I Tried 21 Different Boxes of Chocolate Cake Mix — Here Are the 3 I’m Buying from Now On

We judged each cake first and foremost on the chocolate flavor. It had to really taste chocolatey, not just look chocolatey. Many brands and varieties came up short in this department, no matter how over-the-top the name sounded, or how luscious the cover photo looked. We also evaluated for crumb — the cake had to be tender and moist rather than dry and stiff. Super oily was a “no” as well, and if we detected any weird chemical aftertaste, it was a hard pass.