I was wondering if anyone here makes their own cake mixes. I was thinking that maybe I could pre-measure the dry ingredients and store them in a zip lock bag so that I wouldn't have to measure them out each time and make a bigger mess to clean up.

How long would the mix be good for?
Would this work?
Would ziplock bags be airtight enough?

This might help:

http://busycooks.about.com/library/print02/ncakemix.htm

http://www.recipegoldmine.com/mixes/mixes64.html

Found some more:

This makes A LOT

http://tinyurl.com/y925tz

More;

http://tinyurl.com/y4sj75

http://www.budget101.com/Cake%20Mixes.htm

Okay, that should keep you busy for a while!

My wife (RedPanda) remembered checking a book out of our local library. It gives directions for a wide variety of mixes, including cake mixes. It also tells how to store them.

The book is Make-A-Mix by Karine Eliason, Nevada Harward, Madeline Westover (ISBN: 1555610730 - $13.62 from Amazon).

They do give some excerpts on the Amazon site, including the table of contents.

Hope this helps.

PhrodoD

hmmm...I didn't realize that all of that information was even available. THANKS!!!

I do have recipes that I already use that don't have those same ingredients, but I guess that I can assume if I just mix the flour, sugar, baking powder, salt and vanilla (I use a powdered pure bourbon vanilla) and cocoa for chocolate cakes that it should be fine for at least a month or two??? I use mostly butter for the fat, so I would consider that a wet ingredient to add later.

I work fulltime as a branch manager of a very busy law firm and a mother of a vivacious 2 year old, so time is VERY limited. All of a sudden that it's out that I'm trying to learn how to decorate cakes, I have been inundated with orders. It's great, but a little intimidating. I would like to make scratch cakes, but still save time wherever I can.

Derby are you by Fort Bragg? I might inquire an order for my son who is stationed over there. LOL...Seriously

Making your own mixes? Hmmmm...that's an awesome time-saver....

I suppose you can vacuum seal them with the Food-Saver or similar appliance to lengthen the shelf life. You can store them in the freezer, also. But even in the pantry, they would last just as long as the individual ingredients themselves. A lot longer than 2 months, I would assume.

I'm going to read the links...thanks!

I wonder how well this would work, or taste. I like using the boxed mixes and adding the extender to them to make them fill out the pans more. Not sure if I could get that from the homemade cake mix or not.

I use the Cake Bible's yellow and white cake recipes, so I was just thinking that I could combine the dry ingredients and put them into a ziplock back for each batch just to save some time.

Thanks for the responses....I think that I'm going to try this!

I have premixed mine a lot of times. I do store them in ziploc bags in the fridge. I do this especially if I am going to have a bake sale or prior to the holidays. It is just like buying the cookie mix or cake mix in a jar. It will last a long time especially if you try to squish the air out of the bag. I think the longest I have kept any is about 6 months. That is only because I forgot about it. Normally they don't last that long before I use them. They will keep good though for a long time.

don't add the leavening poweders to your mixes as they tend to lose their potency. Add those as you use the mixes.

I have an Amish cook book that has recipes to make a big batch of mix and then you take what you need to make various cakes..I'll see if I still can find it and maybe post the recipes...

If I know I'm baking multiple cakes, I pre-measure my dry ingredients at once and keep them in ziplock bags. That way I save a lot of time.... I don't keep them for months, just a week ahead.

Derby-I have my own recipes that I put all the dry ingredients in ziplocs, mark the outside with a permanent marker and keep in the pantry. (oops, I first typed "panty"!!). If I double the recipe, I write "X 2" on the outside so I know it is a doubled recipe. Then all I have to do is cream the butter and sugar, add the eggs and then the dry ingredients from the plastic bag. It does save a bunch of time and I still like baking from scratch best! Don't give up on that...Good luck with your business and keep it fun..

thanks you guys i have always wondered if the mix can be store. but i am still wondering can i substitute crisco for butter or magarine, at what quantity?

hi, i make my cakes from scratch, have never used ready cake mixes, because uptil last year they were not available where i live. you can measure out flour , sugar , if the baking agent has a long expiry u can add it to the flour too, and for choclate cakes u can add cocoa to the flour and have different bags for each recipe. u can also weigh out the butter, store in ziplock bag ,weigh out a few and store in one tin and keep refrigerated.when u need u just pick one bag or two as per recipe.this way no weighing, which will save u time. hope this helps.

I found the recipe and the variations...I will post in a seperate thead under RECIPES.

This mix keeps up to 3 months and makes the following cakes

Plain cake
White cake
Buttermilk cake
Orange Cake
Chocolate Cake
Spice Cake
Applesauce Cake
Applesauce Raisin Bars
Pineapple Raisin Bars
Pineapple Upside Down Cake
Dessert
Chocolate Cinnamon Bars


I will be tweaking this recipe to see if I can market it, I am debuting it here..lol


So, go to the recipe section...and find it. If you use this, please give me credit. Thanks!!

(in other words, shoot me an email and let me know how you like [email protected])