Aldi Yellow Cake Mix Review
Author’s Note: Not a paid or sponsored review. I have no affiliation with Aldi. Hmmph!
Let’s conduct some important cake research.
It’s been a hot minute since I’ve used a conventional cake mix. I usually bake my cakes from scratch these days. But I’ve heard sooo many people asking about the quality of Aldi’s store-brand cake mix, I decided to give one a try.
(The fact that I wanted to eat cake had nothing to do with this decision, of course.)
Naturally, I couldn’t go about this process like a normal human being. I have these two fancy-pants Nordic Ware pans that never seem to get any love in my kitchen. So I decided to give them both a whirl with this boxed cake mix. In fact, this will be the maiden voyage of the mini tea cake/bundtlet ban. Bon voyage!
(Yes, I both greased AND floured my pans. Because I have trust issues.)
The cake mix, ingredients, and instructions are super typical. A bag of dry mix. Three eggs. 1/2 cup oil (I used melted butter). And a cup of water.
However, when I mixed the batter together (2 minutes at medium speed), I noticed it was extra thick, lush batter. Very creamy. Almost like pudding. A bit closer to pound cake consistency, but frothier. Or muffin batter. Intriguing. I used three very large eggs (Costco Heirloom Blue eggs, which are enormous), so I would think the batter would be a tad thinner. But no.
Also, it smells heavenly. Assuming heaven smells like artificial flavors. More about that later.
When I added the batter to my cake pans, the thickness made it not spread out very well. I needed it to get into all the little nooks and crannies of the shaped pans. I used a spatula on the Charlotte Pan to get it as even as possible. But couldn’t figure out a way to do this with the mini cakelet pan, since pushing a spoon against it seemed to pull more batter out (did I mention how thick it is??? almost suction-y).
Just spooning the batter into the mini voids was hard, because the obstinate gloopiness doesn’t cooperate. You can see mine are a bit uneven as a result. I tried tap-tapping the pans on my counter several times to gently shake the batter down into all the voids of the pan, but this didn’t seem to do anything at all. Oh well.
On a positive note, I had exactly enough batter to fill both my pans. Serendipity.
The bundtlet pan took 9 minutes to bake until the toothpick came out clean. I baked the Charlotte Pan for 28 minutes. It bubbled up quite a bit, and then deflated.
The mini cakelets released perfectly from the pan. Mine might have needed another couple minutes to brown better, but they are fully cooked.
Unfortunately, the details on the cakelets are pretty rough. This might be from the thick batter not fully conforming to the pan, plus the many air bubbles. The cakelet consistency is SUPER tender, soft, and moist. They taste great, even if they aren’t pretty.
I filled the recessed top of my charlotte-shaped cake with strawberry jam (yes, the jam came from Aldi!). I used less than 1/3 the jar for a fairly thick layer. You could definitely do less. If you’re a jam-scrooge.
Anyway. Here is my finished cake. I arranged the mini cakelets on top, and around the edge. That was my original plan when I chose the pans. It looked better than this in my imagination. Womp-womp.
It doesn’t look terrible. But it isn’t as amazing-looking as I’d hoped. Kind of fussy and cluttered. So I took all the “bundtlets” off, and put a pile of freshly sliced strawberries in the center. It’s a bit pie-like, I guess. Tart-like. Tart with the heart of a cake. I think it’s pretty. But nobody asked me.
Fine, but what does the dad-gum cake taste like?!
This is a scrumptious cake. It’s super moist and tender, with a (dare I say it again?) pudding-like richness. While it tastes decadent, it’s not heavy like a pound cake — the crumb is light and fluffy. The flavors are STRONG. And while these are super-yummy flavors, I can’t say they taste particularly “natural.” But absolutely delicious. It’s a kind of quasi vanilla-almond flavor, with a toasted sugar hug.
Not to toot my own cake horn, but the combination of jam and fresh strawberries with the yellow cake flavor was absolutely fabulous. And easy. Much easier (and more flavorful) than icing. I would definitely make it this way again.
Ingredients in Aldi Yellow Cake Mix
Here is my best attempt at typing out the ingredients from the label:
- Enriched Bleached Wheat Flour (Wheat Flour, Niacin, Reduced Iron, Thiamin Mononitrate, Riboflavin, Folic Acid)
- Sugar
- Canola Oil
- Leavening (Baking Soda, Monocalcium Phosphate, Sodium Aluminum Phosphate)
- Contains 2% or less of: Dextrose, Propylene Glycol Esters of Fatty Acids, Salt, Mono- and Diglycerides, Corn Starch, Natural and Artificial Flavor, Modified Corn Starch, Cellulose, Sodium Stearoyl Lactylate, Xanthan Gum, Cellulose Gum, BHT (Antioxidant), Citric Acid (Antioxidant)
Welp. Reading these ingredients reminded me why I usually skip the conventional baking mixes. I don’t think Aldi’s version is any worse than another major brand. This is just “how it is.”
Actually, compared to the box of Pillsbury Yellow Cake Mix lurking in my pantry, Aldi has actually done a bit better: Pillsbury lists Red 40 and Yellow 5 in their ingredients. Boo.
Thanks, Aldi, for keeping that unnecessary stuff out of there. I’d give you a hug. But I don’t do hugs.
More information from the label:
- Contains bioengineered food ingredients.
- No synthetic colors.
- “Taste of Home Best Loved Brands 2018.”
Nutrition Facts
A serving is 1/10 the package. The “as packaged” calories are 180 per serving. You also get 2.5 grams total fat (1 gram saturated fat, and thankfully, 0 grams “trans fat”) and 1 gram protein. There are 34 grams total carbohydrates, of which 19 grams are sugars (all 19 are “added sugars”) and 1 gram is fiber. (Yes, I am surprised by that little gram of fiber, too! Good for you, buddy!) There’s zero grams cholesterol, 16% you daily value sodium, and 6% each your daily value iron and calcium.
Price and Servings
The 15.25 ounce mix cost $1.09 at my local Aldi. That’s cheaper than just about any other boxed cake mix I’ve seen. Since there are 10 servings per box, each serving is 11 cents. “Practically free.”
Shelf Life
The “best if used by” date on my package allowed about 16 months to consume.
Other Aldi cake flavors include:
- Classic White
- Devil’s Food
It would be nice to see these flavors expanded, but the bases are covered. Miles ahead of my local Costco, which doesn’t stock any cake mixes at all. Hmmph! Here’s my review of the baking supplies at Costco, if you wanna know more.
Cooking Instructions
Here are the baking instructions, from the label:
- “Preheat oven to 350 F. Coat bottom of pan with nonstick cooking spray or shortening and a flour dusting. For fluted tube pan*, coat entire pan. For cupcakes, use paper baking cups.
- Combine cake mix, 1 cup water, 1/2 cup vegetable oil [I used melted butter! Fight me], and 3 eggs in a large bowl; mix until moistened. Beat with a mixer on medium speed for 2 minutes. Pour batter into pan(s).
- Bake at 350 F. Follow bake times below. When toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean, cake is done.
- Cool 10-15 minutes before removing from pan. Cool cake completely before frosting. Store loosely covered.”
(* I wanted to say “tooted floob pan” sooo badly. You have no idea.)
Cook Times for Pan Sizes:
- 13 x 9 inch pan: 29-33 minutes
- Two 8 inch round pans: 29-33 minutes
- Two 9 inch round pans: 24-29 minutes
- 10 inch fluted tube pan: 39-49 minutes
- 24 cupcakes (fill 1/2 full): 16-21 minutes
“Do not eat raw batter. Please cook fully before enjoying.” Okay.
Dramatic Conclusion
This is a very flavorful and moist cake mix. It’s easy to make, and bakes reliably. The batter is super thick and creamy, so it may work better in conventional cake pans than in detailed shaped pans.
On my highly accurate “Awesome-o-Meter,” this scores an enthusiastic “Yaaas.” Now, if Aldi would make a “natural” version of this cake mix, I might be “speechless.”
The End.
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