11 Pillsbury Boxed Cake Mixes, Ranked Worst To Best

If you can simply never be bothered to bake a cake from scratch, you're in the right place. Fortunately for you, modern grocery store shelves are packed with a selection of baking mixes curated to curb any craving — and, fortunately for you, many of them are pretty darn good. Will chocolate cake from a box be a near-ringer of the decadent dessert Grandma used to bake? Maybe not, but it can certainly scratch a chocolatey itch. 

Of course, the obvious flavors are abundant on supermarket shelves, and you're likely to experience some decision fatigue when it comes to deciding which brand of chocolate cake mix you should buy. But if you're looking for something a little more outlandish, you might take note of Pillsbury's cake mix offerings. In addition to the standard flavors, it also offers pineapple, lemon, and creamy almond cake mixes. Its seemingly mouthwatering options beg the question: How good is each box mix, really? Separating the best from the worst became my mission for today, and I took it to task to rank 11 of the brand's box cake mixes, based primarily on the authenticity and strength of each flavor. Here's how they stacked up. 

Though Pillsbury's Red Velvet cake mix fared fine in a previous piece comparing red velvet cake mixes, it failed to make a name for itself when pitted against the company's other offerings. This might be a hot take, and you should feel free to disagree — after all, I'm not the biggest red velvet fan in general. The flavor has quite the backstory, with roots involving the illustrious Waldorf-Astoria hotel in New York City, but that doesn't necessarily mean it's earned a spot alongside vanilla and chocolate. All of which is to say, I didn't so much take issue with Pillsbury's red velvet cake as I do with red velvet cake in general.

Still, I'll stand by its last-place spot here. I felt like I could taste the red dye, and eating something so obviously artificial just isn't appealing to 21st-century palates. This cake mix gave the same flavor you'd expect to find in anything labeled red velvet — a bit of chocolate with a distinct food coloring taste. If that's your jam, you won't be disappointed by Pillsbury's red velvet offering. Meanwhile, I'll be stepping up my efforts to remove the flavor from supermarkets altogether.

What is German chocolate cake? Look up any recipe for the creation, and you'll quickly surmise that its star component is not the cake itself, but the coconut-pecan frosting that adorns it. In fact, the actual "cake" part is supposed to be less chocolatey than your average chocolate cake, so as not to overpower its signature frosting. Given that context, it's a little surprising to see a German chocolate cake mix — the box mix can only provide part of what makes the cake unique, and moreover, I can't find any evidence of Pillsbury selling a German chocolate frosting.

Perhaps this mix is intended to be paired with a homemade coconut pecan frosting, or maybe it's just relying on name recognition to sell; either way, I just judged the box mix based on what I ended up with after making it, and the results were not great. True to its namesake dessert, this cake mix produced cupcakes that are hardly worthy of any "chocolate" moniker. The chocolate was so subtle that I doubt this cake mix would really satisfy a chocolate craving. Sure, it'll allow the frosting to take center stage, but I don't just want a cake to be a vehicle for frosting — it should be good in its own right. This one is getting a pass, but at least it wasn't a red velvet cake. 

Almond bakes can be a hit or a miss for me. I absolutely love using almond paste (especially to fill an almond croissant), but almond extract is usually a no-go. So, I had my hesitations with Pillsbury's Creamy Almond cake mix. I could smell the distinct scent of almond extract right after opening the bag of dry mix, and I understandably wasn't the most excited to bite into this bake. 

I wish I could say that my hesitations were ultimately unfounded, but unfortunately, that's not how this cookie — er, cupcake — crumbled. On the plus side, their pale hue was gorgeous to look at, and the cupcakes had a fine texture (which is something you won't see me mention often in this piece, as all of these bakes had virtually the same texture). But, as I suspected, the almond extract made no attempt to hide itself. If you don't mind the flavor, you may dig this mix. But if you're similarly averse, I suggest you try one of the following selections — there are even some other unique options that don't taste like extract. 

Pillsbury's Strawberry cake mix is another that I've tried before; in fact, this one won the top spot in my ranking of five strawberry cake mixes. So, if you're dying for some strawberry cake and don't feel like making your own, grab Pillsbury's without hesitation. Why did the mix only get the No. 8 spot here? I often find that strawberry cake mixes suffer from some of the same pitfalls as other flavored cakes — namely, their signature flavor tastes artificial. 

I was pleased that this cake mix had a strong strawberry flavor, which is part of why it ranked so high when compared to other strawberry cake mixes. It was also one of the least artificial-tasting of the bunch. But even though there's nothing egregious about its fake strawberry notes, they do make the cake unable to beat the other flavors in this lineup. If you have a strawberry cake hankering, I'd always recommend making your own, but this box would do in a pinch. 

Coming up on the middle section of this list is a decidedly middling pick, a cake mix that doesn't have much in the way of merits or flaws — it's kind of just there, a willing canvas for any frosting or mix-in. In other words, I could eat yellow cake made from Pillsbury's box mix all day, but it would be a pretty mindless affair. 

For a yellow cake mix, I can call this perfectly fine. It tastes a little eggy, but doesn't seem overly fake or processed, and I'd say it fares better than some pre-made cupcakes you'd find in the bakery section at grocery stores. There's just nothing special about it, which is why I can't give it a higher spot on this list. This box mix would be a great option if you need something safe for a crowd of picky kids, but it would also serve the same purpose as any other yellow cake mix out there. (Or would it? Maybe it's time for me to rank some boxed yellow cake mixes ...)

Want a more fun version of Pillsbury's yellow cake mix? Then grab its Funfetti iteration — I mean, "fun" is right there in the name. I remember regularly begging my parents for Funfetti cake as a kid. Its colorful packaging did exactly what it was meant to, propelling my 5-year-old brain to feel some type of primal need for the bake. But as I've grown older and my palate has matured, the "fun" mix has just lost its novelty, and I couldn't justify giving it higher than sixth place.

Why did it rank higher than the last mix? Well, this one includes "candy bits," and though the marketing won't suck me in anymore, I can't deny the visual appeal of a rainbow-studded bake. Other than the mix-in, the two box mixes are virtually the same. I hardly noticed the candy bits when eating the cupcake. They gave a slight chew every now and again, but their appeal is mostly a visual one. If you need to send a crowd of kids into a color-induced trance, this mix would definitely help. 

I'll always be a little floored by how much I like white cake mixes. This marks my entry into "would willingly eat again" territory as far as Pillsbury's cake mixes go, and I'll admit to being pretty endeared to this mix right when I saw the cupcakes emerge from the oven. I mean, look at that crackle on top, the gently marbled golden hues, the near-perfect dome — the cupcakes were just really nice to look at.

I made this recipe with the egg whites option on the back of the box, and I'd recommend consumers do the same to get the best results. Despite not containing yolks, I thought this mix was plenty flavorful. It had ample vanilla flavor, and this mix actually represented a textural departure from the rest, too — using only egg whites made the resulting bake a little lighter and more tender than the other mixes on this list. It felt delicate and sophisticated, easy enough to pair with any other flavors while still holding its own against whatever frosting you top it with. In case it wasn't obvious, I liked eating these. I just thought the following were more impressive.

If you want a chocolate cake mix that actually delivers on its chocolate component, grab Pillsbury's Devil's Food cake mix (rather than the less-than-indulgent German chocolate cake I talked about eons ago). This cake mix hits all the marks that its predecessor missed — namely, it's dark and full of robust chocolate flavor, and will easily satisfy even the worst craving.

Yeah, you could make a better chocolate cake from scratch, but don't let that detract from the merits of this cake. It's just as "supremely moist" as the box would have you believe, and it wouldn't buckle under even the richest chocolate frosting. On the other hand, if you want to go for multi-flavor appeal, top this cake mix with a different frosting flavor entirely; the chocolate cake can do enough heavy lifting on its own. This mix was pretty darn good, and it's the last "normal" cake mix you'll see on this list. My top three choices are all unique offerings that also manage to be pretty impressive. 

I'll start by saying that I absolutely adore everything lemon-flavored, so it came as no surprise to me that Pillsbury's Lemon cake mix earned such a high spot in this list — in fact, I was a little surprised when it didn't get a higher spot (but that will be understandable once you see which mixes came out on top). As far as lemon cakes go, I really liked Pillsbury's offering, and it would be easy to reach for it again if I needed to make a last-minute lemon cake.

A disclaimer: These cupcakes did taste like lemon extract, but unlike with other cake mixes on this list, I didn't find that to distract from the bake because the extract didn't have those astringent alcohol notes that many extracts do. Did it taste like real lemon? Arguably, no, but its artificiality wasn't at all off-putting. Rather, the cake is bright and "zingy," and boasts of its lemon flavor quite a bit — I could even pair a plain vanilla buttercream with this without worrying about it overtaking the lemon cake. 

Ask me what my favorite fruit is on any given day, and I'm likely to name the humble tropical pineapple. I'm never without a pineapple in my kitchen in the summer, and I snack on containers of the cut-up fruit like it's my job (and, given that this is my job, in some welcome instances it actually is). So a pineapple-flavored cake mix was pretty much guaranteed to be a big "yes" in my book; indeed, this one delivered. 

Catch me making more pineapple cakes from here on out, because I was simply delighted by this little bake. The flavor of pineapple juice was bright and apparent, and it even added an illusion that the cake itself was juicy, which was fun to contend with. My immediate urge would be to pair this with a lime buttercream frosting, but it would also be a really fun cake mix to play around with, from adding lime zest to the cake batter to topping it with a light meringue. Moreover, it didn't taste artificial in the slightest. If you're a fellow pineapple fan, you'd do well to grab a box of this cake mix on your next trip to the store.

Ultimately, nothing could top my No. 1 choice: Pillsbury's Golden Butter cake mix. Personally, I think it's totally unfair to pit this up against the others on this list. This was the only mix that called for butter (instead of vegetable oil), and the result was a stark difference in flavor that could knock anyone's socks off. It probably also helps that I used really good butter (all I had on hand was salted European butter), but still, in my opinion, butter is always better.

Sure, the cupcakes look a little wonky, but you'll hardly care once you bite into one of these bad boys. Their flavor was far superior to every other mix on this list, even though they didn't boast anything as exotic as the pineapple mix mentioned previously — rather, they were soft, buttery, and effortlessly moist, tasting nearly on par with a homemade version. You can also see a textural difference if you look at the top of the muffin in the photo above. It's visibly soft and almost velvety, in contrast to the spongy tops of the aforementioned bakes. Butter really transformed this into something very noteworthy, and I think this mix earned its first-place spot. 

To rank Pillsbury's cake mixes, I first grabbed one of each flavor I found at my local grocery stores. I made each according to the package instructions and minimized the possibility for variation between the mixes by using the same type of eggs and oil in each (except, obviously, for the butter in the golden butter cake). I made each batter into cupcakes and compared two from each mix when doing my taste test.

Texture was far from a primary factor in this ranking, because most of the cupcakes were texturally identical, excepting the white and golden butter cakes. Rather, I just took into account the flavor of each cake. I didn't consider whether the cake would be better or worse when paired with frosting when I was ranking these — if I had, the German chocolate cake may have received a better score. Cake mixes in which I could taste artificial flavors got lower spots here, while unique cakes with stand-out flavors easily earned higher places.