These Discontinued Duncan Hines Cake Mixes Served Slices Of Tried-And-True American West Flavors

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It's funny how nostalgia works. Today, we might miss discontinued cake mix flavors like burnt sugar or sour cream chocolate, but in the early 1960s, when ornately piped layer cakes were in vogue, Duncan Hines released a counter-current batch of cake flavors nostalgic for the simple, pioneering days of yore. Its Early American series featured old-timey flavors reminiscent of life at the homestead: Date Nut, Butter Pecan, Fudge Nut, Cherry Almond, Applesauce Raisin, and Orange.

Ads for these cakes describe them as "Cake rediscovered! The richest kind you ever tasted ... moist, deep-flavored, chewy with fruits and nuts." Unlike the fluffy frosted cakes we most associate with Duncan Hines today, the Early American series boasted cakes that were so rich and moist they didn't need any icing. Rather, they were studded with fruits and nuts harkening to "America's early days, when the rich earth yielded bountiful harvests." Indeed, this line of cake seems to have been a textural delight: The Orange flavor boasted real bits of candied zest, the Cherry Almond had chopped maraschino cherries and slivered almonds, and the Date Nut had real chunks of sliced dates.

Duncan Hines first released its cakes mixes in 1951 and soon took the market by storm. Box mixes revolutionized home baking, but by the middle of the decade, sales started to mysteriously slip. Market researchers eventually surmised that the cake mixes were too simple and took away bakers' creativity. Ads began featuring opulently frosted, multi-tiered cakes where bakers could find artistic expression. In contrast to this maximalist trend, Duncan Hines released its Early American mixes in 1961.

The company marketed the early American idyll hard. In a TV commercial for the Applesauce Raisin flavor, a woman clad in a prairie dress ladles a cauldron of bubbling homemade applesauce into her cake batter. The ad says the cake is "different from cakes today" so rich and chewy that they didn't need frosting. The cake was also baked as a sheet cake and served in thin slices.

While the likes of Fudge Nut and Cherry Almond may be long gone, Duncan Hines is continuously putting out creative flavors (our favorites ranked here). And if you're wistful for cakes of a bygone era, here's a list of Duncan Hines cake mixes we wish would return.