I like cake. I mean, most people like cake, but I really like cake.

Unfortunately for me, I am also diabetic.

Much to my doctor’s chagrin, this does not mean that I forego cake all the time. However, it does mean that I need to be particular about the cake that I eat.

Bakery cakes? Thanks for the offer, but they’re not on my short list of ideal treats.

Even wedding cakes, which everyone loves to rave over, don’t usually do it for me.

(Though I will admit that I think this may be kind of like the old “you could wear this bridesmaid’s dress again and again!” That is, I think it’s one of the lies we like to tell ourselves to justify the bills that a wedding can rack up.)

When I was first learning how to cook, I remember trying more than a dozen from-scratch chocolate cake recipes before I found one that really was moist and worth the extra time it took to create.

(As it turns out, the hands-down winner was the one-bowl chocolate cake recipe printed on the back of every Hershey’s cocoa box – a cake my grandmother had made for decades before I was even born. As it turns out, everything old really is new again.)

At any rate, I haven’t had the same kind of experience with white cake.

Cocoa is inherently drying, so it seems like finding a winning scratch-made white cake recipe would be easier than finding a winning chocolate one. And yet, the best I’ve tried so far is a doctored cake mix.

Not that I’m complaining. It’s nice to have a doctored cake mix in one’s arsenal, especially if that “one” is me and decides to try making Swiss meringue buttercream frosting on a random Tuesday evening.

(Look, some days just require cake, OK?)

For the record, I lost patience halfway through the frosting-making process when I realized the replacement beater blade I had ordered for my mixer was far too large to work.

I had also over-softened the butter by placing it next to the preheating oven. That is, it was not so much “soft” as it was “half melted.”

As a result, the frosting itself – though delicious – looked lumpy. Very, very lumpy.

Regardless, I had a whole bowlful of it and needed a cake as a vehicle.

Enter this oldie-but-goodie, which I have made dozens of times.

This time, I did not have a white cake handy and used a yellow cake mix instead. I advise against this strategy; the texture was still lovely, but the tang of the sour cream did not mesh well with the sweetness of the yellow cake. You live, you learn.

Unless you’re me, apparently.

DOCTORED WHITE CAKE

(adapted from Our Best Bites)

Ingredients
1 box white cake mix (do not substitute yellow unless you’re just desperate for cake)
1 cup all-purpose flour
1 cup sugar
3/4 teaspoon salt
2 eggs (substitute 4 egg whites if the white color is important to you)
1 1/3 cups water
2 tablespoons oil
1 cup sour cream
2 teaspoons vanilla extract

Directions
■ Preheat oven to the temperature recommended on the box mix. Grease and flour cake pans (two round pans or one 9-by-13-inch rectangle) or place cupcake liners in muffin tins. (This recipe will make about 36 cupcakes.)
■ Mix all dry ingredients in a mixing bowl. Add wet ingredients and beat for two minutes. Fill cupcake liners about 3 ⁄ 4 full, divide batter evenly between round pans, or pour into 9-by-13-inch pan. Bake according to the package directions, using a toothpick or knife point to check for doneness.

Amelia Plair is a mom and high school teacher in Starkville. Email reaches her at [email protected].

Amelia Plair is a Starkville resident who writes occasional food columns.