Yesterday I was meandering around my local supermarket when I came across the baking section, I had ¾ of a tub of fudge icing in the refrigerator so I had decided to make a cake to use it up, (and to stop me from eating it on it's own). Luckily for me the Betty Crocker cake mixes were on special offer for £1.50, so for the first time ever I decided to buy one as it was cheaper then picking up a tub of coco to make a cake with.

The cake mix I chose was the Devil's Food Cake Mix, I have never eaten Devil's Food Cake before but I do regularly make my own chocolate cakes at home so I only have those to compare it to. The box is quite eye catching with a lovely picture of a slice of cake on the front, the box declares I only need 3 eggs, oil, water and icing. The front of the box also tells me that each slice (1/12th) contains 223kcal, 16.2g of sugar, 9.4g of fat, 4.4g of saturates and 1.0g of salt. One slice of cake contains a fair old chunk of your recommended daily allowances of sugar, fat, saturates and salt so it is best to just have one slice. The good thing about the nutritional break down is that if you are on a calorie controlled diet it is very easy to add this in to your daily allowance as appose to a home made cake where it can be quite difficult to work out calories per slice.

I did assume that the ingredients in the box would be quite basic as I was adding the eggs and fat to the cake but I was wrong the ingredients include sugar, cocoa powder, emulsifiers (E477 & E471) lactose and xanthan gum. The ingredients list is not as basic as a home made cake but then again what did I expect from a packet mix. The box contains allergy warnings for, wheat, milk, egg and soy ingredients.

The back of the box contains all the instructions, I flicked my oven on to 160c to warm up, I then opened the box and lifted out the packet mix, all the ingredients are in one large clear plastic bag, opened the plastic bag up and gave the mix a good sniff, it smelt quite chocolaty, not as rich as I was expecting. I tipped it in to a bowl, the mix was very fine and I could not see any sugar granules. I then measured and poured in 70ml of vegetable oil, 250ml of water and cracked in three medium sized eggs (my eggs come from my nieces free range chickens so I had to guess what medium sized was), So far so good. I then plonked my electric hand whisk in the bowl and proceeded to mix on low for 30 seconds, exactly to the instructions, the oil, water and eggs combined easily and quickly with the packet mix, I then turned my hand whisk up to medium and continued to mix for a further 2 minutes. Everything combined well and the resulting mix looked like chocolate mousse, and was starting to smell richer. I then split the mixture between two greased and lined 8 inch sandwich tins and popped it into the oven for 25 minutes. All the cooking times for different size tins are on the back of the box.

As I washed the pots (a bowl, two beaters, a pair of scissors and a spatula) a warm chocolaty smell started to fill the air, I then pottered in to the lounge and a few minutes later my husband could smell the chocolatiness of the cake which is unfortunate for him as he is on a diet. The aromatics of this cake are good and the whole house smelled of chocolate cake, which is not something I notice with a home made cake.

After 25 minutes the cake was ready to leave the oven, I carefully lifted the cakes out, I noted that the cakes were well risen, one had doubled in size while the other had risen slightly, I don't know if this was due to my separating the mix unevenly or something else, I prodded the cake with my finger to see if it bounced back, it did but it fell very soft and spongy so I tested it with a skewer to make sure it was cooked, it was. The appearance of the sponges was very uniform looking; they did not look home made to me. I removed the sponges from the tins easily and left them on a rack to cool.

Once the cakes were cooled I sandwiched them together using a tub of Betty Crocker Rich & Creamy Chocolate Fudge Icing. The cakes still felt over spongy. I have to admit that the resulting cake did look good, but I did not feel the pride I usually feel when I have baked a cake, I felt like a cheat.

The kids flocked in the kitchen and were soon dividing the cake up. It cut easily into 10 slices and not the estimated 12, the inside of the cake was very dark and chocolaty looking, the sponge looked moist, and the air bubbles were uniform in size. It tasted very nice, not as rich as I was expecting, the sponge was very light, it did not taste devilish as I was expecting from the cake mix name. To be honest I was under whelmed by it, I was expecting so much more.

Every body else thought it was amazing and I don't think they realised it was a packet mix, I could of passed it off as one of my home made cakes if I had wanted to but as I said earlier I did not feel proud of my efforts and felt I did not deserve the praise. My husband took some down for his mum and dad, the mother in law phoned up and told me it was one of the best cakes she had ever had, I did not tell her it was a packet mix.

There are a few suggestions on the side of the pack that you could try like adding grated orange rind or chocolate chips or chopped nuts to the cake mix before cooking, I think these are good suggestions and would help make the cake more individual.

In conclusion the Betty Crocker Devil's Food Cake Mix is cheap, easy and quick to make and gives an authentic home made cake. It smells amazing and tastes nice but does not give me the same happy feeling as one of my own home made cakes. I would use it again if I wanted a cake in a rush with little mess as I would say it took me less than three hours to make, cook, cool and ice. I would recommend it for a person who does not home bake, as it is a fool proof mix, and can easily be passed off as all your own work.

Thank you for reading Trayrope