Baking with Mixes...Cake Mixes

The first cake mix was for a gingerbread cake by John Duff in 1933. In 1935 he came out with a white, spice and devils food cake mix. In 1948 Pillsbury came out with a Chocolate cake mix and in 1951 Duncan Hines manufactured their first cake mixes, In just a few weeks they had almost half of the market sales. It was only after the mixes started requiring fresh eggs be added instead of using powdered eggs that they became more popular. Today’s mixes do not have powdered eggs in the mixes.

 I like cake mixes, have used them for years, our Mom used them and my daughter uses them. Duncan Hines are my favorite as I think the texture is closer to what I like.

 A high school HomeEc teacher, (do they still have them in schools?) assigned us to compare the cost of a cake mix as opposed to making a cake from scratch. The cake mix won which we were surprised at. Our Moms would hide the empty box and warn us not to tell guests that she had used a cake mix. Back then you could only buy the basics, chocolate, white, yellow and devils food. Duncan Hines did come out with a spice cake mix that was very good and I used it quite often. For awhile there was a pound cake mix, I don't know if you can still buy it.

 Cake mixes are good for many other things than cake, cookies, bars, coffee cakes, 

Fruit cakes and pound cakes can all be made using a cake mix as the base. 

 Most of the major brands have over the years published cookbooks using their cake mixes and we are going to give you recipes for some from Duncan Hines as I still have three of their cookbooks.