By Mary Davis
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In 1929, P. Duff & Sons Inc., a Pittsburg molasses company, had a problem—a surplus of product for some reason. What does one do with so much of it? John D. Duff came up with a solution—dehydrate it. Once in powder form, he combined it with other dry ingredients (flour, sugar, baking powder, dehydrated eggs, shortening, salt, ground dried ginger, cinnamon). This formed a mix that turned into gingerbread cake with a little water and baking. The next year on December 10, 1930, he filed a patent application (#US 1,931,892) for the Process of Making a Dehydrated Flour Mixture.
“One of the objects of the present invention is to achieve the making of pastry products in an extremely simple and economical manner without the possibility of unsatisfactory results or failures.”
From the patent application
With the Great Depression in full swing, this “simple and economical” mix helped struggling families put a treat on the table.
“In the ordinary preparation of pastry products there are a large and varied number of ingredients . . . which means keeping a complete stock of materials on hand. This is not only expensive and inconvenient, but necessitates careful measurements and mixing and . . . suitable apparatus therefor. In addition . . . unsatisfactory results or failures occur too frequently which represent a serious loss of time, of money, of materials and of energy.”
Other varieties of mixes Duff developed were devil’s food, spice cake, nut bread, bran muffins, and fruit cake
By the time the patent was granted in 1933, Duff had already tweaked his recipe by removing the dried eggs and having the consumer use fresh.
"The housewife and the purchasing public in general seem to prefer fresh eggs and hence the use of dried or powdered eggs is somewhat of a handicap from a psychological standpoint.”
From Duff’s new 1935 patent application, # US 2,016,320A
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Even with fresh eggs, boxed cake mixes didn’t take off until after WWII. Flour companies were busy creating dry mixes for soldiers that were shelf-stable and ready to use on the unpredictable battlefield. Once the war ended, the new technologies that had been developed could now be put to use in making recipes for the general consumer.
Several companies jumped on the cake-mix bandwagon, Betty Crocker, General Mills, Duncan Hines, and Pillsbury, to name a few.
And if they hadn’t made them convenient enough, they came up with Stir n’ Bake mixes that came with their own little cardboard cake pan to bake it in. I loved those, especially the spice cake.
My favorite boxed cake mix is the angel food cake. What’s yours?
Washington State, 1893
When Lily Lexington Bremmer arrives in Kamola with her young son, she’s reluctant to join the quilting circle, however, the friendly ladies pull her in. She has a secret and hopes it doesn’t come to light. Widower Edric Hammond and his father are doing their best to raise his two young daughters. Lily resists Edric’s charms but finds herself falling in love with this kind, gentle man and his daughters. Lily stole Edric’s heart with her first smile. Will her secret cost her a bright future? Can Edric forgive Lily’s past to take hold of a promising chance at love?
Mary lives in the Rocky Mountains with her Carolina dog, Shelby. She has three adult children and three incredibly adorable grandchildren. Find her online at: Books2Read Newsletter Blog FB FB Readers Group Amazon GoodReads BookBub
Sources
@one.fact.smarter
https://www.tastingtable.com/692047/history-boxed-cake-mix/
https://www.allrecipes.com/article/history-of-boxed-cake-mix/
https://www.bonappetit.com/entertaining-style/pop-culture/article/cake-mix-history
https://www.americasgreatestmakers.com/history-boxed-cake-mix-molasses/
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