Betty Crocker Downsizes Cake Mixes To 15.25 oz.

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The true basics don't change, flour is flour, eggs are still eggs, and milk is still milk- though with varying amounts of milk fat.  Now if you use something like  evaporated milk the can size like many others have shrunk over the years, 1 recipe I make now needs a second can opened to reach the needed amount, but all in all the basics of baking are as they have been.

 

As to recipe prison - how so?  If you like something you make it if it no longer meets your needs why would you make it?  Just curious...
 
Easy Peasy

Mixes are sold by weight. The heaviest and cheapest ingredient is sugar. Soft flour is used along with special leavenings, diatastics and conditioners to create an airy cake regardless of how it is or isn't beaten or treated. Fat and sodium are cheap and easy preservatives as well as many other chemicals added as stabilizers. Bottom line, mixes have more calories because of a higher ratio of fat, flour and unhealthy sodium than homemade. Bekery cakes are even worse. Recipes are ratios and mixing instructions the template for okay, good or extraordinary cakes. In small recipes, variances are more tolerated than in quantity cooking where weights are almost always used. Modern flours don't require sifting and if so it can easily be done in a processor. Room temperature ingredients have more to do with successful outcomes than precise measurements. Rosy Levy Beranbaum uses a recipe grid which gives you a choice of cups, weight or metric. The template is in the text and its distracting to follow and easy to mix the measurement grid offerings of volume, metric and weight having a recipe failure. Rose also advocates slow and minimal mixing of the cake which makes them more dense than most American counterparts and certainly more so than mixes. I say cut the recipe hyperbole crap of modern TV chefs who puff themselves up with a million bowls, tools and steps which intimidate the novice cook. Clear the clutter, get a stand mixer and older Betty Crocker Picture Cookbook and you'll make wonderful cakes. I have 4 recipes, Hot Water Fudge, 1234 Cake, Chiffon Cake and Pound Cake that can be blended and adapted to make just about every cake ever heard of. The hugest failure is over baking and creating flavored styrofoam. All that said, adding 5 other packages or ingredients to a mix to make a dessert is something I can accept moving away from the purity of homemade. I like the effort, appliances, tools, and steps of making any recipe as involved as it can be combined with the the trill of the beat to test my mettle. As long as each baker is happy it is not mine to lecture, judge or offer input.

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When talking about "recipe prison" I was thinking about cooking in general...something I probably should have mentioned given that this thread started talking about cake mixes. Or else not brought up at all. (It was late when I posted the above, and I think my mind was partly distracted by the tuna talk above.)

With baking, one does often need to use an exact recipe. Which is possibly one reason I never really got into baking, apart from bread: everything needs to be exactly right, or else disaster hits.

Why make a recipe one doesn't like? No sense in that. But in recipes where things don't need to be exact, why not make small adjustments to match tastes/needs? Many people do, of course, but I have known of "recipe slaves."

Ingredient character changes are also probably less of an issue with baking than regular cooking. I'm not sure how much things have changed over the years...but I have heard many people mourning various changes. James Beard felt the character of meat had changed during his life (and not for the better). Back to baking, I've heard that buttermilk is a much different product now, and I think I've heard some people express a feeling that it doesn't work as well in a given recipe.
 
regional differences even intra-USA

One thing that makes baking different, and might be why folks like mixes, is that there are regional differences in ingredients, even inside the USA.

When I moved to New England from the NYC area, I noted that sugar was quite different. The grains were larger and I found to get the same results I got previously, I had to put the sugar in a food processor for a moment or two.

Flour varies in protein depending on where it is grown; soft southern flour is better for cakes and (American) biscuits than northern harder flours.

Try to find good whipping cream. It is NOT full fat cream, but instead lower fat cream with gums in it as whipping aids. Meh. (Good thing I don't do dairy anymore).
 
Buttermilk and Baking

I very much agree with John's comment about baking with buttermilk. What is widely available in stores today has a different "mouth feel" than the product of, say, 40 years ago. This creamy, or to some heavy, texture is what is described as what makes the finished cooked product as being "filling." The current product is to many a lot lighter in texture, to the point of being watery.

It dates me, I know, but buttermilk that used to be sold in glass bottles was notorious for the somewhat greasy film that it left inside the container, and drinking glasses. This was because of the high fat content, as well as the bits of actual butter, present in the liquid after churning cream.
 
Buttermilk Sold Today

Is NOTHING like the stuff of old of old.

Rather than the by-product of churning butter out of cream, today's "buttermilk" is pasteurized, homogenized, then clutured thing for production on a vast scale. If one examines the labels on containers it most always clearly states "cultured" buttermilk.

Think it may be possible in the USA to find the real thing, but not sure. Know in parts of India traditional buttermilk is still easily found and sold.

And if you think real buttermilk is hard to find, forget seeking out clabber. Unless one owns a dairy farm it just isn't going to happen.
 
No Culture Left

Pastuerization wiped out naturally souring milk and cream. Fat is not a reason to add buttermilk but for drinking, "Bavarian" varieties have more fat. The acid in buttermilk works in concert with the leavening for more oven spring and to reduce gluten formation while mixing. In yeasted breads the culture medium in buttermilk makes a nice lunch for yeast bacteria to feed on.
Whipping cream can be as low as 31% and legal so that is what many store brands are. Heavy Cream is 36% butter fat and more often branded varieties. Restaurant Heavy cream is 44% butter fat and designed for high heat cooking so it thickens in a saute pan and won't curdle in extended baking times. Older cream whips better so look for shorter expiration dates if you need it right away. Cream whips much better at medium speed than high and if you add sugar before whipping the finish product is much more stable. Ultra Pastuerized cream does not whip as well because the high heat of pastuerization can cause fat cells to burst and then they cannot trap air.
Lord, I am with you. Regardless of baking or cooking I almost never use a recipe or a measuring device. It goes much faster, clean up is a breeze and I name it when it comes out of the oven. If you understand process and ratio you don't need a piece of paper to tell you what to do.

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Professional Bakers/Cooks Measure By Weight

For it makes dealing with ingredients easier, but allows the scaling of a recipe up or down faster and much more accurate. One key one has always found is that it's much better to do so via the metric system (grammes,milliliters, etc..) than pounds, ounces, etc.

If one understands what the proper ratios are for what one is making (cake, bread, pudding, whatever...), then it is merely a matter of plugging in the proper measure by weight of ingredients to get where one needs to go. This is how professional bakers can take a recipe for say pound cake and make enough batter for enough layers to make a wedding cake or several smaller ones.

The Cake Bible along with several other great books speaks to understanding ratios and proportions for baking.
 
Speaking of Pound Cake & Weights

That is how the thing got it's name.

Original recipes for pound cakes called for flour, eggs, butter, and milk in measures of "pounds" depending upon size and or number being made.

Regarding standard weights:

Current American usage give eight ounces for a cup, two cups to a pint and four quarts makes a gallon. One pint of water weighs one pound.

However for the UK twenty fluid counces made an imperial pint, therefore the Imperial gallon was 25% larger than an American one.

But in the British empire, it took 20 (fluid) ounces to make an imperial pint, making the Imperial gallon 25% bigger than the American gallon.

Hence the common American claim that "a pint is a pound the world around" pitted against the English statement that "a pint of water weighs a pound and a quarter".

, 8 ounces make a cup, 2 cups make a pint, two pints make a quart, 4 quarts make a gallon. A pint of water weighs a pound.
 
sometimes it pays to be a bitch

Concerning the downsizing craze that's used to cheat customers, recently I noticed a change in toothpaste. We all know the box and tube size has shrunk, but I began to have problems with the Crest Clinical stuff I like. The consistency of the paste started to get thinner and thinner. It became a race to see if I could get the brush in my mouth before the paste ran off (how I wish I had this problem with food on a fork). I sort of suspected that more water was being added to the mix. Think of it, a teaspoon of water added to millions of tubes saves a lot on manufacturing costs while the tube size remains the same. The net weight doesn't change much either.

I decided to email Procter & Gamble and they expressed their concern and asked me to send them the lot# on the box and also the receipt! I told them that this problem has existed for the last dozen tubes I've purchased and besides who keeps receipts for toothpaste?

They sent me 12 coupons for free large tubes worth about $50 so I was "pacified."

It only takes a second to find the email address on most packages so bitch, moan and complain.
 
Pound Cake

If you look at early recipes for poundcake no one had heard of kitchen scales. Lumps of butter the size of four eggs etc were how they were written. Clearly weighing ingredients is the most accurate but not always worth the bother. I recently bought a Taylor 4 cup measure that has a scale built in the base. Getting out the scale and dinking around with adding just tich more or take a bit out is slow and cumbersome compared to the dip and sweep method of measurement. In 98 percent of homebaking a single recipe the difference a scale would make is neglible since at least 98% of American recipes are written for volume measurement and then you'd be trying find new recipes or conversion charts. Not worth the time, mess and effort at my house. I can bake 6 cakes in the time it takes most people to get out the ingredients.
 
Kelly---While you're here, I have a question for you. Someone in this thread (Hunter, perhaps) heard a tip to improve a boxed cake mix: Add 1 cup of flour and 1 stick of butter to the mix. Have you ever heard of doing this? I would think adding a full cup of flour would mess with the ratio of sugar and leavening. And I suppose nothing is hurt by adding a stick of butter, LOL. I know you're a strictly-from-scratch man when it comes to cakes, but what's your take on this tip?

Aside: I have no rational explanation for my love of the boxed cake mix. I make all my own bread, dinner rolls, cinnamon rolls, even hamburger buns; but I almost always use a boxed cake mix these days.
 
Don't Mess With Me

I have no luck using Betty crocker with or without additions. Pillsbury are my favorite and they seem to put up with anything. I used to add a stick of butter and an extra egg and liked the more solid texture. When making wedding cakes I used a cake mix, 4 eggs, 1/2 cup oil and a package of Dream Whip along with a 1 1/4 cup water. It makes a light but stay together cake good for stacking. I haven't used a cake mix since the 70's so I can't say much about how they do now. I think Hunter's idea of adding the flour would bring the sweetness ratio in line and the extra butter is always a nice addition to the shortening used in cake mix. You can buy dehydrated shortnening and butter which is added to the dry ingredients. Its much like mixing up a cake mix because it's one bowl action. I buy cake flour in 50 pound bags, butter anyt time its on sale for $2.50 or less and baking powder in 3 pound jars because I burn through it in about three months. More if there are functions like the St Patrick's Dinner with dessert auction the church is doing. I always use Molina or any Mexican vanilla I can get my hands on. Keep baking and let us know what you learn.

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I'm going to give the "add a cup of flour and a stick of butter" tip a try when I bake this weekend. I like moist, dense cakes, too. I make various cakes for work on a rotating basis, and this week the lineup includes Damn Good Coffee Cake (using a mix); Blueberry-Cream Cheese Coffee Cake (scratch); Lemon Poppyseed (mix); Chocolate Coca Cola Cake w/ Chocolate Cream Cheese Frosting (mix).

Below is a mix-based coffee cake recipe I get a lot of requests for. I've tinkered with this recipe for awhile and really like it in its current form, so it gets my "Damn Good" designation. When I retire, I plan to self-publish a series of Damn Good cookbooks. That ought to keep me off the streets and out of trouble, LOL.

The recipe for Damn Good Coffee Cake is in the frame following this one. Try it, you'll like it!
 
DAMN GOOD COFFEE CAKE
1 18.25-oz. box yellow cake mix
1 cup sour cream
1/2 cup vegetable oil (or very soft butter)
1/4 cup sugar
1/3 cup water
4 large eggs

Filling/Topping:
16 tablespoons cold butter, cubed
1-1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1-1/2 cups packed brown sugar
2 tablespoons ground cinnamon
1/2 cup chopped pecans

1. Adjust oven rack to middle position. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease and flour a 13" x 9" baking pan.

2. Make filling/topping: Put flour, brown sugar, butter and cinnamon in bowl of food processor. Process in 2-second pulses until butter is cut into flour. Pour mixture into a bowl. Stir in chopped pecans. Set aside.

3. In bowl of stand mixer, combine cake mix, sour cream, oil (or butter), sugar, water and eggs. Beat at high speed for 2 minutes.

4. Spread a little less than half of the batter in prepared pan. Sprinkle with half of the filling/topping. Repeat to use remaining batter and filling/topping.

5. Bake for 45-50 minutes or until a wooden pick inserted near center of cake emerges with no raw batter on it.

NOTE: You may use granulated sugar in place of brown sugar for the filling/topping if you prefer. However, this negates the "Damn Good" designation.
 
yes, you will...

If you decide to bake and cook by weight you will need a new cookbook.

Personally I am a big fan of "Delia Smith's Complete Illustrated Cookery Course" And someone else on this thread mentioned _The Cake Bible_ if you are doing cakes.

(Also, I would love to take credit for the 'add flour' etc. to a cake mix but it wasn't me who said it).

Personally I'd also love a Thermomix, but at that price, I just can't justify it - not after spending money on some of the other stuff I spend money on !!
 
There's one thing I've been wondering about with cake baking. Is there any sort of standard temperature adjustment for the oven to compensate for different types of pans? With bread, for example, James Beard said that one should reduce the heat 25 degrees if one uses a glass pan vs. a metal pan. Is there in general some similar temperature adjustment for cakes?
 
Personally Only Use Vintage Pyrex

Glass pie dishes when doing that sort of thing. All other baking is done in vintage Ekco metal pans one has had since a teen. Or failing that whatever vintage Ovenex bakeware one has nabbed off fleaPay. Even have one those those large three loaf pans with lids for baking Pullman bread. What one thought one was going to use it for at the time of purchase god only knows. *LOL*[this post was last edited: 2/29/2012-23:11]
 
Oven Personality

Baking temperatures depend a lot on the range. GM Frigidaires brown less so 350 might be fine. GE has more radiant browning so dropping the temps 25 degrees are better. Ranges that don't have top elements that cycle during baking are a crap shoot unless they have convection. It all depends on the personality of your oven regardless of pans. If things are baking too slow or falling adjust the temperatures upward. If they hump, pull from the edges and have brown crusts lower the temperature and then make note of it for furture reference.
 
Frigilux , my late dad would give  you a big kudos.  He first pointed this downsizing rip off, to me years ago , when " a three pound can of coffee" became 2lbs and X ounces.  alr
 
I checked my local Hy-Vee grocery store. Pillsbury cake mixes are priced the same and Betty Crocker, but still give you a full 18-to-18.25 ounces of product. The store brand (Hy-Vee) is also full-sized and about 12 cents cheaper.

I guess I'm a Pillsbury/Hy-Vee guy, now.

Also: Just found a recipe to make your own "cake mix" which can be sealed in zip-lock bags and stored in the freezer until you need them. Going to give that a try as well. The mix has butter cut into it, then you add water/eggs/oil when ready to prepare. I'm guessing one adds cocoa powder to get a chocolate cake.
 
Krusteaz

Frigilux, have you tried Krusteaz cake mix? They come in 5 lb. boxes, and though I've not used them myself, one of my friends claims they are good. I was told you can measure out enough for one cake at a time if that's all you want to make.
 
I guess I'm a Pillsbury/Hy-Vee guy, now.

Until, I presume, they also downsize?

If this downsizing continues, we'll sooner or later have cake mixes that are only big enough to bake half a cupcake.
 
There's something that might make those who are frustrated at Betty Crocker serving up smaller amounts better. Tonight I was at my usual grocery store, and I discovered they have organic cake mix. Quantity, at least on the one box I saw, was about what Betty Crocker has changed to. Price was something like 4 times higher.

On the other hand, the organic mix had nothing on the list of ingredients that I didn't recognize.
 

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