When Betty Betrayed Us

Betty Crocker, that is.

Have you taken a close look at a box of cake mix lately?

I’ll confess that I hadn’t. You know how it is: You get used to something and you don’t think to check it.

Then a reader called to tell me a recipe that called for an 18.25-ounce box of cake mix was wrong. She’d gone to the store and checked: All the cake mixes were 15.2 or 16.5 ounces.

No, no, no, I insisted. The standard cake mix is 18.25 ounces. Has been for years. I don’t need to check it.

Sorry, but I did need to check. A quick message to Anne Byrn of Nashville, who has made a career out of her “Cake Mix Doctor” books, turned up the news. Quietly, with no announcement, the cake mix companies have made their packages smaller.

It started a year ago with Betty Crocker, followed by Duncan Hines. Pillsbury joined them last month.

The problem, of course, is the cost of food. Rather than increase the price, the companies made the product smaller and kept the cost the same.

Betty, you bitch.