Arrowhead Mills vanilla cake mix

While visiting my parents this weekend, my sister found strawberries at a good price, and we decided that shortcake would be good. I was away from home, so we went to the local Fred Meyers to see what we could find to make GF shortcakes.

I got a box of Arrowhead Mills vanilla cake mix.

I remembered the cake from when I had done wedding cake testing.{story for another time}

When my sister saw the box, her response was "no not cake. Shortcake! It is more flat, and crumbly"

"Don't worry" I said, "this is flat and crumbly"

And it was.

{Funny thing. The box says to oil and then flour the pan. My sister was helping make the cake. So I was mixing up the batter, and out of the corner of my eye I saw her go the the pantry and get the wheat flour, and then proceed to flour the pan that the GF cake was to go in. She looked up, and I'm smiling at her with this "think about that" grin, and then suddenly she realizes what she did. Then she was all "so what do I flour it with?! it said flour?!?" SO I told her to use cornstarch, since there was nothing else in my mother's house. But I did make her WASH the cake pan out first.}

The cake was:

Flat, very crumbly.

VERY spongy.

Light but grain-y texture.

Sweet, but not quite what i would call "cake"

It is also imposable to frost, and the golden outside peels right off, and then the cake crumbles easily when you try to spread frosting on it.
Good for putting strawberry's and whipped cream on. Not good for birthday cakes.

My sister spent several years in upstate New York, she told me the cake has the consistency of the "corn bread" she had there.