Has anyone noticed the new "look" of the Duncan Hines cake mixes? Well, you might want to look real close...if you are like me, and use them all of the time, you could make theses mixes with your eyes closed...well open them up fellow bakers. The classic white is not the same recipe or the same size box anymore. The pictures call for 3 large eggs, 1 cup of water, and 1/4 cup of oil...totally different...make it that way, and you will NOT get a true WHITE cake...but if you read down in the instructions, and lets face it, who really does that anymore, you will see where it says egg WHITES...

Then the box size is 16.5 oz, and the old mix was 18.25...I know because I would at times half the recipe. I have been using DH forever and using it along side the cake mix extender! Love it...now, I feel like I have to reinvent the wheel to some degree to see how much batter I will now need...now many cupcakes a batch will make, etc. Bad enough the price on these have gone up repeatedly, but wow...mess with the recipe too!

I check some of the others that I have gotten in other flavors and they are fine...just need look on the box. I did email DH to see what their explanation is...told them I wish they would fix the dark chocolate fudge and leave the white alone...it was perferct the way it was!

So that is my vent...back to baking, but would love to hear others thoughts on this one!
Very frustrated!
C

I haven't bought any of the new size yet but did hear about it on a forum yesterday. I also emailed them and made a comment on their facebook page. This is the response from Duncan Hines to my comment on facebook "Hi Goreti Pavao, this is Candy from Duncan Hines. We would be happy to help. Please call us at 1-800-362-9834." Right and then I can spend my times going thru voice prompts for nothing. Lots of comments on their facebook page about people unhappy about this.

They changed the boxes a few months back, their was topic regarding this. You will not fill not 8" pans good with one box. Some people have not notice the difference in the doctored recipes.

Welcome to the wonderful world of food shrinkage! They pin their hopes on sneaking it through, hoping you don't notice. Most canned goods have shrunk in ounces even though the size of the can remains the same. And they really don't care what the customer says. Even if they don't go up in price on the shelf ...they HAVE gone up in price merely by giving you less product. Betty Crocker did the same last year and yes...I can tell the difference. All in the name of 'consumer concern' about rising prices. Yeah, right. So they shrink AND go up in price, plus you have to buy more mix to retain the same recipe amounts. Yeah, that's helping us consumers all right!

It's not only cake mixes, it's everything. Look at bags and boxes of frozen veggies. 16 oz bags are now 14 oz! Look at cans of canned pumpkin -- there are no more 32 oz cans, and the 16 oz can is now 15 oz!! The prices? UP UP AND AWAY...

Even make up companies are the same. I asked about a Mary Kay product I get and the consultant said it's because they didn't want to up the price and make it harder on people's budgets, so they made less in the product.

I wonder if the food people are thinking the same way. Either way, we'll need to buy more of it in the end since there is less.....so I'm not sure the logic in that explanation.

I noticed the recipe change to the DH Classic White mix this weekend, but I didn't notice it until AFTER I had mixed everything up!! LOL!! I was still doing the 1 box of pudding, 4 egg whites, 1 1/3 cup of milk and 2 tbs of oil.

For some reason, I looked at the box and notice the change and all I could do is laugh!! Luckily, the cake came out fine, like it normally does. I did try one box the new way and it is NOT a white cake, it's a yellow cake.

The same also applies to ice cream. Remember when you could glance at a carton and figure it was either a gallon, or half gallon? It's hard to find 1/2 gallons any more. Especially annoying are the cartons which now have an elliptical shape. It might be easier to scoop from, but disguises the fact that they are smaller.

Jan

If the smaller mix is sold for the same price you are looking at a 10% increase in the price of the mix. Considering the price of flour has gone up by 12% in the last year alone, this price increase is actually less than would be called for by regular inflation.

Source: http://www.bls.gov/cpi/cpid1112.pdf

This is why you need to adjust prices every year, if you increase your prices by 5% a year you would be able to easily absorb the higher costs. Across the board inflation was 3% last year, but with an ever-increasing debt burden and the Fed's quantitative easing I wouldn't be surprised if it was closer to 10% annually by the end of the decade.

Well, I'm heading in to town this morning to see if I can find any of the almost obsolete DH boxes. I have several stored in my freezer since I live so far from the stores.This whole thing is just a sign of the times, I guess. I heard on the news last night that Tropicana Orange Juice is now going to dilute their juice with water and sell for the same price. Their rationale? The fact that consumers dilute it at home anyway and they are just trying to accommodate consumers' preferences! Oh puleeeeeze, give me a break. That is about the most transparent excuse ever.

Jan

The news article didn't mention which line of juice was going to be affected. I was already in a somewhat negative mind-set and in view of all the recent changes, I was set to hear the worst. It was made to sound like a new change, not an existing product.
Incidentally, I just returned with a large number of Classic White DH. I wish I could do the same with gasoline!

Jan