Vanilla Spice Cake Fake

Sometimes in life, there are hills we don't want to climb.

Homemade cakery is one of mine. The box mix isn't bad enough for me to put the effort into trying to make a cake. I don't even know if it's hard to make homemade cakes. I'm just not "there" yet. Maybe someday (probably not).

But let me tell you, I wanted to make spice cake for a church meal I'm helping with. I was going to have spice cake daggggnabbbbittttt. But there were no box mixes. Whatev, I've got spices and like to experiment on the people I love! This found its way into my basket as my base cake mix:

Totally not getting paid for this. Call me, Duncan Hines!

I opened the package and it was so vanilla-y-smelling. I had a moment. And then I added:
1 teaspoon ginger (I'd recommend a little less ginger, but I'm not a huge ginger fan.)
1 heaping teaspoon cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon allspice
1/4 heaping teaspoon cloves
1/4 heaping teaspoon nutmeg

It turned out really well! The spice tones down the sugar factor of the cake, so you don't feel overwhelmed after putting frosting on the top (I make my own of that, okay? Everyone has their thing). Just perfect for fall. Next time I'd consider putting a teensy bit of molasses in it because it's delicious.

Oh the other thing: it was definitely Ezra approved. We had his first sneaking-pieces-of-sweets-off-the-table incident, leaving quite a lopsided cupcake. I well; I suppose I'll have to eat that one. Tooooo baaaaaad...