Print the recipe card!  homemade yellow cake mix

Another food storage-tweeked recipe from “Chickens in the Road”.  A moist yellow cake mix that’s great on it’s own or used as a base for a number of other cake variations!

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Ingredients:

3 cups flour

2 cups sugar

1 TBS baking powder

1/2 cup powdered milk

1/2 cup butter powder (*see notes)

3 TBS whole egg powder

1 1/2 tsp. vanilla

1 3/4 cups water

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Instructions:

Combine the dry ingredients, being sure to sift well as needed.  When ready to bake, heat oven to 350 degrees.  Mix dry mixture with vanilla and water and bake in a greased and floured cake pan according to the following baking times:

8″ or 9″ cake pans — 20-25 minutes
13 x 9 pan — 35-40 minutes
cupcakes — 12-15 minutes
tube/bundt pan — 45-50 minutes

Turn out the cake, removing the wax paper or parchment liner (if used) and finish as desired.

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Baked and getting ready to be finished.

To finish, I decided to simply stencil with powdered sugar.  The first cake got polka dots using a metal steamer I had on hand.

Next,  my cute daughter came up with this stencil idea (in honor of the blog) which she cut out of cardstock.

Cake time!

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Notes:

• As always, be “as strict as an Italian Grandmother” when it comes to the butter powder you use.  It’ll kill your recipe if you don’t have a good one.

• There are a lot of fun variations using this recipe as a “base”.  Here are a few ideas:  add a jar of (drained) chopped maraschino cherries for a “cherry cake”.  Use almond extract instead of vanilla.  Swap in 1/4 cup of lemon juice (reducing the water by the same amount) for a “lemon cake”.  Reduce the water to 3/4 cup and add a 20 oz. can of crushed pineapple.  And the list goes on…let us know if you come up with a great variation!

 The following “how-to” was posted with my Deluxe Chocolate Cake Mix, but I thought I’d post it again here since it’s the way I usually prepare my pans if I’m making a cake.  {It’s always a good thing to have a cake come out of the pan as it should!}

Preparing a Cake Pan

I’m notorious for losing my cakes (still stuck to the pans) once it’s time to turn them out.  Even oiling and flouring the pans seem insufficient for my bad luck.  The best way I’ve found to do it involves an extra step of tracing and inserting an additional oiled and floured piece of wax paper.  It’s an extra step, but the cake always comes out nicely this way.

(Step by step credit:  Better Homes and Gardens)

1. Brush pan with shortening or oil

   

   Using a pastry brush or paper towel, brush solid shortening evenly over the bottom of the pan, being careful not to leave any uncoated, shiny spots.

2. Grease sides and corners  When greasing the sides and corners of the pan, turn the pan as you grease. Don’t grease all the way to the top of the pan; grease only about 1 inch up the sides.
3. Flour the pan

   

   When pan is completely greased, sprinkle a couple of spoonfuls of all-purpose flour into the bottom of it. If you’re baking a chocolate cake, consider using unsweetened cocoa powder instead of flour for a nice deep brown color.

4. Evenly distribute flour

   

   To distribute the flour over the pan, hold one edge of the pan and tap the opposite edge with your free hand. The flour will “skate” over the greased surface and stick to it. When the bottom of the pan is coated, tilt the pan, tapping to move the flour over the sides. Tap out any extra flour into your sink.

How to Line a Pan with Waxed Paper or Parchment Paper

The extra step of lining the bottom of the pan with waxed or parchment paper is an even surer method for getting the cake out of the pan. Keep in mind that you can only use this method for cakes baked in flat-bottom pans. (Use the grease-and-flour method, above, for fluted tube pans).

1. Trace the pan  After greasing your pan (following the steps above), set the pan on a piece of waxed or parchment paper and trace around it with a pencil.
2. Cut paper  With a clean pair of scissors, cut just inside the traced line on the paper.
3. Fit paper, then grease and flour  Fit the cut piece of paper into the pan, pressing it into the corners and smoothing out any wrinkles or bubbles. Unless otherwise specified in the recipe, grease the top of the paper and then flour the pan (following the steps above).