Cake Mixes and the “Egg Theory”

Chicago Tribune food editor Mary Meade (Ruth Ellen Church) often said that recipes for cakes were the most common request from her readers.

When companies began producing cake mixes in the 1950s, some makers did not appreciate the efficiency of just adding water to the mix. A researcher for General Mills set out to find out what the program was and came up with the “egg theory.”

The “egg theory” about cake mixes can be found in Laura Shapiro’s Something From the Oven. She wrote: “After interviewing women and exploring the emotions that surrounded cakes and baking. Ernest Dichter reported that the very simplicity of mixes – just add water and stir – made women feel self-indulgent for using them. There wasn’t enough work involved. His advice was to leave the homemaker something to do – for instance, add the eggs – whenever she made a cake from a mix. She would feel she had contributed something of herself, and the mindless nature of the task would no longer plague her.” (75-76)

With that background, I found it interesting that this new product not only doesn’t include eggs but the baker does not even have to stir.

They were delicious and I felt no guilt.

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