This cake bread recipe uses a bread machine to easily create a delicious bread that is part cake and part bread! This is not a dessert cake but rather a light and fluffy sweet tasting bread that can be used for breakfast toast and sandwich lunches. I like it as a breakfast bread with blackberry jam. My boys think it is a much better tasting than white bread and love it with cold cuts for lunch.
FYI – I also experimented with this recipe. I tried to make this bread even more like a cake (by using 2 cups of cake mix and only 2 cups of flour). However, it was too cake-like and didn’t hold its shape well. It was much more crumbly than our recipe below. Not good for lunch sandwiches if they are falling apart in your hands! The recipe below does not have this problem because it has more flour and thus holds its shape.
Delicious Cake Bread – Part Cake & Part Bread
You can also try our recipe with other cake mixes (i.e. vanilla cake mix or chocolate cake mix). Choose your favorite cake “flavor” and try it out. I selected a yellow cake mix because I wanted to create a yellow colored bread.
FYI – Since this bread recipe is done in a bread machine, it is simple & easy to make. It takes me about 5-10 minutes to prepare and then the bread machine does the rest of the work.
This Cake Bread has a Nice Light Yellow Color
Ingredients – Bread Machine – Cake Bread (2 lb Bread Loaf)
- 1 1/3 Cups – Water (warm)
- 4 Tablespoons – Unsalted Butter (sliced & softened)
- 3 Cups – Bread Flour
- 1 Cup – Yellow Cake Mix
- 4 Tablespoons – White Granulated Sugar
- 1 Teaspoon – Salt
- 1 1/2 Teaspoons – Bread Machine Yeast
Servings – Roughly 12 Slices
Equipment Needed – Measuring cup & spoons, flexible spatula, oven mitts, cooling rack… and of course, a bread machine.
Instructions – Bread Machine – Cake Bread
- Bread Machine settings – 2 pound loaf, light color and “basic” bread setting.
- Unplug your bread machine. Remove the bread pan from the bread machine (so when you add the ingredients to the bread pan, they can not accidentally spill into the machine).
- Add all ingredients starting with the water into the bread machine “bucket” (loaf pan). Place the bread machine yeast in last and the yeast should not touch the water (until the bread machine is turned on and the ingredients start to be mixed together). In addition, the yeast should not be placed next to the salt (as the salt can inhibit yeast growth).
- Place the bread pan (with ingredients) back into the bread machine. Close bread machine cover.
- Plug in the bread machine.
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Enter the settings (2 lb, light color and basic bread setting) and press the start button.
- After the bread machine has finished baking the bread, remove the bread and place it on a cooling rack. Use oven mitts when removing the bread machine container as it will be very hot!
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Let the bread cool down on the cooling rack for at least 30-60 minutes.
- Please read the tips section below for extra information on how to make this recipe successfully & to avoid common bread machine problems.
If you liked this recipe, please leave a comment below & give us a 5 star rating. The recipe comment section is at the bottom of this page.
Tips – Bread Machine – Cake Bread
- The tips below are designed to help bread machine “novices” and those who haven’t touched their bread machine in years.
- Click on our “print recipe” link if you want to print out this recipe. It includes all of the recipe’s ingredients and instructions. However, the recipe print function does not include our tips section. Please read the tips section in order to avoid common recipe problems.
- This recipe is part of Bread Dad’s series on easy Bread Machine Recipes (such as buttery white bread, banana bread, multigrain bread and French bread).
- As I said above, this is not a moist & juicy cake, banana bread, pound cake, etc. Rather it is a drier sandwich-type bread that tastes like a cake.
- You can also try my recipe with other cake mixes (i.e. vanilla cake mix, chocolate cake mix or lemon cake mix). For the bread shown on this page, I used Duncan Hines® classic yellow cake mix.
- If you add more cake mix than what is called for in this recipe, this bread may have difficulty holding its shape when cut for sandwich slices. It becomes too “crumbly”. Stick to the recipe’s 3 cups of flour and 1 cup of cake mix for a bread that will more effectively retain its shape when sliced for sandwiches or toast.
- This recipe calls for bread flour. However, if you are out of bread flour, you can also use all-purpose flour. Just be aware that a bread made with bread flour will be slightly more airy than a bread made with all-purpose flour.
- Make sure to level off the ingredients in your measuring spoons & cups. No “mountains” of ingredients in your spoons & cups!! If you add too much of an ingredient, you can have a baking problem. FYI – I like to level the ingredients in my measuring spoons & cups with the back of a butter knife.
- This recipe uses bread machine yeast (instant yeast). It does NOT use active dry yeast.
- Bread machine yeast and instant yeast are not the same as active dry yeast. Bread machine yeast and instant yeast are added directly to the recipe’s ingredients. In contrast, active dry yeast must be activated in water/milk before being added to a recipe’s ingredients. If you try to use active dry yeast for this recipe, it is much less likely to work properly (as the recipe instructions & leavening time is based on the use of bread machine yeast).
- Bread machine yeast loses its potency over time. Generally, bread machine yeast lasts for only 3-4 months after you have opened the bottle. However, if the yeast is exposed to air & moisture (i.e. the bottle not sealed tight) or exposed to higher temperatures, the yeast will expire even more quickly.
- Once you have opened the bottle that contains the bread machine yeast, the yeast will last longer if you store the bottle in the refrigerator or freezer. Just make sure the bottle is sealed tight (as yeast will deteriorate quickly if exposed to air, moisture and/or heat).
- Cooler home temperatures in the winter can cause rising problems for bread dough. Ideally, your room temperature should be around 75-80 degrees F. Colder winter room temperatures can significantly delay the rise of the dough. You will need to raise the temperature of your kitchen (if you like a cold house in the winter) or find a warm spot for the dough to rise. I often put my dough (covered of course) next to a heating vent in the winter to make sure it is getting enough heat.
- This is one of the reasons that people should store flour in an airtight container if they have already opened the flour package. The flour will pick up extra moisture from the air while sitting in the pantry and this can throw off recipes, spoil flavor, degrade shelf life, etc.Conversely, dough can rise faster than expected in a very hot kitchen.
- Kitchen humidity can impact a recipe. A winter kitchen tends to be drier due to your heating system drying out the air. In contrast, a kitchen in the summer can be much more humid. This change in humidity impacts baking as flour can soak up humidity from the air. Therefore, you might have to add 1-2 teaspoons of liquid in the winter if the dough is looking too dry. Or you might have to add 1-2 teaspoons of flour in the summer if the dough is looking too wet. If your kitchen is very dry or humid, you might have to add even a little more (but start with 1 teaspoon at a time until you achieve the right consistency). Of course, excessive kitchen humidity or dryness can impact a recipe at any time during the year (not just in the summer & winter)!
- If you have a problem with a “basic” bread machine recipe, please make sure that you are following the recipe exactly (i.e. using the correct bread machine settings), using the correct amount of an ingredient (i.e. don’t eyeball the measurements versus using a measuring cup or accidentally add a tablespoon when a teaspoon is called for), using the correct ingredients (i.e. bread machine yeast versus regular yeast or bread flour versus all purpose flour), etc. Please don’t “wing” things with recipes.
- If you start substituting ingredients (i.e. using different types of flour not called for in the recipe), you are experimenting and should not expect similar results to the recipe shown above. Experimenting can be fun. However, you should expect some successes but more potential disappointments when you start to experiment with recipes. For example, if you substitute whole wheat flour for bread flour, you will probably experience a problem (as whole wheat flour doesn’t rise nearly as well as bread flour). Moreover, whole wheat flour has a totally different flavor.
- Always wear oven mitts/gloves when dealing with a bread machine. The bread pan and the rest of the bread machine can get very hot during the baking process. This means that the bread pan and bread machine is likely to be very hot when you attempt to remove a baked good from the bread machine and/or bread pan.
- For more easy bread machine ideas (i.e. white bread, cornbread, French bread, etc.), please visit Bread Dad’s main Bread Machine Recipes section.
If you liked this recipe, please leave a comment below & give us a 5 star rating. The recipe comment section is at the bottom of this page.
Reference Sources
- Wikipedia, Baking Mix
- Wikipedia, Bread Machine
- Wikipedia, Cake
Bread Machine - Cake Bread
Ingredients
- 1 1/3 Cups Water (warm)
- 4 Tablespoons Unsalted Butter (sliced & softened)
- 3 Cups Bread Flour
- 1 Cup Yellow Cake Mix
- 4 Tablespoons White Granulated Sugar
- 1 Teaspoon Salt
- 1 1/2 Teaspoons Bread Machine Yeast
Instructions
- Bread Machine settings – 2 pound loaf, light color and “basic” bread setting.
- Unplug your bread machine. Remove the bread pan from the bread machine (so when you add the ingredients to the bread pan, they can not accidentally spill into the machine).
- Add all ingredients starting with the water into the bread machine “bucket” (loaf pan). Place the bread machine yeast in last and the yeast should not touch the water (until the bread machine is turned on and the ingredients start to be mixed together). In addition, the yeast should not be placed next to the salt (as the salt can inhibit yeast growth).
- Place the bread pan (with ingredients) back into the bread machine. Close bread machine cover.
- Plug in the bread machine.
- Enter the settings (2 lb, light color and basic bread setting) and press the start button.
- After the bread machine has finished baking the bread, remove the bread and place it on a cooling rack. Use oven mitts when removing the bread machine container as it will be very hot!
- Let the bread cool down on the cooling rack for at least 30-60 minutes.
Notes
Nutrition
Related Recipes
- Bread Machine – French Bread
- Bread Machine – Multigrain Bread
- Bread Machine – Oatmeal Bread
- Bread Machine – Pizza Dough
- Bread Machine – White Bread
- Bread Machine – Whole Wheat Bread
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