Trader Joe’s has a solid track record with its boxed cake mixes. Not just the basic flavors, but with mochi cake, lemon (we used it for a tribute to Harry and Meghan); bourbon cake, and of course, its holiday stroopwaffel cake. And now, they’ve brought us Trader Joe’s Blood Orange Cake Mix.
When you cut open the cake mix pouch, you can definitely smell the orange. And while this one is made with blood orange powder, I can’t lie, the first thing I thought of was Tang. It comes with a powdered sugar icing packet, which also has a hit of blood orange in it.
You add a two eggs, melted butter, and water. That color is nuclear. No photo editing needed. Instead of doing a standard loaf cake, I opted to make mini bundts (it’s just more fun). And I got five mini bundts, I might have been able to stretch it to six, since I kind of overfilled them. But it took 25-30 minutes, with 20 minutes resting time after they came out of the oven.
You mix the icing packet with a couple of tablespoons of melted butter and 1-2 tablespoons of water. I’m not a huge icing fan to begin with, so I just drizzled a couple with it, but I ended up taste testing a plain one.
Let me tell you, the orange is intense. And while it is made with blood orange powder, I couldn’t get Tang out of my head, so I had a hard time deciding if I thought it tasted like fake orange or not. But, the more I ate, the more I liked it.
You definitely have to be a fan of orange flavored things for this one. The texture is great, it’s nice and moist (I know people hate that word, but what, you want a dry cake?). You could easily sub oil for the butter, if need be. And of course, a shower of powdered sugar, instead of icing would be a-ok, too.
I like Trader Joe’s Blood Orange Cake Mix just fine, but stroopwaffel is still my fave.
Check out some other We Tried’s from Trader Joe’s:
Everything But the Bagel Potato Chips
Oat Milk Strawberry Ice Cream with Almond Brittle
