We Examined 8 Boxed Chocolate Cake Mixes—Right here Are the Ones We’d Bake for Valentine’s Day

Boxed cake combine is a go-to for anybody in a pinch. Some, together with my boyfriend, even want it to selfmade. Yearly, he requests Funfetti on his birthday, however he does not need a from-scratch cake—he’d somewhat have the precise taste of a boxed combine, which brings him again to his childhood. I am very happy to conform: Boxed cake combine saves time, vitality, and dishes, and it prices a fraction of what a bakery cake would. Add some frosting and candles, and you’ve got a birthday cake, all for lower than $15. Even I, a self-proclaimed unhealthy baker, could make eight of them directly with out breaking a sweat. 

However not all mixes are created equal. Some ship an ideal, moist crumb, whereas others have the bitter, soapy taste of an excessive amount of baking soda, or rise (and even fall) erratically. To seek out the very best chocolate cake mixes truly value your time, we taste-tested eight extensively out there manufacturers you are prone to discover at your native grocery retailer. We baked them in accordance with the bundle instructions, sampled them in random order, tabulated the outcomes, and topped two total winners.

The Standards

We entered this style take a look at assuming all of the merchandise can be for layer-style desserts, however as you may see in our winners part, our absolute favourite pleasantly stunned us with its decidedly fudgy consistency—not appropriate for layer desserts, however nice for chocolate lovers.

For layer-style desserts, a very good combine wants to string a needle: It ought to be moist however not gummy, and fluffy with out being dry. It ought to have a pronounced chocolate taste that is darkish, wealthy, and bittersweet, and never cloyingly candy. Construction can also be key: The cake ought to bake with out collapsing or excessively doming, and have sufficient structural integrity to be stacked and frosted with out collapsing below its personal weight or crumbling when sliced.

Total Winner

The Finest Layer-Cake-Fashion Boxed Combine: Bob’s Purple Mill Decadent Chocolate Cake Combine

This was the one combine that nailed the steadiness of being moist however structured, with loads of chocolaty taste with out tasting synthetic. Our affiliate culinary editor, Laila, described it as having a “nice, clear chocolate taste.” She famous a “good chew with a barely gummy, considerably dense crumb,” however discovered it very fulfilling to eat total.

Our editorial director, Daniel, recognized this as probably the most versatile choice for bakers. “Good fundamental chocolate taste, no off flavors…looks like the one to beat,” he wrote in his tasting notes. He added, “This is kind of what I might need—gentle, tender, not overly fluffy however not in any means dense or dry. This may stack and layer with frosting completely.”

Whereas our affiliate visuals director, Amanda, famous that this combine was “somewhat dry” in comparison with the pudding-like textures of some rivals, the trade-off was a firmer construction that will truly operate nicely as a layer cake with out crumbling.

The Finest Boxed Combine for Chocolate Lovers (Who Do not Plan to Make a Layer Cake): King Arthur Chocolate Indulgence Cake Combine

This combine is in a league of its personal. The caveat: It is extra of a fudgy torte than an American-style chocolate cake meant for layering. The combo got here with chocolate wafers and directions for making a ganache topping with heavy cream, which we overlooked, as the opposite chocolate desserts had been served with out toppings.  

Whereas Amada wasn’t offered on this cake fashion (presumably as a result of it was amongst a bunch of extra basic layer-cake samples), the opposite tasters thought it was top-tier. Daniel extolled it for its “wonderful chocolate taste,” a sentiment Laila shared. “Very candy and strongly chocolatey, with a wealthy, fudgy profile that reads nearer to a brownie than a cake,” she wrote. Daniel put it clearly: “As a standalone chocolate dessert within the fashion of a flourless chocolate cake, it is fairly superior.” 

The Contenders

• 365 by Complete Meals Market Traditional Chocolate Cake Combine 
• Betty Crocker’s Tremendous Moist Chocolate Fudge Cake Combine
• Bob’s Purple Mill Decadent Chocolate Cake Combine
• Duncan Hines Completely Moist Darkish Chocolate Fudge Cake Combine
• King Arthur Chocolate Indulgence Cake Combine
• King Arthur Deliciously Easy Chocolate Cake Combine 
• Miss Jones Baking Co. Natural Chocolate Cake Combine 
• Pillsbury Moist Supreme Chocolate Cake Combine

Key Takeaways and Conclusion

Chocolate cake combine is usually made with flour, sugar, cocoa powder, leaveners—equivalent to baking powder and/or baking soda—salt, and pure flavors. Certainly one of our winners, Bob’s Purple Mill Decadent Chocolate Cake Combine, is made with sugar, a flour mix that incorporates malted barley flour and potato starch, cocoa powder, baking powder, salt, and pure flavors. 

Although Bob’s Purple Mill Decadent Chocolate Cake Combine has sugar as its first ingredient, our tasters did not discover it overly candy. Curiously, it additionally incorporates a non-flour-based starch: Bob’s Purple Mill makes use of potato starch. In his information to potato starch, Severe Eats contributor Tim Chin notes that in baked items, the ingredient “improves crispness, and inhibits gluten formation in wheat flour formulations, leading to a extra delicate texture.” 

One different favourite combine, King Arthur Chocolate Indulgence Cake Combine, could not match the mould of a basic American chocolate cake. Nonetheless, our editors nonetheless beloved it for its fudginess and wealthy chocolate taste. It, too, lists sugar as its first ingredient, adopted by a “fast and simple mousse combine,” cocoa, sea salt, and pure taste. The pudding-like cake is hands-down the most suitable choice if you’d like a deeply chocolaty cake—simply consider it will not maintain as much as stacking and frosting. 

All of our high picks are additionally made with Dutch course of cocoa powder, or cocoa processed with alkali. Cocoa is of course acidic, which might result in a pointy, tangy taste. Processing it with alkali helps to neutralize that acidity. In her information to the very best Dutch cocoa powders, former Severe Eats editor Stella Parks notes that Dutch-process cocoa powder is usually “greater in fats, decrease in starch, and extra fragrant throughout, with a mahogany colour and a taste profile that emphasizes cocoa’s darker, nuttier, earthier tones.”

Our editors discovered that cake mixes containing sodium aluminum phosphate (SAP), a leavening agent made with aluminum, tasted metallic. Our winner from Bob’s Purple Mill makes use of sodium acid pyrophosphate, a leavener made with out metals. 

For a basic birthday cake that stacks nicely, tastes clear, and stays moist, we suggest selecting a cake combine with a brief ingredient listing that features Dutch-process cocoa powder and a starch of some sort.   

Our Testing Methodology

All style assessments are performed with manufacturers utterly hidden and with out dialogue. Tasters style samples in random order. For instance, taster A could style pattern one first, whereas taster B will style pattern six first. That is to forestall palate fatigue from unfairly giving anybody pattern a bonus. Tasters are requested to fill out tasting sheets, rating the samples in accordance with numerous standards. All knowledge is tabulated, and outcomes are calculated with no editorial enter to supply probably the most neutral illustration of precise outcomes attainable.

December 2025