Updated on Jan. 24, 2025
Looking for the best chocolate cake mix you can buy? Our team of professional cooks and bakers put 10 brands to the test. Find out which tasted the best.
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Chocolate cake is a cornerstone of any home baker’s repertoire. Right up there with apple pie and chocolate chip cookies, it’s a perennial favorite. But let’s face it: There’s not always time to bake from scratch. If you’re short on time and need a quick fix, the obvious answer is a boxed cake mix.
Shuddering at the thought of using a mix? We don’t blame you. Like blue jeans and coffee beans, the options seem endless and making the wrong choice invariably leads to disappointment. Some mixes result in dry or bland cakes, while others can pass pretty easily for homemade. Here is how to make box cake taste homemade!
But don’t you worry: Our Test Kitchen put 10 of the most popular brands to the test. In a blind tasting, our culinary pros sampled 10 chocolate cake mix brands and judged them according to these criteria:
Learn more about how we test products at Taste of Home.
After eating 10 slices of cake, our Test Kitchen chose three brands they’d be happy to keep in their pantry.
If you crave a lighter chocolate cake, you’ll want to go with Betty Crocker Super Moist Devil’s Food Cake Mix.
This cake mix was airy and baked up nice and fluffy—perfect for building tall layer cakes. But don’t let the light texture fool you. This Betty Crocker cake was still pleasantly moist; no sacrificing texture for height here!
The chocolate flavor of this cake verged more on the milk chocolate end of the spectrum instead of bitter dark chocolate. This slightly sweeter taste would likely be a hit among kids, especially when topped with a delicious homemade frosting like this peanut butter buttercream.
Just like not everyone likes a crunchy cookie (where are our chewy cookie fans?), not everyone is looking for an airy chocolate cake. If you like your cakes a bit on the dense and decadent side, you have to try King Arthur Baking Company Chocolate Indulgence Cake Mix.
This cake definitely lived up to its name: The dark chocolate flavor was incredibly indulgent as was the dense texture. Testers described this cake as being akin to a flourless chocolate torte or even a fudgy brownie. Each bite revealed more complex cocoa flavors—the marker of quality chocolate.
Because this cake is so rich, our Test Kitchen pros suggest foregoing the frosting entirely and instead topping with a dollop of homemade whipped cream and tart raspberries
Think baking a great gluten-free cake has to be a complicated affair? Think again! You can get a delicious GF cake with minimal effort with Krusteaz Gluten Free Chocolate Cake Mix.
This cake mix was a standout because of the great chocolate flavor; many testers remarked that it tasted like good Dutch cocoa was stirred into the mix. But this cake also delivered on texture: It was moist, tender and baked up light and fluffy.
It can be hard to get gluten-free bakes right, but Krusteaz delivered here. The rich chocolate taste and airy texture were so good that it even fooled a few members of our staff into thinking it was a traditional cake mix (now, that’s high praise for GF!). Also, find out the best yellow cake mix.
Here are the best gluten-free cake mix brands if you’re looking for more cake mixes.
There’s nothing wrong with baking up a cake mix at home for a satisfying dessert, but with just a little effort you can transform a box of your preferred mix into a treat that tastes 100% homemade. With just a few additions, like pudding mix, you can make these basic mixes into even better cakes like our top-rated Chocolate Comfort Cake or Yummy Chocolate Cake.
But you can think outside the cake mix box, too. Cake mix is a great starting point for treats like a Chocolate Strawberry Punch Bowl Trifle or Pretzel and Salted Caramel Cookies. These taste delicious and no one will ever know you started with a shortcut!
