Bob's Red Mill Dessert Baking Mixes, Ranked

Time to let you in on a little secret: I'm a huge fan of Bob's Red Mill. In addition to being employee-owned, the company has cut its food waste by 70%, and I'm proud to support it. As a native Portlander, I feel an intimate kinship with the brand — I regularly visited its Milwaukie retail store to stock up on supplies and enjoy a hearty breakfast before it closed in 2025. 

Though the retail location is no more, I still rely on Bob's for all manner of pantry staples, like oats and flour. I recently had the opportunity to try the company's full lineup of pancake mixes, and I was generally impressed, so I figured it was high time I put its baking mixes to the test. I selected all the sweet treat mixes the company offers, baked them according to package instructions, and ranked them based on how they performed against other comparable mixes that I've tried, how they stack up against homemade versions, and their overall flavor and textural appeal. I'll say this: I consider this another win for Bob's, and ranking the mixes was no easy task, as they all outperformed mixes I've tried from other brands. 

Some recommendations are based on firsthand impressions of promotional materials and products provided by the manufacturer.

Look at that crumb! It feels criminal to give Bob's Decadent Chocolate Cake Mix a "last place" spot — it's really so darn good, easy to make, and superior to more mainstream chocolate cake mixes. All I needed to make this mix were three eggs, ¾ cup water, and ⅓ cup oil. I chose to make them into cupcakes (so I wouldn't have an entire cake sitting around!), and they were ready after about 20 minutes in the oven.

"Decadent" is right — these were my ideal chocolate cupcakes, which is to say they were dark, rich, and almost sinfully good. I found the cake to have an almost dry, bitter finish. Personally, I adore that, especially when considering how they'd taste topped with icing. I frequently find the sweet-on-sweet combo of a cupcake and icing to be way too much for me, but icing would help temper the finish on this cake nicely. Moreover, its texture was moist and rather dense with a lovely crumb structure. 

Deciding on the ranking spots between this mix and the following was no easy task. Though this mix churned out really yummy cupcakes, I was more impressed by the following when considering how the mixes hold up to their counterparts. 

It's easy enough to make your own yellow cake, but there's obviously no denying the appeal of an easy mix, especially when it churns out homemade results. Bob's Red Mill's Classic Yellow Cake Mix accomplishes exactly that. This mix required the same ingredients as the last – three eggs, ¾ cup water, and ⅓ cup oil — and they were also ready in 20 minutes. 

I have no doubt that in a ranking of yellow cake mixes, Bob's offering would likely come out on top. I tend to find yellow cake mixes pretty boring. In my Pillsbury cake mix ranking, the brand's yellow cake mix didn't even make the top half of my list. This mix, however, is one I'd make any day, and it's a pretty viable substitute for a homemade recipe, in my opinion.

This mix packs more flavor than I've ever found in a yellow cake mix. Despite not being "flavored," per se, it has a depth and buttery richness to it that I thought was quite compelling. Its crumb is rich and moist, and its texture is what really sealed the deal for me — other yellow cake mixes I've tried produce a light and fluffy result that feels like it'll be crushed under the weight of any frosting. These cakes, however, were sturdy and far denser without being stodgy, and they still had a wonderfully spongy texture. This mix wasn't quite as impressive as the following, which is the only reason I had to resign it to fourth place. 

Bob's Red Mill's Cinnamon Swirl Coffee Cake was the only one I'd tried prior to doing this taste test (in fact, it sparked the idea for this piece). I tried it for another article ranking coffee cake mixes, and it came in second place, only following Krusteaz's unbelievable offering. It's still quite the impressive mix, though, and only requires ⅔ cup milk, ½ cup melted butter or oil (I used oil), and two eggs. The cinnamon swirl mixture is included with the baking mix.

Making the mix is pretty standard procedure as far as coffee cakes go. Once you've whipped up the batter, you'll pour half into a pan, top it with half of the cinnamon sugar mixture, pour in the rest of the batter, and sprinkle the remaining cinnamon sugar on top, swirling it into the batter with a knife. And, yet again, we get results that could pass for homemade. 

The cake gets incredibly tall in the oven, and its crumb is effortlessly moist, crumbly, and flavorful. The ratio of cinnamon swirl to cake is perfect — definitely noticeable but not at all overbearing. You can't go wrong with this mix, and the fact that it outperformed all but one comparable option in my previous taste test makes it well deserving of accolades. When considering the whole lineup of Bob's mixes, though, I found my top two choices to be a little more impressive. 

I was a pretty chocolate-averse kid growing up (I know, I know), and as such, my go-to sweet treat wasn't brownies — it was blondies. Melting sticks of butter on the stove was a hypnotic ritual I went through on a weekly basis. So, I had pretty high expectations for Bob's Red Mill's Brown Sugar Blondie mix. This mix asked for two eggs, ½ cup melted salted butter or oil (I used oil), and 2 teaspoons of vanilla extract or water (I used vanilla extract). They were fully cooked in about 40 minutes. 

Again, blondies are near and dear to my heart, so it says a lot that I really enjoyed Bob's mix. Its texture was to die for — dense and chewy (I actually think I underbaked them a little), with crispy edges that other blondies should envy. The only thing I thought was missing was a little salt, so it makes sense that the recipe calls for salted butter as an option. If you make it with oil, I'd recommend adding a pinch of salt to the batter as well, or just sprinkling some Maldon on top after it's done. 

That minor flaw was the only thing that bumped this mix down to second place, securing the following mix the top spot. Again, this is exceptionally good, and I'd call it a worthy buy, especially considering that I don't see too many other blondie mixes on the market. 

Is anyone surprised to see a crisp, crackly brownie bake take the top spot in this ranking? I wasn't. Brownies are, quite possibly, one of the greatest confectionery inventions of all time. Though I regularly whip up my own, mixes continually get better over the years, and I regularly find that mixes rival the homemade version. Bob's mix called for two eggs, ½ cup melted butter or oil (I used oil), and a tablespoon of water. They were done in about 40 minutes. 

Where do I even begin? The texture of these brownies was absolutely divine. They were indeed very fudgy, moist, and chewy, with a decadent mouthfeel that had me swooning. The brownies are also undeniably rich. Their flavor is dark and luxurious. My previous go-to boxed brownie mix came from Ghirardelli, and these are at least on par with that alternative. The only reason my homemade brownies outperform this option is that I add both vanilla extract and coffee extract, which I didn't use when making this mix. If I had, they'd probably have been near indistinguishable from my own. Bob's Fudgy Brownie mix was a pretty easy choice for the number one spot on this list. 

Again, ranking these mixes was a bit of a feat — I found all of them to be quite impressive. Those that easily rivaled homemade counterparts and beat out other mixes made the top spots on my list, but I was still quite impressed by my "bottom" choices, which produced enviable results for cake mixes.

Because I had to be so picky, texture played a particularly important role in determining this ranking, and the textures of my top two picks were absolutely unbelievable. At the end of the day, though, you won't go wrong with any of Bob's baking mixes, especially if you need something easy to make on a time crunch.