Cake mixes past their best-before date

Definitely give it a go! We just made two boxes of brownies that expired 07/2023 and they were really good-as usual. My son that cooks swears that he checked the date after I asked about it and said it should be ok since it was 07/2024. I told him to get glasses, but hid some brownies to cheat with later!

Yes, the issue is the leavening agent. When I use an “expired” cake mix, I add a little baking powder to the mix. Usually it’s not really needed, and the cake comes out all extra-light and billowy. They’re still nice that way, just different.

Anyway, that’s what I would recommend for a cake mix that’s more than a year expired.

I'm a little sad that pretty much all my expired items are used up. DH and I were having fun playing "guess the best by". Hints allowed, such as "this came from HyVee" or "probably moved with us twice".
Spices in particular have been across the country. 🤭

I'm a bit past my best buy date, I am getting a little snarky though.

I say go for it. As for the egg you can substitute with apples sauce or banana or buttermilk. I haven't tried only googled.

I’ve used apple sauce and it works ok.

I made a cake for a grandkids weekend that was about a yr expired... i didn't know to add more baking powder....

It wasnt unedible but it wasnt great.... super crumbly and kinda chalky.... it was not moist anf fluffy...

Cake mixes here are pretty cheap... id buy new ones instead of wasting valuable eggs on them... but i dont know the prices in Australia

I agree with lucyg that the leavening is the biggest issue at play. I would for sure bake up the ones that are a year past, I’ve done that before without issue even without adding extra baking powder but I think it’s a great idea to add a little just because why not. The other ones that are older I’d base that on how much I really want that thing vs. how much work it would be to buy a new mix.

I go through streaks where I’ll buy some cake mixes thinking I’m going to make them because I want cake. But in reality, I’m the only one who really likes cake here so I don’t make it. And then it sits until it’s 2-3 years out of date and I end up tossing them in the trash. Note to self: when you want some cake, just buy a pack of storebought cupcakes or one of those big single pieces of frosted cake from the store and it it yourself, since you’re the only one who really wants cake. (And LOL, I have five big Costco vanilla cupcakes individually wrapped in my freezer right now. I really need to thaw one out and eat it!)

On a related note, I just looked on Target’s website (where I buy most of my non-Costco food items) and a standard cake mix costs about $1.89-$1.99 not on sale, and sometimes they go on sale for $1.29-$1.59 or so which is usually when I buy them. I think if they cost what yours do, I’d be less likely to toss them, or even buy them in the first place unless I was specifically going to use it immediately.

Also, out of curiosity, have your cake mixes been the victim of shrinkflation where you are AussieMeg? Years ago ours were routinely about 18.25 ounces. Then they shrunk to 15.25 ounces several years ago, then to 13.25 which is what most of the ones are that I see in stores now. And yet, they still claim to yield a two layer 8”-9” cake or 24 cupcakes, which is a joke.

A couple months ago I happened to be in a different grocery store that I don’t frequent too often and I saw some of the Dolly Parton cake mixes on the shelf there. I was surprised that those ones are back to the bigger 15.25 ounce size. They were also considerably more expensive than the now smaller regular mixes. They’re closer to $3-$4 each depending on the store.

I DEFINITELY would have made those brownies, for science.

FTR, five ounces equals roughly 142 grams, if that helps!

It is so crazy. I wanted to make a layer cake for someone a couple years back and thought maybe in 8” pans it would be okay. Mixed it up, weighed out the batter in the two pans so they would be even and baked them up. Yeah, NO. Those layers were so thin and sad. I had hoped they would be thick enough to torte so I could put filling in between, but they were literally only about an inch or inch and a half at most thick. I think I ended up going back to the store to buy TWO cake mixes, mixed them both up together and made the cake three decent layers tall and just baked up the rest of the excess batter into cupcakes. What a hassle though. 

I also like tall cupcakes (liners filled 3/4 full) so one of the current mixes will only yield 14-15 or so at most.

🤣🤣