General Mills did not invent cake mix, but in the early 1950s, Betty Crocker helped make it nationally popular as a staple of the American pantry.
In 1933, P. Duff and Sons, a Pittsburgh molasses company, patented the first cake mix after blending dehydrated molasses with dehydrated flour, sugar, eggs, and other ingredients. The mix required only water and baking to yield gingerbread.
By 1947, more than 200 companies produced cake mixes for regional distribution, but consumers were skeptical. Packaging was often inadequate and jeopardized the mix’s quality. Mixes remained expensive, produced inconsistent results, and lacked flavor. Some companies added soap to lighten the consistency.
After World War II, many women who had replaced soldiers in industrial jobs during the war resumed their domestic lives. American gender roles, however, had permanently shifted. In 1950, one in four married women was employed. With the return of domesticity and a newfound lack of time, women turned to products like Minute Rice and Reddi-Whip. Contrary to corporate predictions, women used convenience foods reluctantly, adopting them as ingredients in from-scratch recipes.
After four years of development, General Mills debuted its Betty Crocker Ginger Cake mix in 1947. General Mills joined the convenience-food movement because flour sales had been declining since the 1920s. Higher postwar incomes allowed families to buy bread instead of baking it. These higher incomes, coupled with increased nutritional awareness, drove households away from potatoes and breads toward diets of fruits, vegetables, and meats. General Mills hoped to compensate these flour losses with mix sales.
In 1949, General Mills debuted Devil’s Food and Party Cake mixes. Party Cake allowed consumers to prepare a white, yellow, or spice cake, depending on the eggs and spices added. Betty Crocker continually debuted new flavors: yellow cake and white cake in 1952, Honey Spice and Angel Food in 1953, marble in 1954, and chocolate in 1955.
Unlike other “convenience” foods, for many women cakes symbolized femininity and household happiness. Women felt pressured to perfect the homemade cake. A 1953 Gallup poll ranked cake the second “real test of a woman’s ability to cook,” behind apple pie. Domestic ideals split American women; - some accepted mixes while others clung to recipes.
Although cake mix sales tripled between January 1947 and August 1948, they soon plateaued. General Mills asked marketing expert Ernest Dichter to find out why. After interviewing groups of women, Dichter concluded that the simplicity of mixes made them feel too self-indulgent. So, General Mills removed dried eggs, requiring women to add their own. Sales improved.
In 1954, Betty Crocker debuted Answer Cake—cake and frosting mix pre-packaged in a pan—and marketed it to small families. Although later discontinued, Answer Cake returned as Stir ‘n Frost mix in 1976. Betty Crocker’s Chiffon cake mixes came out in 1958. Chiffon combined the richness of butter cake with the lightness of sponge cake and was created by celebrity caterer Harry Baker.
In affluent postwar America, products flooded grocery shelves, forcing companies to creatively sell their products to stay competitive. Betty Crocker, General Mills’s fictional homemaker mascot, embodied quality and value. General Mills used Crocker’s image to refute popular perception of mixes as “shortcuts.” Some Crocker devotees were shocked to see her marketing mixes.
General Mills drew female shoppers with “high impact” colors, such as their red packaging. It advertised with television commercials and even promoted a fourth meal consisting of Betty Crocker cake. Ads inundated women with reminders of their frantically busy schedules to sell “shortcuts” like mixes.
The company also steered attention away from the mix’s ease of preparation by promoting lavish frosting designs on packaging and in cookbooks. Appearance became the standard for success, trumping flavor and texture. The importance of appearance is exemplified in the success of Betty Crocker’s Picture Cookbook. Published in 1950, it sold over one million copies in its first year.
By the 1950s, General Mills, Duncan Hines, and Pillsbury monopolized the cake mix market. In 1977, General Mills, inspired by Pillsbury, added pudding to its mixes to make them more moist.
Since then, General Mills has marketed an array of cake mix formulas and flavors, including Stir’n Streusel and Light Style, a mix with one third fewer calories than the original. Betty Crocker cake mix remains popular in the 2010s.