If this gets everyone going, you should read the consumer newsletter I get EVERY week that contains what they call a "Mouse Print" article, it'd really get ya riled up.
The whole article focuses on this exact thing.
This is happening right under our noses with just about everything we buy.
The articles go very in depth and the company excuses, er, um PR responses are disgusting when it comes to the cover up BS they try to force you to swallow.
It's nice when a company just says...hey, our costs are going up, so are yours. That's Life. Period. Done.
Its the hiding that is annoying.

Oh - And for the record, I am with you on this...I HATE when I get something perfected in my own way and someone throws a monkey wrench "in the mix" LOL...sorry I couldn't resist!

I think all people who use the BC mixes will notice a difference with the new sizes. If the box still says it makes 2 8" cakes, that size is going to be considerably smaller with less mix. Everyone will notice that, not just hobby bakers. And Everyone will scratch their heads and say, 'why isn't this making my normal size cake?" It's one thing to downsize something and hope the public just doesn't notice, milk, ice cream, sugar (4 lb packages now for the same price of 5..), but it's another to say one mix will make an 8" cake and fall considerably short, and Wilton can forget those "1 mix pan" boastings on their character pans, they are going to have to make them smaller!

Those PR guys are the same 'architecs' who designed my kitchen, they've probably NEVER cooked!

I'm just glad I work in an industry that is so tightly regulated we can't do this. We can change a lot of things but we absoblutely posotively cannot change the size of our product and then charge the same amount. We can discontinue a size, but then of course we won't be charging anything for it.

sweetflowers

I thought that I was the only one to notice the 1 lb. decrease at my local Wal-Mart for the price.....

Just dreaming here: It would be nice if minimum wage would continue to go up and the amount of work, blood, demands, and sacrifice would decrease.

Just curious, has anyone actually tested the WASC with the new BC cake mix sizes? It would be nice to see what the results have been for people.

I noticed that it made less cupcakes....I am a hobby baker but I was a little tiffed that I had to buy another box to get the amount I had to have and then had too many.

I use Cake Mix Doctor a lot and that will sure mess with all those recipes. I hope they don't take any weight out of powdered sugar bags because that will really mess with my frosting as well. It would all have to be weighed. I do not like Betty Crocker anyway, but since Pillsbury and Betty Crocker are made by the same company they will probably follow suit soon. Always something.....

this is horirble, I stopped using pilsbury because it was less cake for the price, and I had to use more mixes to achieve the same cake with less betty crocker.
I had it all figured out, 1 mix for this size cake, 1 mix per 10" round, 3 for 2 twelve etc. Now I will have to be more careful and raise my prices again to cover the extra mixes. Hey.. maybe they will put the old boxes on sale to make way for the new ones? that would be a bright spot in the whole thing.

We will get used to it just like when pilsbury did this years ago.

I just got some new Betty Crocker cake mix and didn't even notice how much SMALLER it was until I compared it to an older box I had bought last month... WOW what a difference! The ingredients are the same on the back though so I have no idea how that is going to affect the quality of the cake!!!

well I had to dig but walmart did have a few of the older boxes of cake mix.
there a full 2 oz less in each box. from 18.25 to 16.25 I think that is the size of the pilsbury mixes they changed theres some time ago.

My husband can't figure out how they think they are saving money ... he said they have to retool all there machines and change so many things that he doesn't see where the money
would be saved.

I wish I had extra money right now to go to the store and buy a couple cases of the old boxes.

So, today I made my orange cake that requires BC. I used the smaller box 16.25 to see how much it would change my recipe. The cakes came out of the oven, let cool and trimmed off the top of my cakes. To tell you the truth for my recipe the family says it tasted the same and did not notice anything different.

In a few I will cut the cakes to seed how complete taste and look. Cakes are in the freezer until I have some free to work on them.

Anyone try the new smaller size but still requires the same out of oil, eggs and water.

I called BC this week and complained. I noticed that my cake didnt rise as high as I am use to. I thought may be I've done something wrong, but I know what I saw. And after I read these posts I looked at the empty box and saw that it was "new" batch. I called them up and lady said that they changed their recipe and that allows them to make smaller batches with same results. I mentioned that all the ingredients listed are the same as on the old batches. She puzzled and asked me for my address to send some coupons I guess. But if we all call them up and complain about it may be it will send a signal that we noticing things and not agree to put out....

here is the link to contact betty crocker! UNITE & CONQUER

http://consumercontacts.generalmills.com/ConsolidatedContact.aspx?page=http://www.bettycrocker.com/&WT.mc_id=paid_search_HHM_BC_Branded&ESRC=16189&js=True

I baked a cake a week ago and found that the cakes were sinking in the middle. All makes sense now. I was NOT happy about the results.

Dear Valued Consumer:



Thank you for contacting Betty Crocker regarding the new packaging on our Super Moist Cake mixes. Your comments are important to us.



We are reducing package sizes because our packages were larger, in many cases, than competitors package sizes. With sizes among manufacturers more similar, it will enable consumers to better compare prices on similar size boxes at the store. Our costs have gone up considerably over the last year. In an effort to keep the price reasonable, we needed to reduce the amount of mix in the box to offset the cost increases.



We appreciate your loyalty and the time you took to contact us. Please be assured that we will share your thoughts with the appropriate individuals.



************************************************************
This was the response I received from General Mills yesterday. All I can say is HHHHMMMMMMM!?

I came across this site because when I went in to make my favorite Butter Cream cake. it seemed as though it didnt call for the same amount of water as before. I TRIED to remember what happened the last time I ran into this problem; I think I added a LITTLE more water before. So, I added just a VERY little bit more water and AFTER I took my cake out of the oven, it seems small and shrunken around the edges! IT DOESNT look the same! Im not happy at all!
Has everyone decided not to use Betty Crocker anymore or has anyone come up with a viable solution?
I understand that most companies are cutting back, IE Kraft charges the same price for their cheese but instead of 24 slices, theres only 20 in the pack, as well as Kroeger milk is the same price but in a smaller carton and less milk. Its our terrible economy, so I can understand Betty Crocker cutting back too, however if theyre going to do that, then they need to provide the EXACT volume of water, oil and whatever else so that their customers will remain THEIR customers!
Im not a professional cake maker, however my family members take pleasure in eating my cakes and I want them to be able to enjoy what little bit of cheap desserts I can provide.
Ive read MOST of everyones post but I havent found a solution.
PLEASE HELP!!!

I made a new box BC yellow mix a while ago with no problem. The new package requires less water (I used half water and half nectar), same amount of eggs and a little more oil (I used applesauce).

I used BC French Vanilla and was so pleasantly surprised to see it bake up very well. It was, however more dry. I don't know if I should add a touch more oil or what. I'll be very disappointed if I can't use this anymore!!

I have used the new box sizes with the WASC recipe for white and Devil's Food. There is less volume of cake for sure. Also the box sizes differ from cake to cake (ie: white is one size, yellow is another, chocolate is different yet again). White cake seems to bake up okay, Devil's Food seems to sink a little. (sigh...) Frustrating, yes.

I've been a loyal BC consumer for 18 yrs but that has come to an abrupt end. I can understand the company's economic decision to reduce the weight of the pkg to offset raising costs but what I don't understand is why they would risk reformulating a proven product? Why didn't they simply just increase the price? I contacted BC with my concerns and was informed their formula had not changed, only the volume. No? Who are they kidding? We all know that baking is an exact science. It stands to reason that if you reduce the amount of dry ingredients by 2 oz, then you should reduce the amount of wet ingredients called for as well. However, per their new packaging instructions, BC recommends you increase the amount of oil (from 1/3 cup originally to 1/2 cup now) and then reduce the amount of water, (from 1 1/4 cup originally to 1 cup now). This ratio change would definitely affect the final product. I tried the new mix on one particular tier of a 3 tier wedding cake last week. Naturally, it took more mixes than previously needed to fill the pans. Once baked, the cakes were wrapped and allowed to rest overnight in the fridge as I normally do. When I leveled them the next day, I discovered the texture of this particular tier had a more delicate crumb than before and was somewhat tacky. The taste was good so I preceded to cover the cakes with fondant, stack it up and set that wedding aside while I assembled another wedding cake. After awhile, I looked over and noticed the one tier where I'd used the new mix, had settled quite a bit causing the fondant to bulge & buckle around the base. I unstacked the tiers, sat the problem cake in the fridge for an hour, pulled it out again, used the smoother to plumb up the side, trimmed off the excess fondant and stacked it again. It looked good. After I finished decorating, I loaded up and headed for the venue. After arriving on site, my heart sank as I discovered the same damn tier had settled even more but this time, not only had the fondant buckled as before, I also had 1/4" wide cracks on two of the corners of that tier as well. I repaired it the best I could and left feeling totally disappointed. I've worked hard to build a solid reputation for my business over the years and it bothered me to present my client with a substandard product for which I must offer restitution. After days of mulling everything over and weighing all possible variables as to how/why this happened, I can only conclude that BC's new formula is very unstable for stacked construction. It MAY perform fine as a sheet, I wouldn't know. But after my recent nightmare, I won't be gambling with their mixes again. For those of you who regularly use BC mixes as a starting base to doctor up...beware, those old recipes won't turn out as before using the new mixes. Just sayin'

I am really hoping Pillsbury doesn't follow suit, although since they are both owned by General Mills, it's probably inevitable.

I use only BC cake mixes when I can. There are some flavors that DH makes that BC does not, or is not available in my area. I will NEVER use Pillsbury, however. The last time I did, the cake actually fell apart while putting it together. I've never had the problem with BC or DH.

I didn't notice the smaller package of cake mix when I just bought some, but will look tonight. I am a hobby baker and bake for family and friends mostly, so I usually buy an extra cake mix for the cake anyway, just in case. I have a few to do for this weekend, so will see if I notice a difference.

~Chelle

Huskerfan, I would have written back to BC telling them they aren't fooling anyone. I'd want to know exactly WHO has boxes that are currently 15.25 OZ other than BC. Aligning their size with their competitors, what a bunch of hogwash! I would have preferred a price increase than a size decrease, because now you would have wasted batter or too much cake due to having to buy and prepare 2 boxes for the same amount of batter one box would make.

They say 1 box will still rise to fill the cake pan so you end up with the same amount of cake (Ummm, no), so you can see a change in consistency due to more leavening, hence the problems when covering with fondant some are seeing. I won't use them ever again, and wrote DH to tell them that if they follow suit, they will lose me as a customer too. I have some great scratch recipes I can use, I'm just lazy since I'm not in this as a business.