5 Box Strawberry Cake Mixes, Ranked

Any strawberry cake fans in the house? The fun, fruit-inspired flavor, much like its ice cream counterpart, often seems to fall by the wayside — strawberry desserts have their devotees, but chocolate manages to reign supreme. Personally, I think this is a shame. Strawberry deserves to be more of a staple in the world of flavored desserts, even when you're not baking a fruity confection in the middle of the summer. 

To that end (and as an unabashed strawberry fan myself), I figured it was high time to familiarize myself with the tantalizing pink box mixes available at my local grocery store. I've had the odd strawberry cake mix (like when I compared Betty Crocker and Duncan Hines cake mixes — interestingly enough, I actually had different impressions of each when trying them for this piece), but I've never really taken the time to analyze a strawberry cake mix without heaps of frosting on top. I could only find five mixes, but that seemed a broad enough selection to at least get my feet wet. I ranked them primarily based on flavor and texture. Without further ado, here's how they fared!

Funfetti is inarguably the most "fun" cake mix brand on the market — I mean, it's right there in the name! And, Funfetti is an iconic old-school dessert sure to take any '90s kid right back to everyone's favorite decade. But as we all know, visual appeal doesn't always equate to a satisfying eating experience, and unfortunately, I found that to be the case with Funfetti's strawberry cake mix. Moreover, it's even lacking the exciting appearance that most Funfetti confections offer. Other than some purple-brown spots of sprinkles throughout (which aren't that attractive), it's not really apparent that this is a Funfetti confection at first glance.

The main appeal of Funfetti is, obviously, its inclusion of sprinkles. However, I found them to be a deterrent to this offering rather than a worthy inclusion. I don't know about you, but when I'm eating a cake, it's not fun to come across something grainy in every bite — it felt like I'd neglected to blend the mix properly, resulting in dry flour pockets throughout the cupcake. The strawberry flavor was fine, but not good enough to make up for the unappealing Funfetti texture in this cake mix. For that reason, it was a pretty easy contender for last place. 

Ah, Dolly. It's no secret that we've tried (and loved!) some of the iconic country music queen's baking mixes, and I really hated putting her strawberry cake mix in the second-to-last place here. Unfortunately, it had some textural issues that I just couldn't get past. It was undeniably the most visually attractive of all the cake mixes featured here, though; the top domed nicely, and the cupcakes boasted a rich pink color throughout. 

When making the cake mix, this was by far the thickest batter of the bunch. I even wondered if I'd made it wrong or mis-measured something, so I double-checked the box instructions, but nope — looks like the cake mix is supposed to just be really thick. Unfortunately, this also meant that this was the dryest cake of the bunch (and no, I didn't overbake the cupcakes). All of the following selections were more moist. I did like the flavor of this cupcake, though — it was punchy, definitely tasted like strawberries, and didn't seem too artificial. And I'm willing to concede that one might not notice the texture as much with a mound of frosting piled on top. Unfortunately, due to its dryness, I still couldn't rank this above fourth place. 

Are you surprised to see Betty Crocker's strawberry cake only take the third-place spot here? So was I, especially considering that the brand was the runner-up in a previous ranking of red velvet cake mixes that I did. I definitely expected this to outperform my top two brands, but at the end of the day, it was pretty lackluster. That even comes through visually — this was the palest of all the cake mixes, and the dry mix didn't have any color in it at all (though it somehow turned pink after adding the wet ingredients). 

In terms of flavor, this cake mix tasted the most distinct of the bunch, but I'm not sure I wholly enjoyed it. It tasted a little artificial, like strawberry Jell-O or a strawberry-flavored candy. The flavor wasn't very punchy, either, leading to a pretty underwhelming tasting experience, and its texture couldn't save the mix — the cupcakes were a little dry, though I did appreciate how sturdy they were. On the whole, I wasn't the biggest fan of Betty Crocker's offering. It easily scored above the previous two choices, but the following outperformed it, earning this one an easy middling spot in this ranking. 

Given that Duncan Hines is the brand behind Dolly Parton's cake mix, I was very surprised to see how starkly the two differed from one another. It's blatantly obvious, even just in the visuals. This cake mix has a looser, more open crumb structure and is noticeably less pink than Dolly's, and it also doesn't have as much of a dome on top. Again, visually, it would be easy to assume that Dolly's is the superior offering — however, I found Duncan Hines' to fare far better. 

This mix baked up a wonderfully moist, spongy strawberry cupcake. Sure, it wasn't the sturdiest in the world (and may buckle a bit under a heavy frosting), but I hardly minded — the tender crumb more than made up for its questionable hardiness. It was definitely strawberry-flavored, though it didn't have the punchiest flavor of the bunch. But at the end of the day, I thought this mix boasted a pretty good balance of quality, texture, and flavor, which made it easy to rank in the top half of these offerings. It still couldn't beat my top choice, which thoroughly surprised me. 

That's right — Pillsbury's strawberry cake mix (housed in the only non-pink box of the bunch) made my ideal strawberry cupcakes. To be honest, Pillsbury isn't my go-to brand for anything, despite being a household name; I just don't regularly seek out any of the brand's products. But if I ever found myself in need of a quick strawberry confection, I'd definitely buy this mix again. It was the most well-balanced of the bunch, though you wouldn't know it from the visuals — but again, looks aren't everything.

This cupcake was moist, soft, spongy, and had an ample (and easily identifiable) strawberry flavor. It did taste a little artificial, but there was nothing too off-putting about it, so I found that to be a very forgivable offense. I think strawberry cake fans will likely favor this mix above the others. It presents the best of both worlds in terms of flavor and texture, with an open, light crumb structure and a punchy flavor to boot. Pillsbury's strawberry cake mix was a fairly easy winner for this taste test. 

When testing these cake mixes, I stuck strictly to the instructions on the box for all of them (though there are some pretty easy ways to boost the flavor of strawberry cake). I made them all into cupcakes, purely so I didn't have five whole cakes sitting around my house. I waited until all the cupcakes had fully cooled before cutting them in half to analyze the crumb structure; then, I tasted each one and evaluated its texture and flavor. 

To rank high on this list, a cake mix had to boast a combination of good flavor and texture. Though I really liked the flavor of Dolly Parton's mix, it was too dry to rank any higher than second-to-last place. Pillsbury's mix was the most well-balanced of the bunch, which is why it easily earned the top spot. But hey, go ahead and do your own taste test of the selections — maybe your preferences will differ from mine, and you could play with some fun strawberry cake additions while you're at it.