Learn how to make homemade cake mix with simple ingredients in three classic flavors: yellow, white, and chocolate. It's perfect for baking cupcakes, sheet cakes, layer cakes, or any dessert that calls for boxed cake mix. It stores beautifully and bakes up light, fluffy, and flavorful every time.
See my tasty homemade buttercream frosting recipes and my guide on how to frost a cake for decorating tips.
Jump to:
- ❓ What Is Homemade Cake Mix
- 1. White Cake Mix
- 2. Yellow Cake Mix
- 3. Chocolate Cake Mix
- 🧑🍳 How To Bake Homemade Cake Mix
- 🥡 Storing
- 🎁 How To Gift Homemade Cake Mix
- 💭 Tips For Making The Best Cake Mix From Scratch
- 🧁 Homemade Frosting Recipes
- 📖 Recipe Card
- How To Make Homemade Cake Mix: Homemade White Cake Mix (+More Great Flavors!)
- 💬 Comments & Reviews
Cake mix makes baking quick and easy, but it often lacks the rich flavor you get from a cake made completely from scratch (though I do have tips for how to make boxed cake mix taste better!).
With homemade cake mix, you get the best of both worlds. All the convenience of a store-bought mix and the delicious, made-from-scratch taste you love. It’s cost-effective, customizable, and perfect for everything from extravagant tiered cakes to easy dump cake recipes.
❓ What Is Homemade Cake Mix
Cake mix is a combination of dry ingredients used in baking a cake that can easily be stored and measured out when needed. To bake, all you have to do is mix in the necessary wet ingredients, and you are good to go!
While all DIY cake mixes are similar, the ingredients do vary slightly depending on what type of cake you'll be baking. They all contain common baking staples like flour, sugar, and baking powder, as well as some ingredients that may be unique to the specific cake flavor (like cocoa powder for a chocolate cake).
Choose a cake mix flavor, whisk together the ingredients, and then either use the mix immediately or store it for later.
1. White Cake Mix
White cake is a classic option that is loaded with vanilla flavor. It gets its iconic stark white appearance by omitting egg yolks from the recipe.
You'll need cake flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt for this easy mix. The cake flour is key to getting a super soft and tender cake (learn how to make cake flour).
2. Yellow Cake Mix
Yellow cake is another classic option that is great for any occasion. It's also flavored using vanilla, but it includes whole eggs instead of only the whites.
This recipe calls for all-purpose flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Each is a common pantry staple that I keep in stock.
3. Chocolate Cake Mix
This homemade cake mix will give you a rich and decadent chocolate cake without fail. It's perfect for birthdays, celebrations, or just because!
You'll need all-purpose flour, sugar, cocoa powder, baking soda, and salt. I recommend adding the optional espresso powder to make the chocolate flavor really pop.
>>>See All Of My Tasty Recipes Here!<<<
🧑🍳 How To Bake Homemade Cake Mix
When you're ready to bake your cake, you'll need to add a few wet ingredients. Just like the dry ingredients, the wet ingredients will vary slightly for each variety of cake.
Step 1: Add the wet ingredients. Simply add your dry ingredients into a large bowl, pour the wet ingredients in, and mix until smooth. This includes ingredients such as eggs, milk, butter, oil, and vanilla.
Step 3: Choose your cake. Check your cake mix recipe to see how much batter you will need. For my recipes listed above, you can bake a bundt cake, a 9x13 cake, two 8 or 9-inch tiers, or 18-24 cupcakes.
Step 4: Bake. Preheat your oven to 350°F (175°C)/Gas Mark 4. You can use the following times as a guideline for how long your cake will take to bake.
- 8 or 9-inch cake rounds: 20-25 minutes
- Cupcakes: 12-15 minutes
- 9x13 cake: 35-40 minutes
- Bundt cake: 45-50 minutes
Don't add any frosting until your cake has completely cooled. Try mixing and matching cake flavors with your favorite varieties of frosting for a delicious customized dessert.
🥡 Storing
Homemade cake mix should be stored in an airtight jar or container. It can be kept at room temperature in a cool, dry, and dark place (such as the pantry). When stored properly, your cake mix will be good for up to 3 months.
*If you have a cake mix that includes powdered milk, you should store it in the refrigerator for up to 3 months.
Freezing
To extend the shelf life of your homemade cake mix, store it in an airtight container or freezer-safe bag and freeze for up to 6 months. Let it come to room temperature before using for best results.
🎁 How To Gift Homemade Cake Mix
If you want to make a homemade cake mix to give as a gift, I recommend layering each of the dry ingredients in the jar rather than whisking them together. It looks nice and makes the gift feel like it took more time and effort than it did.
Write instructions on a tag, including wet ingredients needed, temperature to bake, and how long to bake the cake. Tie the tag to the lid and stick a bow on top.
💭 Tips For Making The Best Cake Mix From Scratch
- Spoon and level the flour. Anytime you measure flour, always use the spoon and level method. To do this, simply fluff up the flour and use a spoon to scoop it into your measuring cup before leveling off the top. If you scoop the flour out of the container directly with your measuring cup, you could be packing too much flour into the cup, causing dry cake.
- Check your expiration dates. Baking powder and baking soda can lose their effectiveness over time, so make sure to use fresh ingredients for the best results. You'll want fresh leavening agents if you're storing the mix.
- Sift the dry ingredients. For best results, sift the dry ingredients before combining (either for gifting or storing for yourself).
- Customize your cake mix. You can add dry flavor boosters like cinnamon, nutmeg, espresso powder, or cocoa powder directly to the dry mix to tailor it for specific recipes.
Are you going to start making homemade cake mixes? Leave a comment and let me know which flavor you are making first!
🧁 Homemade Frosting Recipes
- Lemon Cream Cheese Frosting - This citrus-packed frosting would pair perfectly with white, yellow, or lemon cake.
- Strawberry Cream Cheese Frosting - A sweet frosting that is made using freeze-dried strawberries.
- Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Buttercream - This irresistible frosting tastes great on any variety of cake.
- Oreo Buttercream - Add this buttercream to a chocolate or white cake for a cookies-and-cream vibe.
- Vanilla Buttercream - Vanilla frosting is perfect for any flavor of cake.
- Chocolate Buttercream - Use this rich buttercream on a chocolate cake for a dessert that is extra indulgent.
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📖 Recipe Card
How To Make Homemade Cake Mix: Homemade White Cake Mix (+More Great Flavors!)
Ingredients
Homemade White Cake Mix
- 2¾ cups cake flour (or all-purpose flour)
- 1½ cups sugar
- 4 teaspoon baking powder
- ½ teaspoon salt
- ½ cup powdered milk (optional, or use buttermilk powder)
Wet Ingredients To Add
- 5 large egg whites
- 1⅓ cups milk (if powdered milk was omitted, *see notes)
- ½ cup butter (melted, or use shortening)
- 2 teaspoon vanilla extract (or 1 teaspoon almond extract)
(Note: 2x or 3x only changes the ingredient list)
Instructions
Homemade White Cake Mix
- In a medium to large mixing bowl, add all of the measured dry ingredients (2¾ cups cake flour, 1½ cups sugar, 4 teaspoon baking powder, ½ teaspoon salt, and optional ½ cup powdered milk), then whisk to combine.
- Transfer into an airtight storage container and store until you're ready to use the cake mix. *See notes for proper storage.
Adding Wet Ingredients
- In a large mixing bowl or the bowl of your stand mixer, make a well in the center of the dry ingredients.
- Add all of the wet ingredients (5 large egg whites, 1⅓ cups milk, melted ½ cup butter, and 2 teaspoon vanilla extract) and combine.
- Baking times at 350°F (175°C/Gas Mark 4): 8" or 9" round cakes, bake for 20-25 minutes18-24 cupcakes, bake for 12-15 minutes9x13 cake pan, bake for 35-40 minutesbundt or tube pan, bake for 45-50 minutesFor any of these baking times, check the middle of the cakes or cupcakes with an inserted toothpick. When it comes out clean with no clinging batter, then the cakes are done. They should also spring back to the touch when you gently press on the top.
Notes
- To use all-purpose flour in this recipe, decrease the amount of flour to 2½ cups per recipe or see how to make cake flour or my cake flour substitute guide here.
- The powdered milk is an optional ingredient. Use whole milk for best results, Nido is my favorite brand.
- Superfine sugar (like caster sugar) works best in this recipe. You can run the granulated white sugar through a food processor if desired.
- When combining your cake mix ingredients with wet ingredients to bake, use 1⅓ cups milk if the powdered milk was omitted. Use 1¼ cups water if the powdered milk was in the cake mix.
- 5 large egg whites = ¼ cup + 2 tablespoons of liquid egg whites. 2 egg whites = 1 large egg (yes, you can use whole eggs in the recipe but you will need 2½ eggs).
- To use powdered eggs, you will need 3 tablespoons of water + 1 tablespoon of powdered egg. Increase to make enough for 2½ whole eggs, so 7½ tablespoons water + 2½ tablespoons powdered egg.
- If using freeze-dried butter powder, you will need to rehydrate ½ cup of butter powder with 1½ tablespoons water. It can be mixed into the dry ingredients but remember to add a bit more water too.
- Use shortening to keep your white cake mix ultra-white.
- To store: If made with the core 4 ingredients (flour, sugar, salt, baking powder), the mixture can be stored at room temperature. If using powdered milk, store it in the refrigerator until ready to use.
- Makes 2 8" or 9" round cakes, 18-24 cupcakes, or a 9x13 cake.
- If you've made this easy white cake mix recipe in bulk, you will need to measure out 4¾ cups per cake, or 4¼ cups of cake mix if the powdered milk was omitted.
Beth says
How could I make a lemon variation and a strawberry variation if I wanted to make cake mix cookies?
Angela Latimer says
I would add the fruit as your wet ingredients. Use pureed freeze-dried strawberries or a strawberry reduction with the base cake mix when mixing. For lemon, I would use lemon juice or extract with freshly grated lemon zest. I don't have base recipes for these cake mixes up yet, so this is where I would start if I were making cake mix cookies.
Audrey Knight says
If I made a really large batch of the mix, how much of it should I use to make a cake? Thanks!
Angela @ BakeItWithLove.com says
Hi there, the standard recipe Makes x2 8" or 9" round cakes, 18-24 cupcakes, or a 9x13 cake.
If you've made this easy white cake mix recipe in bulk, you will need to measure out 4¾ cups per cake or 4¼ cups of cake mix if the powdered milk was omitted.
Hope that helps!
Kim Pippin says
Why does the batch with powdered milk have to be refrigerated.
Angela Latimer says
It's best to keep it in a cool, dry, and dark place (like a basement or fridge) even when in the powdered form since it is a dairy product. Thanks for asking!