Claim to Fame: It's right there on the box above: Pillsbury claims this is an all natural cake. No preservatives, no colors, nothing artificial about it. The ingredient list shows this to be pretty accurate, at least as far as a major food company is concerned:
Furthermore, all the ingredients you add are things you would naturally keep in your house 100 years ago. That's always my test: if I can buy it on the Oregon Trail, then it's a natural product in my book.
If we're going by the Oregon Trail rule of thumb, a few of the ingredients are a bit of a stretch. I'm sure the early pioneers did not carry Calcium Phosphate or Xanthan Gum. But in general, I'm impressed that their list of ingredients contains only things I know and can pronounce. As could the Oregon Trail settlers. I think.
Price: $ ($0 - $10) I will say, these box mixes run on the expensive side. The Aldi box mix I mentioned above runs me $0.99 every time I throw one in my cart. Each of these boxes have been running me in the $3 - $3.50 range, depending on where I find them. Although, since this is a newer product right now, a lot of these boxes also come with a $1 off coupon, which helps cut down on the costs a little. Still, you're paying at minimum double the cost of a generic cake box mix. Xanthan gum ain't cheap, folks.
Testing it Out: To truly test this out, I figured I'd make a cake for some friends, feed it to them, and see if they noticed it was a box mix. The old blind taste test is the only real way to gauge the quality of a product. Baking the mix was as easy as any other mix you would typically find. Throw the mix into the bowl, cream the butter, and then add the milk and eggs. I will say that by the time the batter was ready to go into the pan it was very thick, almost the consistency of a pudding. I had my concerns about that, but they were ill formed.
The cakes baked up beautifully, no major issues. Once cooled and iced, you would never know if this was a cake I slaved over for awhile, or just another box mix I picked up at the store. Only the unwilling subjects of my test would know what was going on.
So I brought the cake to my friends, told them I baked it because they were amazing (partial lie), and sat back and waited while they ate it. The praise was universal:
"This cake is really good."
"The cake is really moist this time!"
"Wow, the flavor of this cake is great!"
To be fair, I was prodding them for these answers, so maybe they praised it a little higher than they normally would have because I was the baker. But no one threw out their piece of cake either, I can promise you that. Like Godzilla on an unsuspecting Japanese town, that cake was flattened in a matter of minutes.
When I told everyone they had just eaten a box mix they were pleasantly surprised. As my one friend noticed, "Box mixes usually have a certain taste to them. You can just tell they're box mixes. This one didn't have that taste." This girl probably would've rocked it on the Oregon Trail. She's the kind of person you put in your wagon with you.
The Results: The results were very strong for me and for Pillsbury. The cake mix seemed to hold pretty true to their all natural ingredients claim, and it was as easy to bake as any other box mix. The unsuspecting cake judges loved the cake's taste, and once I let it slip that it was a box mix they all agreed it was a mix they'd be willing to purchase themselves.
Final Verdict: As I said at the beginning of this post, I've kept this mix in my cabinet for the past 5 months or so. That isn't a fluke. It's worked wonders for me in a pinch, and I continue to have a spare box or two up there in case of an emergency.
Rating: **** 1/2 out of *****: This would have received a perfect 5/5 from me, but I had to take a half point off for the price. This mix can be costly. Sure it's all natural, but I also know flour and sugar are not expensive ingredients, Pillsbury. But if you find a coupon, go buy this. You won't be disappointed!
