One Walmart Product Outshines Duncan Hines And Betty Crocker Spice Cake Mixes — And It's Gluten Free

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As we settle into the fall season, spice cakes are coming into their heyday. And if you don't have the time to make one from scratch, you've got plenty of boxed cake mix brands to supply you with a spice cake to make on the fly. A pro baker staff member at Tasting Table gave their expert opinion on 6 different spice cake mixes, tasting and ranking each according to taste, moistness, aroma, texture, and the overall spice balance. And Walmart's Bettergoods Gluten Free Gingerbread product outranked both Duncan Hines Signature Spice Cake and Betty Crocker Delights Spice Cake. 

It's not every day that a store-brand product outshines name-brand counterparts, but the Bettergoods gingerbread cake was heads and shoulders above these popular cake mix brands. Albeit a fancier sub-brand than Walmart's flagship Great Value label, Bettergoods offers products that are chef-inspired and often use specialty ingredients to suit niche dietary needs, hence the gluten-free designation; it's also dairy-free and made without synthetic colors. Of course, you'd never know the gingerbread was gluten-free. Right out of the box, we caught an intense aroma of spices that translated to a batter so spicy it burned the taster's tongue. Luckily, once baked, the cake was bursting with a balanced profile of spicy ginger and sweetness. It had a deep brown hue with a density characteristic of traditional gingerbread cakes.

We found many glowing reviews from Walmart customers for the Bettergoods Gluten Free Gingerbread. One 5-star review stated, "It's got a very strong type of [spice] flavoring but it's so delicious, sweet[,] and comforting." As for the texture, customers complimented its cakey consistency. One review gushed, "It was fluffy and great tasting unlike other gluten free baked goods." Plus, as a store-brand product, this gingerbread mix is very budget-friendly (under $5 for a 15.6-ounce box), which is yet another pro that customers point out.

However, a negative review stated that "removing baked goods from [the] oven was a hideous disappointment." To that effect, our taster noted that this mix needed far less time than the 35 minutes stated on the box, as it was ready in 15 minutes. So, perhaps a prolonged bake dried it out. In fact, the Bettergoods Gluten Free Gingerbread product came in 3rd place for having a slightly dry crumb.

The Bettergoods Gluten Free Gingerbread product is a muffin mix, but since cake mix typically contains higher amounts of sugar and fat and uses finer flour than muffin mix, that makes the higher ranking of this product that much more impressive. For that matter, the top-ranking spice cake mix, Krusteaz Pumpkin Spice Quick Bread Mix, is also technically not a cake mix. If you stick with Bettergoods gingerbread, you can remedy a dry crumb with a whipped cream topping or a scoop of vanilla ice cream.