Originally Posted by
Eastbay1K
Elicit? Why people who have answers to this: If you had to choose a widely-available yellow cake mix as a base for something, which brand would you choose? Avoid? Why?
Speaking generally about cake mix, I've had the best luck with the Betty Crocker Supermoist, and the worst with Pillsbury (which tends to have very "fake tasting" flavors to my palate.)
And sometimes, you just want a box of chemicals that is pre-measured, easy to make, without having to buy my own other ingredients, many of which will eventually go stale on the shelf.
Flour and sugar go stale over several years. Baking powder and salt don't go stale, they last decades as long as they're kept dry.
Milk, butter and eggs all go bad fairly quickly, but you want to have all three when making a cake from a box anyway (and need the last; I use milk and melted butter instead of water and cooking oil with most mixes, as it produces a richer cake and I've got it around anyway.)
YMMV, but this really seems like a case of pre-shaped burger patties to me. There are definitely cakes which are enough easier to make from mix to be worth it, but this is the simplest of the simple. It's not even labor intensive -- apple pie filling, for example, is pretty much the world's simplest recipe (apples, sugar to taste, cinammon to taste, done) but hides a lot of work in peeling and cutting apples.