Hello Craig,
I have found, over years of baking, that when you need to use a cake mix and want it to taste home made, the one thing that absolutely does this the best is to add 1/2 cup of sour cream to any kind of box mix.
Of course the addition of nuts, raisins, etc. also helps, but it's the sour cream that does the trick.
I hope this solves your problem, it did mine.

Happy Holidays!