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My daughter loves to bake. She saw Duff’s cake mix 
Duff Goldman 
As with many celebrity chefs – especially those who appear on Food Network – his face is now on several products. There’s Duff Blue Bunny ice cream at Walmart featuring pieces of cake. He has a line of cake pans, fondant, sprinkles and other cake decorating goodies.
And then there’s the mixes and frostings.
There were three choices of Duff cake mix at our Target: tie dye, blue suede and zebra
Both chocolate and “white” frosting were available in the Duff brand.
Mixes and frosting were $2.99 each.
My teen daughter has successfully been making cakes herself from scratch for years. Box mixes are nothing for her.
Not this one.
She sat out to make it Saturday morning and quickly called The Momma in for reinforcement.
The directions are long and not very clear.
First up is mixing the batter. This mix uses only egg whites. It was her first time encountering that. She took her time separating them and then we scrambled the yolks up for the dog in the microwave.
After the batter is mixed, you dye it six different colors.
That means you need six different bowls.
And six different spoons.
Plus, the original mixing bowl and spoon.
Oh, and whatever dishes you used to separate the eggs.
There are three packets of dye to make the six colors. Some colors are made by combining two dyes.
Once you get your six dyes made, you put half of each INTO ANOTHER BOWL.
That’s TWELVE BOWLS just for the dyed batter.
Then it’s time to spread each layer out. That took forever.
The box tells you what order to go. We did the two layer cake method. She did the first layer according to the directions, carefully letting each color spread out on its own, and then lost patience. I did the second layer for her. I just slapped the batter in the pan one right after the other.
We baked it. Cooled. Frosted it. Ate it.
Oh, and washed a gazillion dishes.
These are not Pinterest worthy photos, but I’m going to put them up there anyway.
Because making this cake deserves a badge of honor
It was a pain in the butt.
I asked my daughter if she’d want to make it again.
It was a resounding, “NO!”
It tasted good. Really good. It was a moist, delicious vanilla cake.
Even my picky husband devoured it.
But we could have had yummy cake without all of the hassle and dishes.
It didn’t look cool enough to warrant all of the effort.
So if you’re a fan of Duff Goldman, “Ace of Cakes” or Charm City Cakes, give the Duff cake mix a shot if you’re looking for a delicious treat. Just make sure you have plenty of dish soap on hand if you’re going with the tie dye version!
This was my daughter’s birthday cake. She’s into the whole late 60’s/hippie thing and a tie dye cake was perfect. I agree – it tasted good. But it sure wasn’t worth the hassle. I ended up making a sheet cake simply because it would be easier to decorate after iced that way.
Tie dye cake/Dr. Who decorations. Made for an interesting birthday cake but she liked it. Though she did agree with me that the cake was way too much work for a cake mix.
We just did this cake and the cake itself smelled like play dough. It was the biggest pain. My 5 yr old just dumped the bowls and shook the pan…lol hope it at least tastes good.
What did you think?
I just made this for my daughter’s birthday 2 days ago. I was literally the worst thing we had ever tasted! We threw out the entire cake after serving it up and everyone only taking one bite. I literally sat at the table crying because I had ruined my daughter’s birthday serving this cake.
I bought this cake mix for my sister’s going away party. Since she always wears tie dye t-shirts this was awesome when I saw it. My plan was to split the cake and put a cheescake center. Yes it is messy but I thought worth the effort. After baking, the cake was only 1 in high. Hmmm I’m committed now so I went ahead with splitting and assembly. Put it in the fridge overnight, in the morning, the weight of the cheesecake had compressed the bottom to even smaller. Not impressed with this product at all. Even if I hadn’t put the cheesecake in, it would not be a tall cake. You need atleast 2 mixes to get a normal size cake. The picture on the box should say ” pictured cake was made with 3 mixes.” Because there is no way you could get that result from 1 mix. Bottom line. Will not buy again.
Thank you! I just made this cake for my daughters birthday and I was thinking I did something wrong. It is not very high at all. Luckily I have time to make another one!
I made this cake last night to get a head start on my son’s birthday cake for the party tonight. I thought I did something wrong, my cakes are only about 1″ tall too! I think I’ll buy another white or confetti cake and make it a 3 layer cake!
I had just bought one of Duff’s cake mix, the Camouflage one, to make today for my special 3 year olds birthday and through out making it it smelled like playdough as well BUT the thing was is there was NO color packets at all in the box. So, I continued on making just the plain yellow cake and it tastes nasty! 🙁 I will never buy his cake mix ever again. Very disappointed in it.
Bummer! Sorry you had a bad experience.
I actually made this last year, and it came out perfect! I only did two layers, though. And, I had a lot of time on my hands! Lol. If you pour each layer of batter, let it sit for a second, then GENTLY *jiggle* the lab until it’s evenly spread, then do the next layer the same way (only the following color is .5 – 1.5 inches smaller), they will come out perfectly. I promise! The taste, on the other hand, is… Well… Meh. Nothing special. I guess it’s all about the gimmick of a tie die cake! (((: I know this is an older post but it’s been about a year since I made it and I’m about to do it again and I wanted to look up any tips to simplify, or make better, the process.
Glad you found a good method! We thought it tasted okay. Ya know, for a boxed cake.
It was not that bad. My son helped me and it turned out just fine. Life is not about the perfect photo… It’s about the experience. We try new things that are some days a struggle. We win. We lose. In the end… We can say we did it together. 🙂
I love this recipe I just made it and I used a big pan. It was super easy and yummy, I decorated it with pink frosting and a whole bunch of sprinkles
I did this for my daughters birthday and it was fabulous.
I use this cake mix all the time. The secret is to use disposable cups to mix the batter. Then you just throw them away! I’ve made the colors in separate layers to make a rainbow cake, cupcakes, as well as tie dye.
Great tip! I did the same, even using plastic spoons to mix the colors so while the cake is labor intensive, it’s very pretty and the disposables make clean up quite easy!
Same here! I was looking for a positive review to echo and glad I finally found one. We do this cake every Christmas (rainbow cake for Jesus) and my son asks for it for his birthday. It is easy and tastes like a white cake out of a box – you can’t expect anything more than that. Ours comes out beautifully.
I’ve had this box of tie-dye mix kicking around in my cupboard since last year when we visited Chicago. Finally decided to make it. It’s in the oven now. The kitchen looks like a war broke out between utensils, bowls, batter, spatulas and soiled paper towels. I doubt it will be worth the effort given how much effort it took. In the end….it’s just a cake mix!
This cake looks great on the box, but there’s no way they achieved that look with only one box. The color is great, but there’s just not enough batter or rise…I triple checked ingredients etc…very disappointing!
Here is a positive review! We enjoy making this cake and it is super super easy if you use disposable cups and spoons. We make this cake every Christmas (rainbow cake for Jesus) and my son asks for it for his birthday. It is easy and tastes like a white cake out of a box – you can’t expect anything more than that. Ours comes out beautifully. I would encourage the author to try it again and follow the instructions exactly – as shown by the cake before frosting, it doesn’t look like she followed the instructions. You have to pour the batter directly into the middle of the pan, right on top of the previous color. It evens out and you have nice colors throughout – the batter will be perfect circle rings of different colors. We have done a single layer and double layer cake and it has worked each time.