This blog is way over due but if you are interested in the difference in what is on OUR grocery store shelves vs what is on the shelf in the UK then keep reading.
My son-in-law's mom (mum) was kind enough to get me two vanilla cake mixes from her local grocery store in Wales (that's in the south of the UK in case you don't know your geography) Anyway, my son-in-law brought them back to me after a visit to his family.
My goal was to compare ingredients of comparable cake mixes. You can see for yourself the ingredients, instructions and brand name of the cake mixes in the pictures below.
Now, I am no food scientist BUT here is what I found.
First, in order to make the UK mixes I had to convert grams to ounces and Celsius to Fahrenheit.
The UK cake mix's information was in four languages! The best I can tell they are English (of course), Swedish, Italian and German.
Comparing the UK vs the USA nutritional information I found the UK cake mixes were lower in sodium, sugar and fat and higher in protein and fiber. Yet here is something interesting. The UK mixes had less than HALF the ingredients in the box but made the same size cake as the US mixes.
The US Duncan Hines and Betty Crocker had average 21.5 total ingredients listed.
The UK Betty Crocker and Belbake had an average of 10.5 total ingredients listed.
The shelf life of the US mixes was twice as long as the UK mixes so I intentionally allowed the UK mixes to expire by at least 9 months to 1 year before I prepared them. They turned out moist, beautiful and very tasty. I used my family as the taste testers (with their permission). They ate every bite and said they liked it!!
I made them with Apricot jam between each layer and a homemade cream cheese butter icing.
Food for Thought.
I hope you will read the UK instructions on the box. They are very interesting. The UK Betty Crocker box even calls for "free Range chicken eggs" I love that!!!
My question is this.....If the UK mixes turned out that well after being prepared that far past the expiration date then what is the point of all the extra preservatives in the US mixes?
Do ya really need to hoard up cake mixes in your cabinet for years before you use them?? I think probably not.
Happy Baking!!
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