A few years ago, we were fooled when the cake mix companies decreased the size of their boxed cake mixes to save money. Did you notice? Probably not, but for those recipes that always turned out perfect years ago and now they don’t, this may be the reason.
Manufacturers like Pillsbury, Duncan Hines and Betty Crocker made their boxed cake mixes a few ounces lighter. Some cake mixes were 18 oz years ago and then they reduced them to 16 oz. Now, for example, Duncan Hines and Pillsbury cake mixes are mostly all 15.25 oz while Betty Crocker is 13.25 oz.
How can you fix this decrease in size? One idea is to keep a box of yellow cake mix in an airtight container. When you prepare your cake mix, weigh it and add enough of the yellow cake mix to the cake mix you bought to equal the ounces you need. According to Taste of Home, yellow cake mix incorporates well with most any cake mix without noticing it.
If you are making a dump cake, the decrease in cake mix size shouldn’t change it at all. These desserts bake up super easy regardless of how much cake mix goes in them.
If you’re making a bar recipe that uses a cake mix as a crust, you’re going to notice a difference. With less cake mix, the crust will be a bit thinner, but it will still work.
If you’re worried about too thin of crust, change your pan size to the next one smaller. For example, if the recipe calls for a 13” x 9” pan, use a 11” x 7” instead.
If you are making cupcakes, you will only get 23 cupcakes compared to the 24 you used to get. I never knew why I couldn’t get 24 cupcakes and I thought it was because I was overfilling the other 23 cupcakes.
As ingredients became more expensive, cake mix companies and many other food manufacturers sneakily dropped a couple of ounces from the box. Before you start asking for your money back, cake mix companies still contend that their product creates a standard 13×9 cake. I beg to differ as my 13” x 9” cakes used to rise above the pan and no longer do.
Would you like my advice to all of these problems? Ditch the store bought cake mixes and make your own from scratch. You will not believe how easy it is and your baked treat will be the same every time you bake it! Try this delicious cake from scratch Hershey’s Deep Dark Chocolate Cake.
Source: http://www.TasteofHome.com
Thank you to my good blogging friend Linda at http://lindaschaubblog.wordpress.com/ for bringing this decrease in cake mixes to my attention.