake mix in a St. Louis gooey butter cake recipe. I weighed it out according to the grams on a standard box of cake (432g) and then followed the recipe. It tasted very good, and much better than the box mix, but next time I might add another 2-4 TBS of cake mix because it wasn’t quite the right ratio. Maybe all the extra ingredients in a box mix (preservatives and such) throw it off. You might want to start out with an exact match (per Caitlyn’s response) and then tweak it. 🙂
I literally wanted to make that exact recipe! Thank you for your info!
I will used this to make a friendship cake.
Why do u place dry ingredients in a Mason jar? Is it necessary?
Cake turned out amazing
Yes, It is very necessary.
Hi Amanda,
I cook for a small food pantry where I usually get extra ingredients and some times interesting options. Most recently I had a bunch of Pineapple Tidbits individual containers (4oz) and a bag of Dried Red Tart Cherries. I put five containers of pineapple and a cup of cherries in a bowl to hydrate with the juices which I reserved. Folded the pineapple & cherries into your batter. Made eight individual 6 oz loafs, poked little holes in them and drizzled a Tbsp of juice on each loaf. Its was a match made in heaven!
Delicious !