which cake mix brand is better? duncan hines? betty crocker? pillsbury?
Hey I have to make a half sheet cake this coming week and I was needing some opinions on which cake brand is better? like which is more tastier and moist and just all around Delicious! =) and holds butter cream frosting as well as fondant.
please let me know what you think =)
Thanks
Kelsey Thornton
please let me know what you think =)
Thanks
Kelsey Thornton
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Cake Pop Cottage on
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I think Duncan Hines is the better of the 3. They tend to be firmer because they dont have pudding or super moist mixes and hold the weight of fondant, they have a much bigger selection of flavors. I usually make cake truffles(balls) and cake pops and when I have to use a cake mix and frosting nothing beats Duncan Hines!
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Permalink Reply by Suzie on
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Hey Julie,
Does the buttermilk give the cake mix a different taste? so you'd use 1-1/3 cup of buttermilk. I'd like to try that, dose the batter get thick using the buttermilk??? I usually use
1-1/4 C. water, add 4 tsp. of vanilla & add some dry whip topping to the mix. It doesn't taste like a mix w/ this, the cake is somewhat lite & feathery.
Julie said:I use Duncan Hines all the time , I found it to be the best. I subsitute buttermilk for the water .
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Permalink Reply by Dena Bryngelson on
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Well that's lovely...glad you are having such luck with Duncan Hines...I won't use it. I could care less that you had a recipe published in a magazine that I've never heard of...I've had a little more fame and fortune than that myself but I'm not such a diva that I had to mention it on here to get people to side with me on what cake mix brand is better. Happy for you that you like that brand...it's just cake mix...it's not the end of the world if someone doesn't agree that your brand is better than theirs. My opinion is that it doesn't work at all with my recipe...that my customers love...so I won't use it. I don't care for the mealy texture of the mix. It is either too soft and dry, or if I add oil or egg to compensate it falls and leave a rubbery line through the center of the cake...I like my recipe and I would rather use a mix that works than change my recipe to suit the mix. Go Duncan Hines! yay...wooo hoo!! happy now?
Angela Wright Pineda Kyle said:I don't agree Dena. I do 3d cakes, stacked cakes, fondant, buttercream, poured ganache, you name it and it works wonderfully. They even have an alternate recipe on the box for use with decorated cakes, but I don't even bother with that. My customers love my cakes and I have a moist cake tip that I had published in Cooking Pleasures Magazine in 2004. It has nothing to do with any additions and works equally well on scratch cakes as well as boxed cakes.
Dena Bryngelson said:I would like to argue about my experiences with D-H brand cake mix not working well for cakes with fondant or sculpting, but just the fact that I have not met ANY cake decorator that makes cakes like mine who use that particular brand of cake mix is enough to keep me from buying it. D-H brand used to be pushed by Wilton Industries and they stopped that...wonder why? Maybe because it doesn't hold up well to the abuse that spreading something thicker than whipped cream puts the cake through? I am not brand loyal. There are about 4 brands of cake mix that I think will work okay...but none that you buy on the shelf are much more than junk unless you modify the recipe.
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Permalink Reply by Kevin on
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I'm surprised to see such heated debate over which cake mix is the best. First of all, people's opinions vary. The differences are subtle. But in all fairness, if you want to know which cake mix for a particular flavor tastes the best when made according to the directions on the box, a side-by-side taste comparison is the only way to go. You'd have to be sure to bake each cake until perfect doneness so as to not spoil the test, and allow each cake to sit (cure) for a while after frosting. I can say that, like most desserts, the flavor of chocolate cake in particular becomes more pronounced after frosting the cake and letting it sit for a while, maybe 12 hours or more. I think (hope) that's something that most would agree on.
As someone who's been addicted to "eating" cake for decades (I don't care what it looks like), I have noticed that these manufacturers have changed their cake mixes more than once in the last thirty years. I don't know if anyone is old enough here to remember, but there was a time way back in the '80's or so that most box mixes called for two eggs, for example. Since then, I think the mixes themselves from all three major companies have been modified to some extent. At one point in the '80's, Duncan Heinz I think really did have the best cake mix. But it wasn't long before Pillsbury and BC modified their mixes. For quite some time now, Pillsbury mix has had "a lot" of pudding in it, which is great for some people, but not for others. I personally think all three brands used to be better than they are now. They're trying to compete on price.
Personally, I'm not sure why people feel the need to doctor cake mixes to begin with. If you're going to start pulling out the buttermilk, sour cream, vanilla, coffee, or whatever, why not just make it from scratch to begin with. One of my favorite chocolate cake recipes is found right on the back of the Hershey's Cocoa canisters (especially the dark cocoa). That's the one made with the boiling water. It's delicious. I guess that recipe does tend to bubble slightly, however.
One of the reasons why people's scratch cakes are inconsistent is because it seems to me that most amateur bakers don't even know simple things such as not to shake the measuring cup when measuring flour, which causes the flour level to collapse. You're supposed to level it off with a knife when measuring flour. People complain about not being able to make a scratch cake that comes out worth a toot, and then when I watch multiple people measuring out flour they all dump it into a measuring cup and shake it. No kidding -- I've seen so many people do this. It's the biggest mistake in amateur cake baking.
If I was going to serve cake to people, I would personally be a lot more concerned about how it tasted than how it looked unless it was a wedding cake. Most people don't really like fondant that much, like a chewy marshmallow on cake, and if buttercream is underneath a lot of people just end up peeling the fondant off anyway. It looks good, some people like it, most don't. I guess it is better than whipped cream or that nasty flavored vegetable shortening that they throw on cakes in the grocery stores. ( Mouth full of Crisco. Gross!).
The best tasting cakes I've ever had came from gourmet cookbooks like Chocolatier Magazine. The best cake I've ever had personally is TRIPLE CHOCOLATE KAHLUA MOUSSE CAKE WITH PEPPERMINT CREAM, http://www.godiva.com/recipes/recipe.aspx?id=624.
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Permalink Reply by Theresa Happe on
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This website exists so people can help one another and there is no reason for attitude. I would appreciate if everyone treated each other with a little more courtesy.
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I completely agree with you on every point. Thank you so much for your comments! I appreciate that. My brother's favorite cake in the world is the Hershey's Cocoa cake. I bake almost all of my cakes from scratch too. If Americans could actually bake a decent cake there would be no debate over cake mix. My personal favorite is an old recipe from an Italian baker who grew up in the upstairs apartment over the bakery. When he was 85 he gave this fabulous Italian cream cake recipe to me. It's so much more work than a box mix but you really can taste the difference in the freshness and texture is very soft with a tight crumb that is not mealy. I have an old recipe book from the PTA that my grandmother bought back when my mother was in grade school. The cake recipes from that old book are beyond fabulous. It always reminds me that there was a time when people in this country actually did bake and cook at home!
Kevin said:I'm surprised to see such heated debate over which cake mix is the best. First of all, people's opinions vary. The differences are subtle. But in all fairness, if you want to know which cake mix for a particular flavor tastes the best when made according to the directions on the box, a side-by-side taste comparison is the only way to go. You'd have to be sure to bake each cake until perfect doneness so as to not spoil the test, and allow each cake to sit (cure) for a while after frosting. I can say that, like most desserts, the flavor of chocolate cake in particular becomes more pronounced after frosting the cake and letting it sit for a while, maybe 12 hours or more. I think (hope) that's something that most would agree on.
As someone who's been addicted to "eating" cake for decades (I don't care what it looks like), I have noticed that these manufacturers have changed their cake mixes more than once in the last thirty years. I don't know if anyone is old enough here to remember, but there was a time way back in the '80's or so that most box mixes called for two eggs, for example. Since then, I think the mixes themselves from all three major companies have been modified to some extent. At one point in the '80's, Duncan Heinz I think really did have the best cake mix. But it wasn't long before Pillsbury and BC modified their mixes. For quite some time now, Pillsbury mix has had "a lot" of pudding in it, which is great for some people, but not for others. I personally think all three brands used to be better than they are now. They're trying to compete on price.
Personally, I'm not sure why people feel the need to doctor cake mixes to begin with. If you're going to start pulling out the buttermilk, sour cream, vanilla, coffee, or whatever, why not just make it from scratch to begin with. One of my favorite chocolate cake recipes is found right on the back of the Hershey's Cocoa canisters (especially the dark cocoa). That's the one made with the boiling water. It's delicious. I guess that recipe does tend to bubble slightly, however.
One of the reasons why people's scratch cakes are inconsistent is because it seems to me that most amateur bakers don't even know simple things such as not to shake the measuring cup when measuring flour, which causes the flour level to collapse. You're supposed to level it off with a knife when measuring flour. People complain about not being able to make a scratch cake that comes out worth a toot, and then when I watch multiple people measuring out flour they all dump it into a measuring cup and shake it. No kidding -- I've seen so many people do this. It's the biggest mistake in amateur cake baking.
If I was going to serve cake to people, I would personally be a lot more concerned about how it tasted than how it looked unless it was a wedding cake. Most people don't really like fondant that much, like a chewy marshmallow on cake, and if buttercream is underneath a lot of people just end up peeling the fondant off anyway. It looks good, some people like it, most don't. I guess it is better than whipped cream or that nasty flavored vegetable shortening that they throw on cakes in the grocery stores. ( Mouth full of Crisco. Gross!).
The best tasting cakes I've ever had came from gourmet cookbooks like Chocolatier Magazine. The best cake I've ever had personally is TRIPLE CHOCOLATE KAHLUA MOUSSE CAKE WITH PEPPERMINT CREAM, http://www.godiva.com/recipes/recipe.aspx?id=624.
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Permalink Reply by Angela Wright Pineda on
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Margaret, the information is on my blog here at Cakes We Bake. Accept my friend request so you can read it :)
Margaret Westwell said:OK Angela, now you've piqued my interest! Will you share again (2004 was a long time ago) your tip for making moist cakes, box mix or otherwise? I would really appreciate it. Sometimes when I'm making cakes dense enough for all the fondant & decorations, they seem a little too dense & sometimes a bit dry. I'm looking for the best of all worlds. Taste, moistness & strength! Can I have it all?
Angela Wright Pineda Kyle said:
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I only use Duncan Hines.....I don't like the other brands. I add 1 box of pudding mix plus one egg to the ingredients on the box. Makes the perfect sturdy cake.
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Permalink Reply by Callie Morton on
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I like the pilsburys because they already have the pudding in them.. They bake more evenly to me, and seem better for stacking if you have to make a few layers... They all taste great though!
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Permalink Reply by CornerSpace Cakes on
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I really like using Betty Crocker. The cakes always come out really moist and yummy for me. Plus, I like the variety of flavors that they offer as well. It's definitely my first choice. :)
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Permalink Reply by Sharon on
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Thank you Theresa,..
Theresa Happe said:This website exists so people can help one another and there is no reason for attitude. I would appreciate if everyone treated each other with a little more courtesy.
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Permalink Reply by Rosalie on
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Hi Kelsey, I use Pillsbury when I don't bake from scratch. I found it very moist and decorates easily with buttercream frosting, whip cream or fondant .It slices well too, its not crummy. Haven't had any complaints only encores. Also I never bake these cakes according to pkg directions. Every oven is different, I usually bake it less time than the box suggests.
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