Better cakes

I like to make most things from scratch, but I usually use a boxed cake mix when I'm baking cakes (unless it's some kind of crazy/special cake). Cake mixes are pretty good these days (so I'm told*), but there is a trick that will make your cake mix cake taste better. Instead of dumping in whatever amount of water the box calls for do this:

• Add a heaping teaspoon of yeast to 1/4 cup of warm (~110◦ F) water in a pyrex measuring cup
  
• Sprinkle on some sugar
  
• Leave alone for a few minutes, until a foam forms and it smells all yeasty. It's a good idea to do this before you start making the rest of the cake; it should be ready by the time you get all the other things up and running.
  
• Use milk to fill the measuring cup the rest of the way (to whatever amount of water the box calls for) - be sure to measure from underneath the foam NOT on top of it
  
• Proceed as directed
  

*My mom has a master's degree in home ec. This is a trick she picked up back in the day - I imagine cake mixes were much more nasty back then.