How cake mix is made

Bisquick began after a General Mills sales executive met a dining car chef who kept a premixed biscuit batter on hand.

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The short version

Cake mix is a dry blend of flour, sugar, leavening agents such as baking soda and baking powder, salt and flavorings. Fat can be built into the mix as a dry shortening. A finishing machine grinds out any lumps, and the blend is sealed into pre-measured boxes or bags. The baker adds liquid and usually eggs.

Weigh the dry ingredients

Flour, sugar and salt are weighed in bulk, and so are the leavening agents. Baking soda and baking powder are what make the batter rise in the oven.

Goes in
Flour Sugar Baking soda Table salt
Work in the shortening

Shortening is mixed with part of the dry ingredients at a raised temperature to make a dry, flowable pre-mix. No more than about 25 percent of the flour goes in at this stage, which gives the best flavor and texture in the baked cake.

Goes in
Vegetable oil
Blend until even

A large blender turns the powders until the batch is uniform. Flavorings such as cocoa or vanilla can be added here.

Goes in
Cocoa powder
Grind out the lumps

Shortening can roll the powder into small pills, so the mix passes through a machine called a finisher, which grinds the product and breaks them up.
Pack pre-measured boxes

The blend is measured into boxes or bags sized for a standard cake.

Goes in
Cardboard
Add liquid and bake

At home the mix is stirred with water or milk, and usually eggs and oil, then baked. The oven heat sets the structure while the leavening agents release gas.

Goes in
Water Eggs

End of the lineCake mix

Worth repeating

Aunt Jemima pancake mix, made by the Pearl Milling Company in 1896, claims to be the first baking mix in the United States.
A complete mix needs only water or milk at home, while a concentrate needs more flour or other bulk added.