Name: Homemade Cake Mix
Ingredients: 7-1/2 cups sifted flour; 1 Tbsp. salt; 4-1/2 cups sugar; 4 Tbsp. double acting baking powder; 3/4 cup oil; 2 tsp vanilla extract

Why it works: Sugar and vanilla are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and 35,032 recipes mention both. Both carry beta-damascenone, which smells apple, rose. The science ↓

Homemade Cake Mix

Ingredients

Directions

In very large bowl, combine flour, salt, sugar and baking powder and mix well to blend
Place oil and vanilla in food processor bowl along with 2 cups of the flour mixture. Cover and process until mixture is very fine. Make sure that the butter is completely evenly distributed in the flour mixture. If it isn't, your cakes will have uneven texture and each will turn out differently.
Return to bowl with remaining flour mixture and mix well using a wire whisk.
Divide the cake mix into three equal portions (about 4 cups each) by lightly scooping the mix into measuring cups and leveling off with the back of a knife.
Place each portion into a quart glass jar or heavy duty zip lock plastic bags.
Cover tightly and store in the refrigerator for up to a month, or in the freezer for up to 3 months.
Each portion of cake mix will make two 8" cakes or one 13x9" cake.
Make sure that you follow the directions for using the mix, including beating times, to the letter. The gluten in the flour has to develop a bit to form the cake's structure. And the butter needs to be dissolved in the batter for the best texture.
Category:Cake Mix Recipes

Recipe from the Recipes Wiki (Fandom).

This recipe comes from the Recipes Wiki on Fandom and is licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Our formatting and summaries are shared under the same licence.

Explore the science

The flavor team

The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much aroma chemistry they share, and how many recipes mention both.

Sugar + vanillatop 8% of all pairs

Aroma overlaplow

Mentioned together35,032 recipes

Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).
Flour + vanillatop 12% of all pairs

Aroma overlapmoderate

Mentioned together19,241 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Flour + sugartop 15% of all pairs

Aroma overlapmoderate

Mentioned together92,116 recipes

Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).

Sugar and vanilla share little aroma chemistry, yet 35,032 recipes mention both: they likely work on texture and structure more than aroma.

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

Flavor stand-ins for the vanilla

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (flour, sugar):

Raisinbetter flavor fit
Vanillathe original

Fit is the average pairing score against flour, sugar. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes. This compares flavor only: it does not check the job the ingredient does in the dish (bulk, moisture, acidity, structure).