BC hands down...I tried DH once and the texture was similar to that of an artificial sponge...boing!

Duncan Hines is my first choice.. they seem to rise higher BC is next and I am always satisfied I NEVER use Pillsbury there is either less in the box or they are flat it takes 1 1/2 boxes to do what I do with one Duncan hines....

If you like your chocolate cakes more chocolately, add up to 3 tablespoons cocoa powder. I add buttermilk and 2 tablespoons of cocoa powder to my BC devils food mix and it is awesome! I do not really like chocolate cake but I love this one!

I like duncan hines best.. It seems to rise better.. and it's more moist!!


Dawn

If you sub some of your liquid for strong coffee it adds a richness to the chocolate flavor. I swear you can't tell there is even coffee in it.

Do what I did...take one box of classic white of each brand and bake them individually one at a time, let them cool and compare for yourself! Post the results, it will be interesting to see what everything thinks!

I like Betty Croker

These are great ideas! I love my Hershey's Special Dark cocoa - it makes chocolate frosting so incredibly yummy, so I can only imagine how yummy it would make chocolate cake! And the coffee idea - I have a recipe somwhere for Dark Chocolate frosting and I never understood why it wanted coffee so I left it out. As much as I love chocolate, I'm normally not a chocolate cake person either, so we'll see how these turn out! Thanks!

Since the consenses is fairly evenly divided, I have decided to use the Betty Crocker mix because they already have the pudding in them. I know I can add the pudding along with extra eggs and milk, but I am already adding extra ingredients to enhance the mix. I just don't want to add too many things and throw something off, at least not without doing a test cake first. I have already done 3 test cakes which is why I decided to go with the butter cake mix. I am about test caked out on this project. Aside from that, I have just enough mixes on hand to make a 4 tiered cake. If I use one I have to run back to the store for more. ALSO (LOL) this is a family wedding cake. There are about 40 people invited. I am making a 4 tiered, double layered cake. We are going to have cake out the wahzoo! I can already see my hip girth expanding just thinking about it! If I make two extra test cakes, I'm lible to go into sugar shock

Thank you everyone for your thoughts and input. This has been a great topic of discussion!

mines bc LOVE IT!!!!! to me, dh is too dry. with the extender recipe you'll really like the dh for your wedding cake as it makes it more dense and easier to work with. Good Luck on the wedding cake!!

Hey bodaisy -

I love your tag line - "don't worry- you'll get it together and it will be beautiful!" I had a near disaster with my first official wedding cake this weekend - it's a long story but that cake very nearly was not even done in time for the wedding - but in the end it all worked out and it turned out even better than what my original plan for the design was.

Anyway - I was wondering where you are in upstate NY? I'm originally from Syracuse, although I live in Atlanta now.

So bodaisy, do you think the BC will be good with the enhanced verison as well?

DH Classic white is THE way to go! It rises better, I always have problems with BC or PB. Add pudding mix to flavor.

I am so grateful to everyone for their help! I am so excited to bake this cake. I can't wait to take a picture of it and share it with you all. Hopefully the end product will live up to how I have it pictured in my head.

Of course with all the feedback, I thought of another question. When using flour in the extender recipe, is it best to use all-purpose or self rising flour. I don't remember seeing that specified.

Thanks!

I use all purpose flour. I've never had a problem w/the cakes...

Hello all, im pretty new to all of this cake stuff and I just love it here and love all the help.

I have a question after reading all of this. What is the "extender" recipe? I have gathered that it makes a firm, dense cake - which is just the thing I have been looking for.

If someone would be kind enough to explain, that would be awesome.

To this post I like the BC mixes better, they seem to work better for the character pans.

Thanks
Diana

That's the same recipe that I am going to use Bodaisy! I just noticed that it had said "or yogurt". I already bought all the sour cream but got to thinking I'll bet the plain vanilla yogurt would taste good in this! What do you think? I might just have to run out and get some yogurt and find another use for the 48 oz. of sour cream in fridge

DH for chocolates, BC for whites. I don't buy mixes that already have pudding in them; they don't rise as high compared to when I add my own pudding mix. Also, for additional height, sometimes I'll add 1-2 T of meringue powder to the mix.