When you need to whip up a last-minute celebratory dessert, store-bought cake mix is the obvious choice. But I'm here to convince you to ditch the box—because homemade cake mix is a lot easier to make ...

Cake mixes still fascinate me. As a child, I would stand in the baking aisle at Al’s Grocery in Melvin, staring at the pictures on the boxes of the various mixes. Each one looked more perfect than the ...