Skip The German Chocolate And Pick Up This Duncan Hines Cake Mix For A Much Richer Flavor

Duncan Hines boxed cake mixes are one of the most popular, prolific, and widely available brands. And within Duncan Hines' vast variety of mixes, you'll find numerous styles of chocolate cakes. So, if you're feeling overwhelmed, we found the best chocolate cake mix the brand has to offer, and it isn't German chocolate.

In a ranking of 14 Duncan Hines cake mixes, we crowned the Devil's Food cake mix number two, making it the very best Duncan Hines chocolate cake mix. We based the ranking off criteria like texture, flavor appeal, and how good each cake tasted without frosting. The aforementioned German chocolate cake mix was second to last because of a weak and forgettable chocolate flavor. The Devil's Food cake mix, on the other hand, had an intense chocolate taste, with that desired hint of bitterness. Before we even tasted it, we could tell how chocolatey the cake was by the its darker hue. 

Furthermore, since we tasted each cake without icing, it was more than obvious that the German Chocolate cake was lacking. It was in dire need of that thick, ultra-rich coconut, caramel, and nutty frosting to compensate for a tasteless crumb. The Devil's Food cake was so rich and flavorful that we actually preferred it without icing, which also speaks to its perfectly moist, fluffy texture. That said, its intense chocolate notes will stand up to any frosting flavor.

Hundreds of customers posted reviews for the Devil's Food cake mix on Duncan Hines' website, many of which praised the cake for being "moist chocolatey and delicious." Five-star reviews proclaimed the mix to be a favorite boxed cake mix. One customer gushed that the mix is "not extra sweet like you'd expect a chocolate cake, but it's just the right amount ... [and the] texture [is] fluffy and moist"

At the other end of the spectrum, disappointed customers said the formula for the cake mix has changed for the worse. One customer lamented "the new mix is very dry and does not have the same delicious flavor," also noting that the mix seems to have fallen victim to shrinkflation, with smaller portion sizes at an elevated price. Another one-star review said that "the chocolate flavor was absent." To that effect, in a taste-test ranking of chocolate cake mixes from various brands, Duncan Hines Devil's Food cake was ranked a middling 8 out of 13. It fell behind two other Duncan Hines-brand chocolate cake mixes that were not included in our ranking of Duncan Hines' cake mixes — Dolly Parton chocolate cake mix and dark chocolate fudge cake mix. So, perhaps the Devil's Food cake mix isn't the best Duncan Hines option overall. Of course, you could also try making a cake from scratch using Ina Garten's devil's food cake recipe.