In the past few years the amount of mix in the box has gone down. I do not use my 10 X 13 pan anymore...I use a 9 X 12 to get the same height. Yep. same price less ounces.

Betty Crocker is the only cake mix I use.

I haven't bought a cake mix in a few decades, but Trader Joe's was sampling their vanilla baking mix and it was so good I picked up a box. It's excellent for pineapple upside down cake as it's not as light and spongey as a cake mix. It has none of that artificial flavoring taste that says "cake mix" to me.

Interesting comment about the artificial flavor taste, Mayflower. That's why I don't use cake mixes. The only cake mix like is Angel Food cake mix.

I haven't used a cake mix in decades... and have no answer... sorry. Guess, I should not have opened this?

I quit using cake mixes years ago. Just not that good and a from scratch cake is not hard to make at all, and so yummy!

I think there are differences. The moist and buttery cakes are different. Sometimes it doesn't matter. I have noticed boxed mixes have changed.

I don't use cake mixes, but I will occasionally buy a muffin mix. I always add a little bit of vanilla extract to perk it up. I think it makes it taste a little more natural.

Can't help you on cake mix as I always make mine from scratch.

Anglophilla, you are so right making a homemade angel food cake is very easy. Yesterday I made a espresso chocolate chip angel food cake & it was so good. Will be making that one again.

Anglophilia - do you have an angel food cake recipe that you can share? I made one last year from scratch, intending to slice it into layers and fill with strawberry mousse. It was a disaster, and I ended up using a mix. Ordinarily, I always make homemade cakes - so much tastier.

I make a lemon bundt cake using a cake mix and lemon pudding. Duncan Hines is the only mix I use. Duncan Hines have shrunk their boxes far too much.

I have frozen egg whites in the freezer from using yolks only in my coconut cream pie. I'm saving them, and planning to make an angel food cake sometime soon. I've never made one, so I hope it turns out.

Anglophilia, since you use a tried and true homemade angel food cake, would you share your recipe? I did see one on taste of Home that I printed.

Since Tobey is a bit of a Lil Debbie freak, ( I know, yuk ) I started making those small rectangular cakes. I can make say, two yellow cake, then add a different flavor or berry juice, and then add some chocolate or maybe rum extract, and so on, ending up with Lil Rose's. lol I use whatever is on sale with good results. But you're right, the boxes are getting smaller and soon it will hold just enough for a cupake. =0(

Here's my grandmother's angel food cake recipe. Have no idea how she whipped those egg whites without an electric mixer but no such things when my mother was growing up (mother born in 1908). She always made one for the birthdays of her 6 children, my mother made it for me, I made it for my children and now for two local grandchildren. ALL have loved it!

MEMO's Angel Food Cake

Whites from 1 doz extra large or jumbo eggs. Eggs should be a week or two old - no new eggs - and should be at room temp

1 1/2 cups granulated white sugar

1 cup sifted cake flour such as Swans Down

1 heaping tsp cream of tartar

1/2 tsp salt

1 tsp vanilla extract

1 heaping tsp almond extract

Beat egg whites a few beats and add salt. Beat till frothy and add cream of tartar. Continue beating until they make good peaks.

Sift sugar twice and sift into egg whites while beating.

Add extracts while beating.

Sift flour three times and gently fold it, by hand, into egg whites.

Put angel food cake pan under running cold water in the sink. Dry pan.

Scoop batter into cake pan, gently, and even it on top.

Put cake in a cold oven and bake at 300 degrees for 1 hour. Check after 50 minutes and if cake is very lightly browned and pulling away from the sides of the pan, it is done.

Cool pan upside down (Pans often have legs for this. If not, turn it over a tall, skinny bottle)

When completely cooled, remove from tube pan and place on a plate, removing the tube part carefully, with a long, slim knife. Eat as is or first as desired.

A test a few years ago, people were given three types of cakes to pick from. One made by a fancy baker, one made from scratch, and one made from a box and the box cake won by a huge margin. My daughter makes from scratch and my grandson loves my Duncan Hines ones way better so she switched back.

If you look on Pinterest, there are recipes for making a box cake that improve them to bakery style.

Thanks, I'll look there.

Making a cake from scratch isn't rocket science. If I wanted to, I could. But sometimes a box is easier. Plus I don't actually bake cakes all that often, in fact the P/A Upside Down cake is the only one from a mix. The other is a chocolate cake from scratch using the Hershey's Cocoa recipe.

Brought Mom's old Betty Crocker cookbook home with me a couple weeks ago. In it I found the recipe for her layer spice cake, Betty's that is. Mom used to make that for our birthdays when we were kids. I was trying to remember the flavor of frosting she used, maple? I can't wait to try it. Maybe for my birthday in May!

Personally, these days I find that most of these cake mixes contain things (I don't know WHICH things) that upset my stomach, so much that I decline to eat anything made from a mix. A shame. Back in the day they did save time.

I don't like Duncan Hines. Prefer Betty Crocker.

Schoolhouse...I also make the Hershey's chocloate cake..the one you add the boiling water to..its soo rich. Once in awhile I spread a can of cherry pie filling between the two layers than frost with the Hershey's chocolate frosting recipe. This is a cake that you really can only eat a tiny sliver of as its so rich, chocolatey, fudgey, Ummm..I may have to bake.

Thank you, Anglophilia, for the recipe. I am definitely going to try it!

I used to keep cake mix around and would usually just use it for making cake mix cookies when I had a hankering for some cookies. And after an old GF's former neighbor made us an angel food cake I started using the box for angel food. Her old neighbor was an entertaining fellow. He was I imagine in his late 70s or 80s and a little lonely. Loved to make angel food cake and would make them for people. We couldn't see him too often, he lived quite a distance from us. Hadn't thought about him, or cake for a long time until this thread brought back some memories