Doctored White Cake Mix Recipe

For the Cake

1. Preheat oven to 350°F. Spray two 8-inch round cake pans with nonstick spray and line the inside bottom of each pan with parchment paper. Set aside.
2. In a medium bowl, stir the dry cake mix, flour, granulated sugar, and salt together. Set aside for now.
3. In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, beat the buttermilk, sour cream, eggs, and vanilla extract on high until well combined.
4. Beat the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients. Beat on high until smooth, about 1 minute.
5. Divide the cake batter evenly between the prepared cake pans. Try to get the same amount in each pan so that the cake layers bake up to the same size (about 749 grams per pan).
6. Bake for 33-35 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in middle comes out clean.
7. Remove cakes from oven and let cakes cool in pans for 15 minutes before removing cakes from pans. Place cake layers on a wire rack and allow cakes to cool to room temperature.
8. Once cakes have cooled to room temperature, cover cakes completely in food-safe plastic wrap (wrap each layer separately) and refrigerate cake layers for 2 hours. Chilled cakes are easier to decorate since they don’t crumble as easily.

For the Buttercream Frosting

1. In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the whisk attachment, beat the powdered sugar, butter, and vanilla extract together on high speed until light and fluffy, about 5 minute). If the frosting is too thick to smooth onto the cake, beat in a tablespoon of heavy cream. If the frosting seems too thin, add a bit more powdered sugar.

For Assembly

1. Once cakes have been removed from the fridge, use a large serrated knife to cut the dome tops off both cakes so they both have a flat top. You won’t need these dome tops so feel free to snack on those while you work on the rest of the cake.
2. Place a thin layer of frosting (about 2 tablespoons) in the middle of a cake board or cake plate then place one cake (cut side facing up) on top of that frosting. This small amount of frosting helps to secure the cake to the cake plate so it doesn’t slide around during the decorating process.
3. Add a generous layer of frosting on top of that first cake layer then place the second cake layer (bottom facing up) on top of the first cake layer.
4. Frost a thin layer of frosting around the top and sides of cake. This first thin layer of frosting is meant as a base to help secure crumbs to the cake. This first layer of frosting should be thin so it’s okay if you can still see the cake through the frosting. To get the layers of frosting smooth, use a tool like a cake scraper to smooth the icing out.
5. Place the lightly frosted cake in the freezer for 10 minutes so the frosting hardens up a bit before frosting the next layer.
6. Optional: color the remaining frosting (using gel food coloring) if you want the final layer of icing to be colored. For this cake, I used Chefmaster Liqua-gel in the color Neon Pink.
7. Remove cake from freezer and apply the second layer of frosting. Spread this layer as smoothly as you can using the cake scraper.
8. Take about 1½-2 cups of frosting and place it in an icing bag with a Wilton 1M tip. Frost swirls around the top of the cake.
9. Optional: add rainbow sprinkles to the bottom edge of the cake and add sprinkles to the icing swirls on the top of the cake.