Duff Goldman Confessed That A Box Cake Inspired His Own Yellow Cake Recipe
Most people don't associate Duff Goldman with cake from a box. The baker, artist, architect, and sculptor at the helm of Baltimore's Charm City Cakes (and Charm City Cakes West, in Los Angeles) has built his reputation on outrageous cakes that at first glance we're not sure are cakes. We're talking burgers, basketball shoes, beer cans, boxes of crayons, bowling balls and pins, stacks of books, and more (per the company's website). "If you can imagine it,” Goldman says in his Instagram profile, Charm City Cakes "can create it.”
But back to the cake from a box. Goldman is known as the star of Food Network's "Ace of Cakes,” not the ace of cake from a mix and frosting from a can. Even his bakery's pre-designed small cakes, which cost less than custom-order cakes, are available in a range of flavor options, including Dulce de Leche, Lemon Raspberry, and Pumpkin Chocolate Chip, in addition to classic flavors like Chocolate Cake with Chocolate Buttercream, Red Velvet with Vanilla Buttercream, and Yellow Cake with Chocolate Buttercream.
Charm City's Yellow Cake, like all of the shop's cakes, is an original recipe. But Goldman has shared that it's actually inspired by a supermarket staple.
Goldman has a soft spot for Better Crocker Yellow Cake Mix
Duff Goldman's recipe for yellow cake takes its cues from Betty Crocker Super Moist Yellow Cake Mix. "My absolute favorite cake in the world to eat,” Goldman confessed to Insider.
Cake mixes came into existence during the Great Depression, when the owner of a molasses company in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania dehydrated excess molasses and combined it with sugar, flour, and dried egg to come up with a gingerbread mix that required only the addition of water in order to bake a cake, according to Cook's Illustrated. In the years immediately following World War II, cake mixes came on strong. Betty Crocker introduced box cakes in 1947, and companies like Pillsbury and Duncan Hines soon followed suit.
Visit any grocery store today and you'll find a baking aisle lined with cake mixes. Goldman's favorite yellow cake and other dry mixes still have a place in the American home: More than 186 million Americans reported using them in 2020 (per Statista). The scratch-made yellow cake Goldman developed for use at Charm City Cakes pays tribute to the Betty Crocker yellow cake mix he remembers so vividly from childhood — and it sets the standard for the taste and texture he's after in homemade cakes (per Insider). You sweet talker, Betty Crocker.
But how can home bakers achieve the best yellow cake possible? The answer has to do with flour.
For the best DIY yellow cake, sift the flour
The list of ingredients for Betty Crocker Super Moist Yellow Cake Mix contains some that are familiar (enriched flour, sugar, corn syrup, leaveners) and some designed to give the box cake its distinct taste, texture, and appearance (corn starch, modified corn starch, xanthan gum, cellulose gum, flavoring agents, and food coloring, per the brand's website).
What's essential for getting scratch-made cakes to mimic the texture and taste of the classic Betty Crocker box cake is an extra step: sifting the flour. When you sift the flour, the end result is cakes that are "lighter and spongier and softer," Duff Goldman told Insider. "So, even if you're not using my recipe, sift the flour."
For those wondering how to make a box cake taste homemade (instead of actually making a cake from scratch), Today has some suggestions. First, add an extra egg or even mayonnaise for richness, and swap out the water for whole milk, buttermilk, or even non-dairy milk (fat adds flavor). Another trick that HuffPost suggests is replacing the oil called for with — you guessed it — melted butter.