Caught a commercial on TV this morning for Pillsbury Simply cake mix....supposedly noting artificial including the flavoring......

http://www.pillsburybaking.com/products/white-cake-1587/ingredients

Sorry...got the name wrong...it's called "Purely Simple" cake and cupcake mix.  Cones in white and chocolate...there's also brownie mix, cookie mix and a frosting mix.

Getting on the Clean Eating bandwagon!  Have not seen these yet, but would be great for those Doctored Cakes that so many use.  I'll be on the look out and give them a try.

wow and they are17 oz too -- i heard that more companies are going toward less artificial ingredients --

that mix has canola oil in it -- wonder if it's powdered or if it's a little packet inside because they are going to blow it if they reveal the chemicals used to make it a powder ruh roh

Still has xantham gum. which while natural isn't necessary unless you want that spongy texture cake mixes have.

True the Xgum isn't necessarily needed, but I guess they are trying to bridge the gap between regular boxed mix and homemade cakes' textures...too radical a difference might be too much for would be bakers to accept all at once.

What are they preserving it with, loads of sodium? Joking...or maybe not?

costumeczar, that is likely why. Funny because that spongy texture is one of the things I don't like about mixes.

Xanthan gum is an emulsifier as well as helping cakes to rise which results in the sponginess it's not just for texture 

I found the mixing instruction for the chocolate cake at: https://www.hy-vee.com/grocery/PD9451959/Pillsbury-Purely-Simple-Chocolate-Cake-Cupcake-Mix

Say you add 1 stick of butter, 1 cup milk and 3 eggs....I assume the vanilla has a similar mixing procedure.

350 mg of Na in the chocolate mix

340 mg of Na in the moist supreme devil's food

is that per serving?  1500 mg salt = about 3/4 teaspoon.

I just looked at the product site....370 mg per serving....box says serves 10, so 3700 mg Na in a box.  I mis-spoke above....1500 mg Na (not salt) are contained in about 3/4 teaspoon of salt, so there's around 2 teaspoons salt in a box of mix.  A bit more than in my scratch recipes....I'd have to taste it to see if it noticeably affects the taste.

Yes... I pulled it off the per serving portion of the nutritional label...

Most scratch recipes making standard 9×13 inch Or two 8 or 9 inch layers contain 1 teaspoon salt when using unsalted butter.

If you're going to use an "all natural" cake mix, why not just use flour, sugar, salt etc and skip the mix? I don't get it.

So that somebody can say 'My cakes are all natural' just like when somebody claims they bake from scratch because they add eggs, and other extender to the cake mix.

For some reason, it just seems that scratch baking intimidates so many bakers for now good reason. I think they are so afraid of failing they won't even give it a chance.

@Jeff_Arnett  Im not intimidated at all but I can't seem to find a white cake recipe that turns out consistently each time :( I'm sure it's something I'm not doing right or something I'm missing. I can bake other cake, cookie and bread recipes from scratch without any issues at all. One thing I will point out is that I don't mislead people about what I make either so if it's from a box I tell them. Everything else is completely from scratch I even make fondant  (I've had to buy it recently though bc my recipe for that hasn't been turning out like normal either but I'm working on that too) so I would hope that the same bakers I respect on here would have a little grace and understating for those of us that are learning and really trying to bake all from scratch :) If someone would share their tried and true white cake recipe with me I'd be beyond grateful bc the ones I've tried so far are no good and I'm leery of  just picking another one to try :( 

by the way your cakes are beautiful!! 

oh sure i'll send you a couple white cake recipes in a pm -- and jeff just posted his vanilla cake recipe recently --

and i looked for this cake mix just now at the store and it's mia... just as well i have no business baking random cakes but i tried

@-K8memphis 

 Thanks a ton!!! I really appreciate it :) once this little hear wave we're having passes I'll fire up the oven and try it!!!

webaketogether -- i just tried to send off the recipes and the pm thing is down right now --

i'll give you one here then 

it's sylvia weinstock's yellow cake -- she has two -- i use the one with the sour cream here:

http://stylecaster.com/sylvia-weinstock-cake/

but i typo-ed it when i copied it and never realized it for a long time so i use an extra quarter cup of flour in it and it comes out perfect -- also i do not add/whip the eggs separately -- i do cut out a few of the egg yolks though and it comes out nearly white -- y'know, cream the sugar butter eggs  add the sour cream alternately with the powdered ingredients -- mix it like a cake mix -- after all is incorporated mix it for two minutes -- no higher than 4-5 on a stand mixer 

even though there was a comparison test done on this recipe by a friend here on the board and hers came out pretty yellow mine does not i use one or two of the yolks in  mine

"...once this little heat wave we're having passes..." 

oh sure like in october -- hahahaha -- that's not funny is it :)

Haha!!! It was 110 with the heat index yesterday (we were at the pool lol) and today isn't so bad but once my house heats up it's impossible to cool down. So maybe when the temps are in the 80's without 70% and up humidity I'll bake for fun. I've got a charity event I'm donating 100 cupcakes to on July 25th so hopefully I'll get a solid recipe down by then bc I'm doing all white cupcakes with green (vibrant) vanilla buttercream and purple fondant ribbons (it's cancer benefit for a 15 yr old girl) so I want these to be great!!!

speaking of the weather... our weathermen/ladies are hyperventilating right now about a storm blowing in likening it to one we had in '03 that absolutely effed our city -- power was down for weeks --

i worked in an office that was 126 degrees inside --  no windows would open -- we survived on generators that kept the ice machines going too (as well as phones and computers of course) and we covered our laps etc with bags of ice and we all just dripped like so much ice cream in the sun --

and i worked second shift so when i came out of work down to the parking lot it was pitch black -- pitch -- luckily someone had a teensy little light on her phone and she found her car and shone her headlights and we all found our way to our cars -- you just don't know what you have till it's gone -- 

...so if i'm off the computer for a while ... hahahaha

I did a product search for it on the Pillsbury website....couldn't even find it within 120 miles of some of KY's major cities!

well they've done a halfway good job advertising -- there is a restaurant and a grocery store that advertise on TV that are not in our viewing area -- what's up with that

Interesting, it looks like the flour may be unbleached, so an AP or low protein flour as opposed to a cake flour? I know you can pull off the texture of a high ratio cake without bleached flour if you sub out some flour for starch and have the right emulsifiers via your shortening (whether veg or butter) or an additive, but I think ingredients are listed by weight which would make this a lean cake - of course, the flour and sugar could be close to 1-1. 

I personally hate the taste of bleached flour so I'm looking for the right balance between what I would call an American butter cake (a pound cake made with AP flour and chemical leavening) and a high ratio cake. King Arthur's golden vanilla cake is a good jumping off point for anyone on the same quest.