Ranking All 14 Dolly Parton Baking Mixes From Worst to Best

If you should know one thing about me, it’s that I’m always skeptical about celebrity endorsements. Maybe it’s just my years of experience in the marketing world or the number of times I’ve been scorned by a product that an influencer or celebrity said was “good” but turned out to be anything but. So when I saw Dolly Parton’s Duncan Hines products popping up at my local Walmart, I couldn’t help but sneer.

Duncan Hines products are good, I won’t deny that, so I’m curious as to why the brand needed to slap Parton — in the form of an image that looks nothing like her, if I’m being honest — onto these packages, deck them out in all things pink, and market them as a sweet, Southern belle-approved treat. I’ll admit that I have had run-ins with the Dolly Parton line in previous product tastings (Dolly Parton even has a new line of frozen meals featuring Southern classics), but I wanted to see if Parton truly knows what she’s endorsing or if she’s better off sticking to the music business. So, I prepared and baked as many of her boxed baking mixes as I could find myself before I ranked them from worst to best, based on factors like flavor and texture as well as how they compared to other cakes, cookies, or muffins that I’ve had before. 

I can appreciate banana Laffy Taffy — but only from a distance. I don’t like to see it crop up in my cakes. While some of the other flavored cakes on this list, namely the coconut and the strawberry, balanced bold flavors with a mild sugary sponge, this one cranked up the banana and ran for the hills. Every bite was like a plasticky, banana extract explosion that annihilated anything in its wake (including my taste buds). 

I will give Duncan Hines and Dolly Parton some credit, as the company still managed to make a top-of-the line sponge that was light and fluffy — even though its taste was positively dreadful. I suspect it would be better if it were topped with an icing to distract from the flavor, but my job here was to rank the mixes themselves, not them in their “finished” form. I don’t think anyone ever needs to buy a banana-flavored cake mix when there are perfectly good vanilla ones out there. Plus, I don’t think it’s impossible to make this synthetic fruit taste “natural.” 

A picture says a thousand words. And, as you can tell, the message here got lost in translation. I expected these muffins to come out as towering and as impressive as the blueberry ones, but I was surprised to open the oven and see that the insides of three out of the four I had baked had sunk. The baking conditions were the same, and the amount of streusel was the same across both of the Dolly Parton muffin mixes, but these banana muffins were clearly hell-bent on destroying my streak of proper bakes. 

I doubt that the deflating muffin issue was caused by the number of nut pieces in this batter, which could potentially weigh it down, because I discovered only five measly pieces in the entire muffin. Its banana flavor was equally problematic. While it wasn’t as strong and Laffy Taffy-like as the banana cake mix (which did not have any streusel or nuts to distract from it), it still came off as unpleasant. I would have liked to see Duncan Hines call for fresh banana in its recipe instead of going the artificial route. This would admittedly require a little more legwork from the baker, but I think it would do wonders for the flavor of this muffin. 

The turtle brownie was certainly less attractive than the glossy fudge brownie. But it did have pieces of nuts inside of it as well as a caramel drizzle on top (which came in a separate packet). 

The caramel syrup on these brownies tasted exactly like the stuff a Starbucks barista would drizzle in your Frappuccino. It’s thin, butterscotch-leaning, and worst of all, ungodly sweet. This, coupled by the lack of nuts studding this brownie, made it not even worth eating. If you’re on team fudge brownie (like yours truly), you also won’t like this brownie at all, seeing as it looks and tastes more like a cake than a true brownie. 

There are few redeeming qualities for this sweet, which is why it ranks low but not on the bottom of my list. Structurally, it holds together well and is super moist, but I think you’re better off tossing the pouch of caramel sauce in the trash and buying your own and doubling the amount of walnuts in this recipe. 

If you had to point to an item on this list as the most Dolly Parton-esque, it would definitely be this pink strawberry cake mix. It has a vibrant, flamingo-pink hue that would make it a shoo-in for a 10-year-old girl’s birthday party. But does it appeal to an adult (with a developed palate) like me? Not even close. 

The smell of these cupcakes is like a hodge-podge of strawberry-flavored Bath & Body Works spray, gummy candies, and melted strawberry ice cream. It’s about as artificial as artificial gets, and there’s no real fruit in it to bring it back to reality. Despite this smell, though, I didn’t really get a strong strawberry flavor from the actual sponge. It kind of tasted like a strawberry shortcake ice cream novelty, but the overall flavor notes were more vanilla-leaning than strawberry. If something is this pink, I want to have the corresponding knock-your-socks-off berry flavor to go with it. I guess the better question here is, would I like it more if it tasted like strawberry? Next question. 

I’ll admit that before this ranking, I had never prepared dry store-bought cookie mix. Refrigerated cookie dough? Sure, but the dry mix seems a little pointless — considering how easy cookies are to whip up. 

I was a bit concerned about both this mix and the chocolate chip cookie one, as I feared the melted butter it called for would cause the cookies to spread too much on the sheet. But I am happy to report they came out looking like the cookie bucket cookies you’d find in the bakery section of the grocery store. The baking times with this one should have been tinkered with a little more, though, as they came out slightly underdone and goopy in the center.

The flavor of these cookies was pleasant and mild, with strong notes of vanilla pudding. It wasn’t the best sugar cookie I’ve ever had. Though, if you were using them for decorating (provided they were properly cooked), they could do their job as a sturdy and neutrally flavored base just fine. These cookies aren’t over-achievers in any capacity, and they needed to be to stand out among the rest of the mixes. 

The chocolate chip cookie dough was a little more wet than the sugar cookie dough, which is why I suspected it would spread out more on the pan. But, for the most part, the dough stayed together. The cookies were, I’ll admit, underbaked, but they looked pretty darn delicious.

Like the sugar cookies I made and sampled, these were pretty run-of-the-mill. Granted, I consider myself to be a chocolate chip cookie connoisseur, so it’s hard to find a recipe that can impress me. This mix had a tinge of maple flavor with a solid distribution of chips (which is not something I find to be common with store-bought cookie dough). These add-ins made these cookies a little more complex than the sugar cookies, which is why they ranked a little higher. However, it’s still a lackluster — and otherwise, not impressive– cookie, which is why it ranked toward the middle of this list. 

Biscuits are a hard recipe to get right, and this boxed mix is a testament to that. When I tested it for my ranking of store-bought biscuit mixes, I made a drop biscuit out of it. This time, I tried (emphasis on “tried”) to do a cut-out biscuit. But it came out looking like a drop biscuit anyway — without any of those signature, fluffy layers that I was craving (and felt like I was promised, based on the photo on the box). All of that effort and time spent rolling and slicing, all gone to waste. 

At least these biscuits were tasty … enough. They had a decent degree of butteriness and got a little color — but not a lot — from their short, nine-minute stint in the oven. I think they would be passable if you just covered them in gravy or shoved eggs and cheese in the middle. The texture of these came out much better than when I made them for my previous ranking, but I was still left wanting more from them, whereas the higher-rated selections on this list left me more satisfied. 

Crumb cake is another recipe that I have very high standards for, as think I make an excellent version of it myself. And the reality is that this Dolly Parton mix can’t even come close to the decadent, streusel-packed recipe I have honed with years of practice. 

It might sound odd, but my biggest complaint about this mix is that the resulting cake is too fluffy and airy. When I think of a good crumb cake, I think of something that’s more muffin-like, dense, and buttery. This one just tastes like the lovechild between a regular white sponge and an apple crisp topping. And the topping isn’t even that good here. The addition of melted butter to the streusel mix gave it a little buttery undertone, but I want massive pebbles of crumb topping — not a light, sandy dusting. 

The flavor of the cake itself is average and nothing to write home about. A good crumb cake should be just as much about the cake as it is about the streusel, and neither one was particularly awe-inspiring here. 

I am not a fan of sweet cornbread, so when I encountered Dolly Parton’s sweet variety in my ranking of the best store-bought cornbread mixes, I knew there was going to be a little bit of a problem. As expected, it was sweeter than the other cornbread mixes, which is ultimately why it placed toward the middle of the pack in that ranking. 

Compared to all of the other Dolly Parton-specific bakes in this race, though, I would say the cornbread mix ranks favorably but still not at the top. It exemplifies the definition of a good cornbread on a structural front, as it is moist inside, has the perfect degree of crunch, and sports a beautiful golden hue. But its sweetness curbs its overall versatility. While it is one of few bakes that could be turned savory, its sweet-leaning profile just doesn’t make it conducive for doing so. 

I am a sucker for a good fudge brownie. And that’s honestly just what Dolly Parton delivered with this brownie mix. The addition of the butter, instead of the oil that most boxed mixes call for, really makes them extra fudgy and rich. They look like the brownies you would get from a bakery rather than something you would whip up at home. 

But, as my boxed brownie mix taste test experience corroborated, there are some issues with the recipe design here. I would say that the brand calls for too much fat in this mix, as the brownies don’t hold together well (and before you ask, yes, they were cooled well before slicing). Although the buttery sheen is nice, I shouldn’t have to compromise on its structure and ability to hold together. The cook time was also off. Despite the fact that I left these brownies in for about three minutes more than the recipe recommended, they still came out slightly underdone on the top. I would argue that this mix is certainly a case of “has potential, needs direction,” which gives me hope that with a little tweaking, it could rank higher on this list. 

Dolly Parton’s blueberry muffin mix and I have had one run-in the past with my ranking of boxed muffin mixes, and it worked well in Dolly Parton’s favor. Compared to the other muffin brands that I sampled, this product was moist and flavorful, and the little streusel topping that came with it really added to the experience of eating the muffin. 

Though this mix is objectively better than other ones I’ve had, I can’t say it was the top-of-the-line when it comes to all of Dolly Parton’s products. The crumb structure was pleasant and moist enough, and the slightly streusely topping certainly added a good textural contrast to the rest of the muffin. However, the little dried blueberries in this muffin mix made it clear that this was a dry, store-bought mix. The little fruits embed themselves in your molars and fail to offer that quintessential pop of berry flavor that I’ve become accustomed to with homemade muffins. It’s almost there, and swapping the dried fruit for canned would help immensely. 

I honestly don’t get the appeal of coconut cake, unless we’re talking about the Pepperidge Farm Coconut Layer Cake — which personally I think is the best store-bought frozen cake ever made. Its sponge was the standard that I compared this Dolly Parton rendition to. On the nose, Dolly Parton’s sponge smells like coconut, though not in the fresh way that I wanted. The coconut essence in this cake, both in the aroma and the sponge itself, was subtle and not overpowering. It was shivery and light, and it was approachable enough so that folks who don’t absolutely love coconut would still be able to appreciate it. Dialing back the coconut was a very smart move on Duncan Hines’ part, for sure. 

The sponge on this cake was soft and well-made. It felt moist in the mouth rather than dry. I could easily see it being a complement to a sweet buttercream icing — and perhaps a coating of toasted coconut atop that. The only reason why this cake scored outside of my top picks is because, although its flavor is not offensive, it’s still not as versatile as the other selections on this list. 

Boxed yellow cake mix is admittedly hard to mess up. I would know; I made 12 different brands and taste-tested them to find the best cake mixes. In general, a good vanilla boxed cake mix should have a fluffy texture and a flavor that is soft and gentle enough where it won’t conflict or override your frosting. And this Dolly Parton product certainly fits the bill. 

When I was making this cake mix, I couldn’t help but notice that it smelled exactly like vanilla instant pudding. The taste highlighted that exact same profile. It wasn’t anything new-age or particularly remarkable, but it was a classic, quality cake mix that could be used for a ton of different things, from cupcakes for a children’s birthday party to an elaborate layer cake that someone may even be able to pass off as being homemade. 

I personally value products that offer a consistent, decent quality over products that are out of the box yet poorly done. And this cake fits the former like a glove. If you want a reliable cake mix that has a decent flavor and texture, this is a solid brand to use. Dolly, we may have reached a real turning point in our relationship — but the brand had something even better in store for me. 

This was the only cake mix that I sampled in the Dolly Parton lineup that has both vegetable oil and butter in it. And by golly, Miss Dolly, you sure did something right. 

There needs to be a clear separation between a brownie — which should be heavy, rich, and dense — and a lighter, but just as chocolatey, chocolate cake mix. And by some miracle, Dolly Parton’s chocolate cake mix was able to achieve both in a single bite. It has a beautiful, brownie-like sheen to the top of it. Underneath, you’ll discover a rich sponge that has the perfect amount of heft and lift with all the chocolate flavor you’re craving. 

I think one of the other reasons why I really adore this mix is because its flavor is not super sweet. While the vanilla mix was a little too sugary, this one was tapered down and more grounded in the richness of the cocoa. I could foresee using it with a plain vanilla buttercream, dark chocolate ganache, or even a cream cheese frosting. It’s versatile and tasty and sports a stellar crumb. Despite being in a sugar coma after this ranking, this is the only product that I kept nibbling on throughout the day. 

I tested each of these baking mixes over the course of two days, regardless of whether or not I had tried them in the past. I baked the cakes as cupcakes for ease, but I kept the rest of the recipes as they were intended to be made. In order to ensure quality control, I made sure to preheat the oven, use room-temperature ingredients, and follow the instructions verbatim. 

When it came down to tasting and ranking, I considered several factors. Not only did I compare the baked goods to others like it that I’ve had in the past, like brownies to brownies and cookies to cookies, but I also compared each item’s overall enjoyability, flavor, and aroma to others in Dolly Parton’s lineup to decide which was the best and most deserving of a spot in my pantry.