Today we are doing a taste test showdown to find out the best Yellow Box Cake Mix with canned chocolate frosting - Pillsbury, Duncan Hines, or Betty Crocker???
So this is another episode in a fun series I have here on the channel, where I have a bunch of friends and family over for a blind taste test, to rate and compare cake samples A, B and C, so we can find out which really is the best over all cake mix brand.
We’re rating these on everything from price, to ingredients, time/ease/cleanup, appearance and of course, taste, to find out which one is really worth it and which ones are just a total waste of time and money. There are so many different kinds of cake mixes at the grocery store to choose from, so which one should you pick? Well, today, we’re gonna find out which reigns supreme.
I tried to use the most common or most popular options out there and I didn’t use any of my own recipes to keep it fair and so the participants could feel free to be brutally honest.
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Final Scores!
We're giving:
- 1 point for the best price:
- 1 point for the fewest/easiest ingredients:
- 1 point for the quickest time/ease/cleanup:
- 1 point based on appearance alone/most appetizing looking:
- 3 points for the best taste: (I gave .5 a point each, if they chose a winner for cake and frosting separately)
A- Pillsbury
- price: cake mix- $2.29 on sale for $1.99, frosting $2.19 on sale for $1.99 + the ingredients needed
- ingredients: all cake mixes had 4 ingredients- box mix, eggs, water and oil
- time/ease/cleanup: 3-way tie. Just mix 4 ingredients in a bowl, bake, serve and only a few dishes.
- appearance: Tie for the win with 4/10 votes. Was the most yellow in color and had the darkest frosting. Looks perfect, almost like a sponge and slices perfectly without crumbling or falling apart.
- taste: Winner by half a point with 4.5/10 votes. Was the most spongy and most moist cake. Had a very strong cake and frosting flavor. Almost chemical tasting to some.
B- Duncan Hines
- price: cake mix- Loser, most expensive at $2.79 on sale for $2.39, frosting $2.49 on sale for $2.29 + the ingredients needed
- ingredients: all cake mixes had 4 ingredients- box mix, eggs, water and oil
- time/ease/cleanup: 3-way tie. Just mix 4 ingredients in a bowl, bake, serve and only a few dishes.
- appearance: Loser with 2/10 votes. Was the most tall and fluffy, but very crumbly and doesn't look nice when sliced because it makes a mess, due to the tender, crumbly texture.
- taste: Loser with 1/5/10 votes. Had a soft cake but very dry, bland and tasteless. It crumbles way too much when sliced and didn't have a lot of flavor.
C- Betty Crocker
- price: cake mix- $2.49 on sale for $1.37, frosting $2.49 on sale for $2.29 + the ingredients needed
- ingredients: all cake mixes had 4 ingredients- box mix, eggs, water and oil
- time/ease/cleanup: 3-way tie. Just mix 4 ingredients in a bowl, bake, serve and only a few dishes.
- appearance: Tie for the win with 4/10 votes. Was the lightest in color and a little crumbly when sliced, but looks soft and tender.
- taste: Runner up by half a point with 4/10 votes. The cake was soft with a nice, subtle flavor and texture, but a little drier and crumbles when sliced. It had an ok frosting, tasted like what you would expect from a regular boxed cake mix.
My vote:
If I were to make a boxed yellow cake mix again, I would do the Betty Crocker cake mix and doctor it up by using sour cream instead of water for added richness. I would also add a tablespoon of vanilla extract and a little pinch of salt to cut the sweetness. I personally hated the Pillsbury cake, it tasted so artificial to me and was too spongy, rather than tender and soft, even though it was the most moist. The Duncan Hines cake was just dry and crumbly had no flavor, so it was the clear loser.
The Duncan Hines frosting, however, was by far my personal favorite. I thought it was more creamy and light than the others, with the best chocolate flavor and texture, without that chemical, almost sour/tangy aftertaste, the other two frostings had. The Pillsbury frosting tasted the most chemically with an almost sour tang to it. The Betty Crocker frosting had an almost, sour/rancid flavor to me, so I wouldn't recommend either of those chocolate frostings.
I think if you made a boxed cake mix and covered it in a homemade easy homemade buttercream frosting, that would also be a game changer and totally elevate the flavor and texture of the overall cake to make it taste more homemade and deliscious.
I think if you made a boxed cake mix and covered it in a homemade easy homemade buttercream frosting, that would also be a game changer and totally elevate the flavor and texture of the overall cake to make it taste more homemade and deliscious.
Overall:
- 1 point - price: Betty Crocker was slightly cheaper when on sale, Duncan Hines was the most expensive overall whether on sale or not
- 1 point - ingredients: 3-way tie
- 1 point - time/ease/cleanup: 3-way tie
- 1 point - appearance: Tie for Betty Crocker and Pillsbury
- 3 points - taste: Pillsbury by half a point
Winner:
Pillsbury, with Betty Crocker as a very close second- depending on whether you prefer moist and spongy cake, with a strong flavor, or a more soft and tender cake, with a more mild flavor.
