Would you believe making a homemade cake mix is faster and cheaper than running to the store to buy one in a box? It’s true. Make this homemade cake mix, and never use a box recipe again! You’ll like that it’s made without preservatives, GMOs, or other questionable ingredients, and the taste is top-shelf. Plus, you can store it in one of my favorite items of all time, a Mason jar.
Why I Make Homemade Cake Mix
The original recipe is actually my great-grandmother’s chocolate cake recipe. You know a recipe is a keeper if someone passes it down for generations. No one will continue passing down a recipe that isn’t good! But I don’t always want a chocolate cake, so I reverse-engineered her cake recipe and broke it down into three cake mix variations: vanilla (yellow or white cake), chocolate cake and spice cake.
Homemade cake mix is easy to make. When you practice keeping a well-stocked pantry, you likely already have all the ingredients on hand.
Here’s a little secret of making the holidays easier in the kitchen. You can use this cake mix as a gift or time-saving pantry item along with homemade hot cocoa mix, brownie mix in a jar, or no-knead bread mix in a jar.
Get yourself more from scratch cooking and time-tested recipes in my book, The Made-From-Scratch Life. Then, line your shelves with this homemade cake mix (one of my favorite homemade gift ideas) and stay tuned next week as I share how to turn it into the easiest dump cake recipe ever!
Boxed Mix vs. Homemade
When you look at the back of a boxed cake mix, you may wonder, “What is cake mix made of?” You’ll likely find many unfamiliar (or even illegible) words that are essentially additives and preservatives but certainly not ingredients you use in your own kitchen.
The good news is that you can make a higher quality cake mix without needing these additives with basic pantry staples. Homemade cake mix has a long shelf life because you only prepare the dry ingredients in advance.
Assembling your cake mixes allows you to choose the ingredients carefully, allowing you to swap in healthier ingredients while still preparing your favorite foods.
Pro Tip: One way to maintain the light and fluffy texture that you get with a boxed cake mix is to make homemade cake flour (directions below). This isn’t a necessary step, but it’s recommended to get that light and fluffy cake.
How to Make Cake Flour
To make one cup of cake flour, add two tablespoons of cornstarch to your one-cup measuring cup, then fill it the rest of the way with all-purpose flour. If you need 1/2 cup measurements, add one tablespoon of cornstarch to your 1/2 cup measuring cup and fill the rest with all-purpose flour.
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This video and blog post are sponsored by Azure Standard. I purchase most of my bulk dry goods from Azure. Plus, the Mason jars you see me use for this cake mix are Azure’s new line of Mason jars and I love them!
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Cake Mix Variations
- White or Yellow Vanilla Cake: Note that as the recipe is written below, you will get a yellow vanilla cake mix. If you want to keep your cake white, omit the whole eggs and substitute four egg whites.
- Spice Cake: For a spice cake, follow the vanilla cake modifications, adding 2 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon, 1 tsp ground nutmeg, 1 tsp ground ginger, 1/2 tsp allspice, and 1/4 tsp ground cloves.
- Double Chocolate: To add depth of chocolate flavor, you can add 1/2 cup of cocoa powder and 1/4 cup of chocolate chips to the jar. At time of baking, omit the water, butter and eggs and replace them with 1/2 cup brewed and cooled coffee and 3/4 cup mayonnaise.
How to Make Homemade Cake Mix
Supplies Needed
- Measuring Utensils – You will need measuring cups and spoons for dry and wet ingredients.
- Mason Jar and Lid – Any glass jar would work, but you know I love my Mason jars! You can reuse lids used for canning or buy reusable screw-on covers. Having a hard time finding canning lids? You can try my two favorite sources: ForJars (use coupon code “Melissa10” to get 10% off your order), and Denali Canning Supplies (use code “SPENDNSAVE” to get 15% off orders of $75 or more).
- Canning Funnel – I like to use the wide-mouth canning funnel as it’s easier to pour the ingredients into a larger opening.
- Whisk – A whisk works best for mixing wet and dry ingredients.
- Baking Pan – You can use two 8-inch cake pans for a layer cake, one 9×13 baking cake pan, or cupcake tins. Grease and flour the pans before pouring in the batter.
Ingredients Needed
Dry Mix Ingredients
- Cake Flour – I usually recommend milling fresh flour for most recipes. However, freshly milled flour doesn’t have a long shelf life, which we want for this cake mix. In order to get that nice fluffy texture, I recommend making homemade cake flour (see directions above).
- Sugar – For a healthier swap, try this cane sugar.
- Baking Powder – Lightens the consistency of the cake.
- Salt – Almost no recipe is complete without salt. I love using Redmond Real Salt (use coupon code “Pioneering” to get 15% off your purchase at checkout).
Wet Ingredients
- Butter – The best cakes are made with real butter! For the chocolate version of this cake recipe I’d recommend omitting the butter and using mayonnaise instead. Mayo is the secret to a moist cake. I enjoy making my fool-proof homemade mayonnaise, but when I purchase mayo, I use Chosen Foods Avocado Mayonnaise.
- Milk – Any milk is fine, you can even substitute water if you don’t have milk on hand.
- Eggs – No cake would be complete without eggs! Eggs give structure to cake, creating that height and fluffiness that we all want.
- 1 Teaspoon Vanilla – You can learn to make homemade vanilla extract or use a high-quality store-bought version. Trust me; quality vanilla makes all the difference in flavor.
Instructions for Making Mix in a Jar
- Place the canning funnel on the Mason jar.
- Pour in the flour, sugar, baking powder and salt.
- Tap the top of the dry ingredients to help remove the air pockets and settle all of the ingredients into the jar.
- Place a metal canning lid and band on. Pro-Tip: Wash and dry used canning lids for projects like this.
- Pretty up the jar if you plan to give it as a gift. I especially like this red and white jute twine for the holidays.
Printable Tags for Jars
If you want to give these as a gift, grab the printable tags for the jars here!
Baking Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350°F.
- In a large bowl, combine eggs and vanilla.
- Add dry cake mix ingredients and stir to combine.
- Add softened butter and milk and stir until smooth.
- Pour batter into greased and floured pans. (Recipe makes one 9-inch square cake or 12 cupcakes.)
- Bake at 350°F for 30 to 40 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Bake cupcakes for approximately 16 minutes.
- Allow to cool completely before frosting.
Did you make this recipe? If so, please leave a star rating in the recipe card below. Then snap a photo of your cake mixes in jars and tag me on social media @melissaknorris so I can see!
More Posts You May Enjoy
- Homemade Spice Mixes and Herb Blends
- DIY No-Knead Bread Mix Recipe in a Jar
- DIY Homemade Brownie Mix in Jar- Best Ever Fudge Brownies
- Homemade Pancake Mix
- DIY Homemade Pantry Mixes
- Homemade Hot Cocoa Mix 3 Ways (From Scratch!)
Homemade Cake Mix Recipe
Equipment
- 1 quart-sized Mason jar
Ingredients
Dry Ingredients
- 1.5 cups cake flour
- 3/4 cup sugar
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
Wet Ingredients (For Time of Baking)
- 1/2 cup butter softened
- 1/2 cup milk
- 2 large eggs or 4 egg whites for a white cake
- 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
Instructions
For Cake Mix in a Jar
- Add all dry ingredients into a quart-sized Mason jar.
- Add a two-piece lid and label and date the jar.
Baking Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350°F.
- In a large bowl, combine eggs and vanilla.
- Add dry cake mix ingredients and stir to combine.
- Add softened butter and milk and stir until smooth.
- Pour batter into greased and floured pans. (Recipe makes one 9-inch square cake or 12 cupcakes.)
- Bake at 350°F for 30 to 40 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Bake cupcakes for approximately 16 minutes.
- Allow to cool completely before frosting.
Notes
- Vanilla Cake: When baking, if you’d like to keep your vanilla cake mix white, omit the two eggs and use four egg whites instead.
- Spice Cake: For a spice cake, add to the dry mix 2 1/2 teaspoons ground cinnamon, 1 teaspoon ground nutmeg, 1 teaspoon ground ginger, 1/2 teaspoon allspice, and 1/4 teaspoon ground cloves.
- Double Chocolate: To add depth of chocolate flavor, you can add 1/2 cup of cocoa powder and 1/4 cup of chocolate chips to the jar. At time of baking, omit the water, butter and eggs and replace them with 1/2 cup brewed and cooled coffee and 3/4 cup mayonnaise.
I saw something about a dump cake but didn’t see the actual recipe, only ingredients for a wet batter. Dump cakes use dry cake mix, but where does the flavoring come in, using your recipe, dry ? Thank you, I’d love to do this (no eggs!)
Hi Karen, I added the links to the dump cake recipes but here it is as well https://melissaknorris.com/pioneering-today-french-apple-dump-cake-recipe/
Hi Mellissa,
This sounds like a great recipe to make especially now in the cooler season. I have started about three months ago to mill my own flour. How do you make cake flour with only fresh milled flour? What berries and how much would you use to make the cake flour?
Thank you so so much.
I don’t recommend using fresh ground flour for a jar mix that won’t be used immediately as you’ll lose the nutrient benefits and fresh ground flour will go rancid if not used quickly.
I absolutely adore your recipes and articles. Your article on pruning helped a lot. Thank you for this recipe. My family loves this recipe as with all the recipes in your books.
Thank you! I keep this on hand for when I want a small cake, or when I am using an older recipe that calls for an 18.5 oz. box mix and need to add some the the new smaller sized mixes. This is a fast and easy correction for that ‘shrinkflation’ we have all experienced.
My granddaughter is gluten free. I would like to make these as a surprise for her to have on hand and also to keep for when she visits. Can I use a gluten free flour and does anything need to be added to the flour?
Dump cake gets a 5 star. Love having the premade jars ready to go! But, I just made the chocolate cake and the batter was very thick. I used a 9” round cake pan. Instructions say omit the wet, but add 1/2c coffee and 3/4c mayo. Just wasn’t enough liquid and it baked a bit dry and more brownie like. What am I missing?
i made the spice cake and it was very thick batter, cooked dents and quite dry. I added an extra quarter cup of milk but that didn’t seem to do it either. I’m not sure what I did wrong but followed the instructions exactly other than the milk.
it would be possible to store this on ziplock bags or heat sealed bags?
2 questions. 1. The original recipe is supposed to be for chocolate? There is no chocolate listed in the original recipe or the variations (other than the double chocolate).
2. The instructions say “This recipe makes one 9-inch square cake or 12 cupcakes” but the supplies needed says “Baking Pan – You can use two 8-inch cake pans for a layer cake, one 9×13 baking cake pan, or cupcake tins. ”
Can you clarify please?
What size jar do you use? I’m thinking pints because the dry ingredients are just under 2 cups.
Hi Melissa, on your chocolate cake recipe it says to omit the water but do you mean the milk? Thanks
Hi. Watched your video on dump cake. Yum. My mother in-law use to make scratch dump cake. She would broil the roping after it baked. It made it crunchy. Try that. Really good.
I made several mixes, but The link gives me a recipe for grandmas chocolate cake. Is that correct?
i’m going to make the vanilla cake for me and give the jars to friends for christmas. when i download the labels the vanilla cake mix goes to hang tags for bread instead of the cake. can you either fix the existing link or put a new link in the answer for me?
The links have been updated and are correct now.
Hello! I was wondering what the shelf life is for these cake mixes?
Thank you 😊
That depends on the age of the ingredients you’re using.
What is the shelf life of the Homemade Cake Mix?
The shelf life of the ingredients you used when you made it.
So excited to add this to my gift baskets for Christmas!! Thank you!!
I can’t find the video to use this as a dump cake. Can you please point me in the right direction? Thank you so much.
It publishes Wednesday
Instead of using cornstarch for the homemade cake flour, could arrowroot powder be substituted?
I would use potato starch
Going to make some this week and wanted to see about making some with fruit flavors and didn’t see any questions about that so throwing it out do you recommend quantity for adding dehydrated fruit and a little fruit juice plus keep the rest of recipe the same?
There was so much wrong with this mix the cake was dry and too sweet and very dense – are you sure it’s only 1 tsp baking powder – should the butter be melted not softened – was is really only 1/2 cup milk the batter as mine was a very thick & it took nearly an hour to cook in a 8 inch deep tin – the top was very hard I think I was expecting a nice sponge 🥴
Printed the labels for CAKE MIX; are 2 eggs missing from the ADD list (which includes mayo, cold water, coffee & vanilla)? The vanilla printed label adds eggs. Thank you for the great idea & recipes
The vanilla is correct the one with mayo is for the chocolate cake mix (as stated in the link) and because it uses mayonnaise (which have eggs) you don’t use them
Hi there! Quick question if I want to turn this into a Paleo style cake could I omit the cake flour and use a Paleo flour or almond flour?
Thanks for all that you do! Megan.😊
If I wanted a traditional 9″ x 13″ doubling the ingredients would be wrong…. Have you already done the calculations for that?
Thanks!
LuAnn
Yes, you would double the recipe for a 9×13 pan.
What elevation are you at? I’m wondering this because I’m at 5000 ft. and have to adjust my sugar, levening and flour if that hasn’t been done. Thanks.
Love the idea of making my own cake mix.
Thank you for asking this! I was wondering that too!