See, I would just call that a pound cake or butter cake, and it's the most basic thing in the world to make, and a good jumping off point for people without experience or confidence in baking. I guess it's useful to have a shelf stable mix, if you've not got access to fresh ingredients, but if you're going to learn to cook with basic ingredients, I think it's an excellent recipe for a beginner. Rather than buying a box, I'd give them the four ingredient recipe (a pound of butter, a pound of flour, a pound of eggs and a pound of sugar = pound cake), tellthem to buy a cheap digital scale, and encourage them to try it out. It's a good one to start with, because so long as your oven temp is right, and you cook it for the right amount of time, it's hard to fail. It's not like, say, a sponge, where you have to be careful not to knock the air out, and it's easy to modify with flavours you like (citrus zest, vanilla, chocolate chips, nuts, coffee, booze).