I’m going to go out on a limb here and say that this is the best yellow cake I’ve ever had. While I usually feel like homemade is always better, there’s just something about a box cake mix that yields an amazing crumb (& taste!). This recipe gives a box cake a run for it’s money.

The recipe itself isn’t too difficult. You’ll mix all the dry ingredients together (except a small portion of the sugar) and then in a separate bowl mix almost all of the wet ingredients (except the egg whites). Once you do this you’ll whip the egg whites (with a pinch of cream of tartar) and then when it’s starting to whip you’ll put a 1/4 cup of the sugar in. Then you’ll put the egg whites in another bowl and mix together the dry/wet ingredients. Once that’s done you’ll mix in a 1/3 of the egg whites into the mixture and then carefully fold in the remaining 2/3 of the egg whites. I always get nervous about this part because I end up over mixing and then it deflates. Once everything is mixed together then you’ll pour it into two cake pans. I used a piece of parchment paper in the bottom to help avoid any cracks. Mine ended up needing a lot more time than what the recipe said but just keep your eyes on it and pull it out when the top springs back. In hindsight; I might make three layers next time which will help the bake time.

I was very excited when I saw the cakes hadn’t deflated so I let those cooled and stated working on the frosting. After I had a small heart attack at the amount of butter in this recipe (almost 4 sticks!) I pulled out the food processor and start mixing everything. I’ve never made a frosting that called for light corn syrup so that was different. I got it all mixed together and tasted a little and it was delicious. I’m usually very particular in that I like a classic chocolate buttercream frosting on my yellow cake (butter, cocoa, powdered sugar, milk) but this was incredible. Also, it was a TON. I had way more than I needed so my recommendation would be to do the 3 cup version as that’s plenty for a 2 or even 3 layer cake.

Don’t let the paper plate in the other photo fool you, it’s no indication of the luxuriousness of this cake. The crumb was amazing and tasted like a box cake (I mean that as a compliment) and then when paired with this frosting it was so so good. This is my new go-to recipe for both of these!

Recipe Used: The Perfect Cake p. 394 (frosting p. 399)