Today I am going to share something with you that will make you jump for joy as a busy mom or grandma. I am going to show you how to make your very own cake mix in under 5 minutes. I came up with this mix when I was strapped for time making a cake for a birthday party. I went to the store and grabbed one of the cake mixes from the shelf and looked at the ingredients. YIKES. I put it back on the shelf and decided to make my own. Here are some of ingredients in a Duncan Hine’s cake mix:
- Vegetable Oil Shortening
- Partially Hydrogenated Soybean Oil
- Propylene Glycol Mono-and Diesters Of Fats (WHAT?? this sounds like motor oil)
- Polyglycerol Esters Of Fatty Acids
- Gum Arabic
- Yellow 5 Lake) (this sounds like a pretty crayon color).
My solution was to come up with my own cake mix. One that I could have on hand at any time and would give me the same conveniences of a boxed mix. A cake mix that I could feel good about feeding my family. I did A LOT of experimentation, you can thank me later, and what I came up with I am quite proud of. In fact my little brother tasted the cake and said that I should sell the mix. Not only does it taste good, but it is also good for you. Look at the benefits of making this mix over a boxed mix;
- 78% more fiber
- 72 % of the magnesium
- 78 % more chromium
- 62% more zinc
- 72% more vitamin E
- 50% more folic acid
Those facts are just from using soft white wheat flour. A word on wheat flour. Sometimes people hear the word wheat flour and cringe. They are used to the store bought wheat flour that tastes bitter. Most of the wheat flour you buy in the store comes form red wheat. Did you know there are different varieties of wheat? Soft white wheat is another variety of wheat that doesn’t have a bitter taste and produces the BEST baked goods. You can buy soft white wheat to grind your own flour at Good Earth, or at Alpine Food Storage, or King Arthur sells pre-ground soft white wheat.
There is also ground flax in the mix. Flax has been known to help with depression and it is also FULL of fiber. In a study done by American Clinic of Nutrition they found that woman who ate the most fiber were 49% less likely to gain weight compared to those eating refined grains. Buy your flax in the whole form. The already ground flax has lost a lot of nutrition. Grind the flax in your blender not your grain grinder. Flax has too high of an oil content and will ruin your grinder. Once you have ground your flax store it in the freezer so that it doesn’t lose it’s nutrition. I like to buy my flax in bulk at Alpine Food Storage, or from Walton Feed. You can find it at any major grocery store as well, but it is cheaper buying it in bulk.
O.k. have I sold you on making your own mix yet. Lets get to it.
Here are the ingredients: baking powder, soft white wheat flour, turbinado sugar ( or sugar), butter (or you can use coconut oil), and salt, and ground flax(not picture in the line up-sorry flax).
Step 1; Put all of the dry ingredients into the food processor. Pulse it until the mix is completely mixed together.
Step: 2 Chop up your cold butter into pieces.
Step 3: Add it to the food processor while it is going. Let the mixture go until it resembles sand. You shouldn’t have any big chunks of butter.
There you go now you have your own healthy cake mix! Easy peasy. Just three simple steps. Now just put it in a zip loc bag and label it. I store mine in my fridge or freezer. It keeps for 10-12 weeks. I like to make a few of the mixes at a time, saving you time and dishes in the future. Healthy moms have to think smart.
You can substitute this mix into any recipe that calls for a cake mix. Just remember to add a teaspoon of vanilla to the recipe, because you don’t have vanilla already in the mix like boxed mixes do.
Update: I figured out to make it gluten free, I will post it!
Note: The baking times might vary from what I listed below. I live at high altitude and the cakes have taken me from 40-50 minutes to bake. Adjust accordingly if it isn’t done. To check if the cake is done the top should be golden brown and a toothpick inserted in the middle should come out clean.
Make Your Own Yellow Cake Mix
2 C soft white wheat flour
1/4 C ground flax ( I like golden best)
1 1/2 C turbinado sugar, sucanat, coconut sugar, or sugar*
1/2 tsp salt
1 T baking powder
1/2 C cold butter, or coconut oil
1. In a food processor pulse to combine all of the ingredients except for the butter.
2. Cut up the stick of butter into 4 or 5 pieces.
3. Add the butter to the mix.
3. Pulse the butter into the dry mix until it resembles sand.
4. Store the mix in a zip loc bag in the fridge, freezer, or pantry for 10-12 weeks.
When you are ready to make your cake, follow these instructions:
1. Pour the mix into a medium sized mixing bowl. Add in 3/4 C milk (almond milk, coconut milk etc.), and 1 1/4 tsp vanilla.
2. Beat the mixture with a hand mixer until just incorporated.
3. To the mixture add in two eggs. Mix until the eggs are incorporated into the batter.
4. Pour batter into a greased pan. Bake at 350.
For a 9×13 bake 30-40 minutes
For a cake pan 20-30 minutes
For cupcakes fill them 2/3′s full and bake for 20-30 minutes.
Tips: for a denser more nutritious cake add 1/4 C more flax and take out 1/4 C of the sweetener.
* I recommend using one of the natural sweeteners in place of sugar. Read more about it here.
Would this work with gluten free flour as well??
Beth-I am not sure. I need to experiment. I knew it would work with wheat flour so I started there first. I was thinking I needed to make it gluten free. What I thought would work would be a flour blend of equal parts brown rice flour, sorghum, and arrow root starch to replace the 2 C of flour. If you try it first let me know if it worked.
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I made this today! I added some cocoa for a light chocolate flavor and we topped it with with whipped cream. So good–now I just need to make up some mixes for the freezer!
Great idea. How much cocoa did you add? I will have to try that. I have been thinking of making brownies out of a chocolate cake mix…..
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Do you think you could use this to make pumpkin muffins (ie. the weight watchers ones) where you just add a can of pumpkin to a box of cake mix and some water? My kids LOVE those muffins (and I like how easy they are) but I would prefer not to use the boxed mixes.
Jana-I think it would work. Just add a tsp. of vanilla to the muffins because there isn’t any vanilla in the mix like boxed mixes have. Try it and let me know. I love pumpkin cookies with a boxed mix too.