Typically, my method for buying new box mixes consists of going to the store and letting the store tell me what I need. Occasionally, new exciting products are announced or released and I come across dozens of articles about this new product. I get so excited and have to wait weeks or months until it’s on shelves near me or available online. That was the case with these cookies. I’ve been looking for this new line from Betty Crocker since the beginning of the year and finally on a last minute trip to the store, I found them on an end cap. The line consists of three flavors, chocolate caramel, red velvet, and birthday cake. I’m not lying when I tell you these are my top three go to flavors, maybe plain chocolate without caramel though. I lean very heavily into chocolate desserts on this blog and in real life and since I really enjoy the other flavors, I decided we would try Red Velvet and Cake Batter today.
I didn’t see until I got home but on the top right of the packaging, Betty Crocker suggests you add frosting to these cookies. The main product image does not include frosting and I didn’t have any on hand, so I had to go without. However, my understanding is that this soft baked line was designed to compete with companies like Crumbl cookies. Betty Crocker promoted this new product line on their social media platform referencing crumbl cookies and packaging their cookies in similar packaging. Crumbl sells big, fluffy cookies, with frosting on top in a large variety of flavors so I am going into this mix with expectations of this style cookie.
Each mix requires 1 stick of butter softened, 2 eggs, and 1 tablespoon of water. I mixed the doughs together side by side. I didn’t necessarily expect a difference in these products but was glad to see they were the exact same consistency. The red velvet mix came with white chocolate chips mixed in and the cake batter came with colorful bits that aren’t quite sprinkles but close enough. Both doughs were tasty enough, neither really had a strong flavor, just mild. The packaging calls for 1 tablespoon sized cookie dough balls. I used a rounded scoop instead that was the right size and didn’t roll them into balls. Honestly seeing 1 tablespoon of dough scooped out, it was a pretty small amount. From the Crumbl comparison I expected larger cookies like a 3 tablespoon sized scoop size. These just seem like pretty average cookies so far. With the suggested size I was able to scoop 24 cookies out of each mix.
On their newer products, Betty Crocker has been adding two oven temperature options and I full heartedly feel this is correcting their bad bake times. I used the lower temp today, 325°, and baked the cookies one pan at a time starting with red velvet. Both packages call for 15-18 minutes in the oven. The red velvet says “until edges are set” and the cake batter says “until edges start to brown”. I checked on the red velvet repeatedly throughout the bake time and found at 15 minutes they were ready to come out. Then the cake batter cookies baked and again at 15 minutes they were done. Two accurate bake times? Color me impressed.
I let the cookies set up on the pan for a few minutes, like suggested. They had spread a bit and got thinner than I expected due to the Crumbl comparison expectations. They looked like average cookies and unfortunately, tasted like average cookies. Flavor wise, the red velvet was just good. The cake batter however, tastes like a boring sugar cookie which is disappointing. Cake batter should taste like vanilla cake, it is not a funfetti cake with only sprinkles added, maybe someone should tell Betty Crocker this because as is, I wouldn’t buy the cake batter cookies again unless I wanted a sugar cookie. The best part of the red velvet cookies was the white chocolate chips. I just felt like the flavor was lacking all around. I enjoyed the consistency of these cookies but I didn’t find them to be exceptionally soft, they didn’t earn the name “soft baked” in my opinion. It was exactly like any other cookie with a slight crisp to the outside and a soft cookie inside. Is Betty Crocker admitting their other cookies are too crunchy because they considered these average cookies to be soft? The perk of a box mix anything is that it is overly moist and will stay that way for an abnormal amount of time. Any other box mix brand cookie would be this consistency and wouldn’t call it soft. Am I missing something? This line of soft baked came with 3 new cookie flavors that I haven’t seen from Betty or other brands which is great but it feels like Betty Crocker is getting away with the bare minimum when it comes to mixes. They aren’t amazing, they don’t blow me out of the water, they just kinda taste like cookies. To me, it’s just like how you can definitely make a chocolate chip cookie with no vanilla extract and no salt, but adding those two extra ingredients elevates the flavor of the cookie so much that it is a whole different cookie and you didn’t really do much. I realize this more with each mix I try from Betty Crocker and it has been very eye opening. They are a popular brand and many people will pick the known brand over something else but it isn’t actually the best brand. I will give it to them, they have a huge variety and provide box mixes for more flavors and types of desserts than any other brand I have seen, but more doesn’t mean better. I wish they would focus on quality over quantity. These new mixes coming out feel more like they are trying to stay relevant and on top of trends but they are only providing okay products, not fantastic products.
In conclusion, if you want a box mix red velvet or a cake batter cookie mix, these are the only ones on the market. They will do a decent job. There is no reason not to buy this product. But if you want quality, you should go homemade. Actually, here is my favorite red velvet cookie recipe, which used a cake box mix. It just as easy and much better in my opinion. If you are looking for another brand box mix that bakes into soft cookies all the time, check out Krusteaz, their chocolate chip cookie mix makes unnaturally soft cookies that tastes great.
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