Boxed devil’s food cake mixes combine two all-American favorites: chocolate cake and convenience. We baked seven mixes from supermarkets, and, in a supreme gesture of self-sacrifice, tried them without frosting.
As you can see from the humid labeling lingo (“moist supreme,” “super moist”), manufacturers recognize consumers’ fear and loathing of dry cake. In testing, evenly moist textures were common, courtesy of water-retaining additives such as cellulose gum.
Flavor is a different matter. Don’t buy these looking for rich, chocolatey cakes. The best had mild but true cocoa flavors, which isn’t surprising: They get their flavorings from cocoa.
There’s historical evidence for this reliance on cocoa, depending on which explanation for the name “devil’s food” you prefer. The more generic is that its sinful richness is the opposite of the airy white angel’s food cake. The other has to do with food chemistry: The cocoa powder called for needs baking soda to reduce its acidity; the chemical reaction creates a devilishly reddish cake.
People may turn to cake mixes for convenience, but it can be pushed too far, apparently. The last-place finisher, Betty Crocker’s Stir ‘n Bake, requires only water and an oven.
Six judges tasted the cakes blind and rated them on a nine-point scale. Prices are what we paid for the mixes and may reflect frequent-shopper card discounts. Price per-ounce is rounded off to the nearest cent. Here are the winners, with tasters’ remarks. The rest of the pack is listed in order of finish.
And the winners are . . .
1. Betty Crocker Super Moist Cake Mix with Hershey’s Dutch cocoa. (6.7 points. $1.99 for 18.25 ounces; 11 cents per ounce.) “Moist, tender crumb.” “Very airy.” “Sweet but not chocolatey.”
2. Duncan Hines Moist Deluxe. (5.8 points. $1.99 for 18.25 ounces; 11 cents per ounce.) “Feather light and moist.” “Rich and fairly deep flavor.” “Coffee notes.”
3. Pillsbury’s Devil’s Food Moist Supreme. (5.3 points. $2.05 for 18.25 ounces; 11 cents per ounce.) “Quite a bit of chocolate aroma.” “More ‘mix’ taste.” “Very tender and light.”
Others tasted
4. Dominick’s (5.2 points.) 5. Wild Oats Organic (4.4). 6. Jiffy (4.3). 7. Betty Crocker Stir ‘n Bake (3.2).
