Yes, Your Boxed Cake Mix Has Gotten Smaller—Here’s What To Know and How To Fix It

Kellye Fox

Mon, March 24, 2025 at 7:15 PM UTC

4 min read

Popular cake mix brands like Duncan Hines, Pillsbury, and Betty Crocker have quietly reduced the size of their boxed cake mixes from a standard 18.5 ounces to between 13.25 and 15.25 ounces.
The downsizing of boxed cake mixes is likely due to a reformulation of ingredients and rising costs, leading to consumers paying the same price for less product, which can impact flavor, bake time, pan size, yield, and structure of baked goods.
Home bakers can adjust to the smaller boxed cake mixes by buying two boxes, swapping ingredients, creating a DIY premade dry mix to make up for the missing ounces, adding mix-ins to stretch the cake, or considering baking from scratch.

If you've bought a boxed cake mix in the last few years and noticed there's something a little off about the size, you're not alone. Brands like Duncan Hines , Pillsbury and Betty Crocker have quietly reduced the size of their cake mix boxes. What used to be a standard 18.5 ounces is now between 13.25 and 15.25 ounces.Yikes!

For consumers, this revelation is frustrating because they're essentially paying the same price for less product. As frustrating as this shrinkage is for home bakers, we've got some "upsizing" solutions to help you adjust your recipes. But first, let's get into why the size reduction occurred in the first place.

Why Did Boxed Cake Mixes Get Smaller?

Manufacturers never made an official announcement, so we can only assume all the reasons why they downsized boxed cake mix . Our research found that a reformulation is likely to blame for the new cake mixes, which also have less net weight.

Another reason is likely the rising costs of ingredients. If manufacturers reduce the product size, their prices are pretty stable. These changes may make sense for business, but for consumers, these changes can create real issues for bakers.

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How a Smaller Boxed Cake Mix Affects Your Baking

These new sizes can affect flavor, bake time, the pan size needed, the yield (in the case of cupcakes ) and the structure of the baked goods (e.g., thinner dessert bars). Aside from those factors, it's challenging for older recipes—which used boxed cake mix —to be converted. For instance, think of a chocolate cake where a full box of cake mix is used. If you're using a box with significantly less mix your recipe may not turn out as fluffy as expected or it might dry out because the original baking time was based on a great volume of cake batter.

What Can Home Bakers Do to "Upsize" Their Boxed Cake Mixes?

Don't let those manufacturers ruin your recipes . Follow these cake mix hacks :

Buy two boxes.Having an extra box can make up for the lost ounces.
Swap boxed ingredients.Some bakers tweak their smaller boxed cake recipes by substituting ingredients to give their finished cakes more flavor and volume. For instance, for a chocolate cake, a swap could be using 1 cup of coffee instead of 1 cup of water or using 1 cup of melted butter instead of ½ cup of vegetable oil. Other tips are adding an extra egg or adding 1 box of instant pudding powder to add richness and moisture. These are great tips no matter the size of the box.
DIY the missing ounces.I found this upsizing shortcut on a QVC kitchen forum about converting cake recipes. Because the average box is missing 3 ounces, one commenter (@Gr8Auntie) had the genius idea to create this 3-ounce (6 tablespoons) premade dry mix: 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour, 1 cup sugar, 2 teaspoons baking powder and 1/4 teaspoon baking soda. Prep the mixture and keep it in a Mason jar until you need it.
In a pinch, pancake mix could help.Just add 4 tablespoons pancake mix to a 13.25-ounce box to make up the difference.
Stretch it.If you're concerned about your cake being smaller than usual, you can add some mix-ins to stretch it. Chopped nuts and/or shredded sweetened coconut are good options. If your cake layers are looking a little skimpy, you can also add more frosting between the layers and/or add some fresh fruit or other tasty things between each layer. Also, using whipped cream in place of standard frosting is an easy way to help stretch a slightly smaller cake.
Wrap it.If you accidentally overbake your cake because it's smaller (or just because...life), you can "sweat" the cake by wrapping the slightly cooled cake layers in plastic wrap.
Start from scratch.Perhaps these size changes may inspire you to start baking from scratch so there's no reliance on pre-packaged boxed cake mix.

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Why Did Boxed Cake Mixes Get Smaller?

How a Smaller Boxed Cake Mix Affects Your Baking

What Can Home Bakers Do to "Upsize" Their Boxed Cake Mixes?