Duff Goldman’s Favorite Boxed Cake Mix Inspired His Recipe

• Duff Goldman said Betty Crocker makes his favorite boxed cake mix.
• The Food Network star and pastry chef says he loves it so much that it inspired a recipe of his own.
• He says the key to getting a homemade cake to taste like a Betty Crocker mix is to sift the flour. 

Even Food Network icon and celebrity pastry chef Duff Goldman knows the undeniable allure of cake made from a boxed mix. And he loves one brand so much that he modeled his own bakery’s yellow cake recipe off of it. 

“My absolute favorite cake in the world to eat is Betty Crocker yellow cake with the canned fudge frosting,” Goldman told Insider in an interview about his partnership with Sun-Maid. 

The “Ace of Cakes” star said that the flavor profile you get from Betty Crocker’s super moist yellow cake is the one so many people think of when they think about the baseline flavor of what cake is, and it takes him right back to childhood and elementary school birthdays. 

“At my bakery, we make all kinds of wonderful, crazy flavors with really cool ingredients in them,” Goldman told Insider. “But our basic yellow cake, I made this recipe to taste like Betty Crocker.”

Rachel Askinasi/Insider

He said that while the version he sells in his bakery is made from scratch, the taste and texture are reminiscent of his favorite boxed cake. 

“It has that same kind of fluffy texture, which you get, funnily enough, by sifting,” he told Insider. “You have to sift.”

Goldman said that before he landed on this recipe, he wasn’t a fan of sifting flour for cakes, but he learned that it makes a big difference. “It just makes it so much lighter and spongier and softer,” he said of the texture of a cake. “So, even if you’re not using my recipe, sift the flour.”

Goldman also spoke with Insider about his go-to cookie recipe for whenever he needs to impress a taster, including his in-laws, and the red flags he thinks shoppers should look out for when ordering from a bakery.