Homemade cake mixes as a gift

We're doing a super-cheap 'Secret Santa' thing at work for only £2 and rather than buying something silly (which I'm guessing most people will as £2 really isn't much to go on...$3.20!) I thought perhaps I could do something like this with a layered homemade cake mix in a jar, ready for eggs/oil/etc to be added (as I already have all the ingredients lying around I'd just need to buy a nice jar and some ribbon). I'd love to know if anyone has any tried and tested suggestions for what recipe I could use for a homemade 'cake mix'! I'm hesitant to use any of my standard cookie/cake recipes because most of them involve creaming butter & sugar together first, etc, rather than just chucking it all in together, and I don't really have time to do a test run beforehand. Unfortunately I don't know who my gift will go to - we all just pick one out of the sack - but as far as I'm aware no one in my office has any life-threatening allergies to nuts or anything, so pretty much anything is possible.

Low-carb suggestions would be a bonus, as the person I have for another Secret Santa (I need to stop agreeing to take part in Secret Santas, haha) is pretty strictly low-carb and I thought it might be nice to make her a nice treat too.

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lizziebuffy2008 4th-Dec-2012 12:17 am (UTC)

I wonder about being able to do the cake mix, just because of what you said above about ingredients needing to go in in a specific order, but what about a home made pancake mix or home made hot cocoa mix.

http://www.kingarthurflour.com/recipes/light-n-tender-wheat-oat-pancake-mix-recipe

From Cook's Country:
Best-Ever Hot Cocoa Mix
2/2007
Makes about 20 servings 3 cups nonfat dry milk
2 cups confectioners' sugar 1 1/2 cups Dutch-processed cocoa powder 1 1/2 cups white chocolate chips
1/4 teaspoon salt
Combine ingredients in large bowl. Working in two batches, pulse ingredients in food processor until chocolate is finely ground. Store in airtight container for up to 3 months. To make hot cocoa, stir 1/3 cup of this mix into 1 cup of hot milk. Top with whipped cream or mini marshmallows.

superbadgirl 4th-Dec-2012 12:30 am (UTC)

Here's a recipe that looks like you dump all of the ingredients together willy-nilly and mix. I've not made this one in particular, but I totally have dumped and mixed before and everything turned out okay. ;)

Rats, didn't see it called for melted, cooled chocolate. I'll bet you might be able to figure out a cocoa substitute?

Edited at 2012-12-04 12:32 am (UTC)

baby_rissa_chan 4th-Dec-2012 03:02 am (UTC)

I haven't tried this myself, but Hillbilly Housewife has a recipe for a homemade chocolate cake mix - http://www.hillbillyhousewife.com/tag/dark-chocolate-cake-mix

lizas_lines 4th-Dec-2012 03:48 am (UTC)

The Martha Stewart one bowl chocolate cake is my go-to simple cake, and does just call for having the dry ingredients all dumped in at once! It does make a lot of cake though - http://www.marthastewart.com/346395/one-bowl-chocolate-cake

givemethepen 4th-Dec-2012 06:12 pm (UTC)

This looks good! Nice and simple. Perhaps I'll half it. I'll see how much I can fit into the jars I have haha :)

annaonthemoon 4th-Dec-2012 07:43 am (UTC)

it would be hard to do a low-carb cake for the cheap. I purchase low-carb baking mix for £13 every few months and artificial sweetener isn't cheap, either. An alternative would be finding something that uses almond flour/ground almonds or coconut flour or flaxseed, but again I think you'll run into a problem with the cost of the ingredients.

What about a homemade spice mix for the low-carber?

(no subject) -

najrg - Expand

kireic 4th-Dec-2012 02:39 pm (UTC)

How forrtuitous! I just did a bunch of work on cake mixes for work. I used this one for chocolate: http://www.tammysrecipes.com/homemade_deluxe_chocolate_cake_mix

It's very, very good. I didn't make any changes to it at all. Yellow cake is trickier in my experience - it tends to be great fresh and then gets denser and tougher by the next day.

For gluten free ideas, making a spice mix as suggested above sounds really good! You could make sachets of mulling spice for wine/cider, or you could make a bottle (or two?) of curry blend, Italian blend, etc. Another one that occurs to me is glazed nuts - fairly easy and cheap to make, seasonal, and looks nice in a gussied-up jar/gift bag/tin.

Best of luck!