15 Boxed Cake Flavors That Are Probably Gone Forever

Go to any grocery store and you will see a dozen different types of boxed cake mixes, ranging from plain yellow cake to devil's food to carrot cake. But did you know there are dozens of cake flavors that graced our store shelves only to be discontinued years later? For decades, the biggest brands in boxed mixes have been introducing new flavors to their lineups, only to take them away when they don't sell as well as the old standbys.

Boxed cake mixes boomed after WWII in the late 1940s. In 1947, Betty Crocker was the first to start selling mixes where all you had to do was add eggs, water, and vegetable oil. By 1951, Duncan Hines and Pillsbury were right behind Betty in a war that continues today. These three competitors have remained dominant for years; they have also introduced cake flavors that have since been discontinued. These 15 boxed cake flavors were gone forever before we even got to try them.

If you're a beer aficionado or you just hang out at old-timey soda shops, you know what malts are. To become malt, a cereal grain has to go through the "malting" process, which, through steeping and germinating, gives it its specific flavor and color. Add malted barley to evaporated milk, and you have malted milk powder, the basis for the milkshake-like treat that is also called "a malted" by some. It's also a popular chocolate cake flavor, or at least it was.

Malted milk powder is added to cake to give it that unique, toasted malt flavor and to ensure a tender texture. With Betty Crocker's Chocolate Malt Cake Mix, you didn't even have to provide your own malted milk; it was right there in the mixture.

This Betty Crocker malted cake mix was advertised on TV and in print from 1956 until around 1962. A mix for instant chocolate malt frosting was sold simultaneously.

If you've never thought about putting applesauce in a cake you're not alone. Even when this Duncan Hines box mix came out in the 1960s, it was a throwback. 

Who has time to cook a pot of applesauce just to put it into a cake like they did in colonial times? An advertisement from 1961 calls back to these olden days of American settler-colonialism, when an Applesauce Raisin cake would've been popular. This rich cake is so moist that it "doesn't even need frosting," according to the ad's narrator. It doesn't look like the kind of cake that would taste good frosted anyway.

The Duncan Hines Applesauce Raisin cake mix sold in the '60s contained both raisins and (dehydrated) apple sauce, as well as fragrant spices, in its box. At the same time, the company was also selling Butter Pecan and Fudge Nut varieties of the brand's line of "Early American" cake mixes, inspired by the colonial days.

When you hear the words "Dutch crunch," you might immediately think of Northern California's signature bread, also called Tiger Bread. But these Duncan Hines Dutch Topping Cake mixes had little in common with that sandwich bread and instead were more similar to coffee cakes. The mixes provided an easy way to make seemingly complex cakes, all three of which feature a sweet, crunchy sugar crumb topping. Unfortunately, nothing like them exists today, and this line of Duncan Hines cake mixes seems to have gone nearly extinct in the '60s.

The Dutch Topping Duncan Hines boxed cake mixes included three different flavors: Butterscotch Crunch, Apple N' Spice, and Cinnamon Raisin. Each box of Dutch Topping cake mix included the mixtures for the cake and the topping, as well as the fillings (apples, raisins, etc.) required for the cake. Honestly, both the Butterscotch Crunch and Apple N' Spice sound right up our alley, but we would likely pass on the Cinnamon Raisin flavor.

If you have any experience making baked goods, you might know about the secret use for sour cream. The dairy product that is typically served on tacos or baked potatoes can be an excellent way to increase the moisture of your cakes or donuts while adding flavor at the same time. It can be a lot like buttermilk in that way. Back in the 1970s, the Duncan Hines company introduced Sour Cream Chocolate Cake to its boxed mix lineup for a limited time.

A 1977 print ad marketed this cake mix as a chocolate lovers' delight. The ad showed pictures from Hershey, Pennsylvania, and called it "the cake they loved in Chocolate Town, USA." The assumption is that if you lived in Hershey, you knew your chocolate. Considering the flavor is not around today, we're going to assume people didn't quite fall for the line the way Duncan Hines had hoped.

If you read all that and you are now craving sour cream cake, try our recipe for this modern take on sour cream chocolate cake. It's a great way to use up that leftover cup of sour cream you probably have tucked away in the fridge.

Burnt is the last thing you want your cake to be. But burnt sugar is a different beast, and if done correctly, it can make a dessert sing. Caramel is what we call the flavor profile of burnt sugar. Caramel is a deeper, darker brown color than regular sugar and provides an enhanced buttery flavor that leaves you craving more. That's what, based on historical evidence, we can assume this Duncan Hines boxed cake tasted like when it was available circa 1958. 

This box mix Burnt Sugar Cake was a caramel bomb, with the rich flavor reinforced throughout both the sponge and the frosting. A Duncan Hines ad from that same year claimed that the secret ingredient is "real caramel syrup made from pure sugar, melted and slowly simmered for hours... then sealed in an airtight packet at the peak of its goodness." The box included enough of this syrup to add to your frosting too.

Okay, now this one we wish we could try. Our mouths are watering based on the way it looks on a 1962 ad, where you can see the swirls of golden brown toffee in a gorgeous white cake. The Betty Crocker Toffee Swirl Cake is a marble cake featuring the flavors of English toffee, a buttery and toasted sugar-based candy that often comes in a brittle form. Sometimes it can manifest in other ways, like the old-fashioned cake-like dessert sticky toffee pudding.

While this Betty Crocker boxed cake likely lacked the textural element of toffee, the flavor probably could have worked quite well. At the same time, Betty Crocker was also selling an instant Toffee Fudge Frosting Mix that combined the flavors of toffee and chocolate.

It seems like the company was pushing this new product pretty hard. In early 1962, if you sent in a box top (remember those?) from both the cake and frosting mix, you would receive a coupon redeemable for any flavor of Betty Crocker cake mix. It's not a bad deal by today's standards.

It's somewhat ironic that Betty Crocker's Black Walnut cake mix has been forgotten since its slogan was "Betty Crocker's newest mix to make you famous." Or at least, this is what a 1958 print ad for the product said. This boxed mix was among Betty Crocker's lineup throughout the '50s, alongside such previously mentioned canceled flavors as Peanut Delight and Honey Spice.

Black walnut cake is a relic of the past that you may only remember through family recipes passed down over generations. The origins stretch back to Pennsylvania Dutch country in America's colonial times. It's a very simple sponge cake with walnuts folded in and also used as a topping. A sour cream frosting is typically what you might find on a walnut cake. Betty Crocker's mix promised the flavor of black walnuts, although it doesn't seem like any chunks were included in the package itself.