{magic} Betty Crocker Strawberry Cake Mix Blew My Mind

I have kind of been on a no sugar thing lately. However, my nephew Gus, who is is celebrating his 5th birthday tomorrow, is decidedly NOT on any such diet. I asked him what kind of birthday cake he wanted and he requested strawberry, but he’s picky so he clarified that he didn’t want any actual strawberries involved in the cake. He was talking pink strawberry cake from a box. Since most 5 year olds are simply sugar fiends as opposed to cake connoisseurs, I am completely OK with making him a cake from a box.

Now I have made cake from a box before, but never the strawberry kind. As you can see from the photo on the box, the cake should turn out a rather putrid color of pink. I poured the dry mix into the bowl and was rather surprised when the mix was pure white, like powdered sugar. Hmmm.

Adding the wet ingredients yielded some anomalous red spots, like little sores breaking out in the batter. Iwww.

A little mixing and you get that Pepto-pink you’re looking for. WHICH TOTALLY BLEW MY MIND. How do you go from pure white mix to My Little Pony Pink? It’s MAGIC. Or maybe it’s chemicals. Magical chemicals.

I would classify the batter as sickeningly sweet with artificial overtones and a strong Starburst nose. It’s baking right now and it’s making me nauseous. It smells like Strawberry Shortcake puked all over my kitchen. In other words, the kids will go crazy for it.

A note: While I enjoy a box cake from time to time, one thing I will not accept is frosting in a can. I just think it tastes nasty and chemically. So I’ll be making this pink cake into a car shape (somehow) with some tasty frosting tomorrow.