New from Betty Crocker, three kinds of Decadent Supreme cake mixes: Cinnamon Swirl (includes a pouch of Cinnabon cinnamon swirl mix); Chocolate Molten Lava (to prepare in 8 muffin cups -- includes pouch of semisweet chocolate chunks), and Chocolate Mousse (includes a pouch of mousse mix for filling and topping). At one store, where Betty Crocker's regular Super Moist cake mixes were $1.24, the Decadent Supreme mixes were $2.94.
Mr. Tidbit has noted that competing firms seem to produce similar new lines of grocery products almost simultaneously. Indeed, Duncan Hines brought forth a premium-priced set of what the packages call "ingredient rich" cake mixes a few weeks earlier: Decadent Apple Caramel "with real apples and caramel"; Decadent Classic Carrot "with real carrots and raisins" and Decadent Triple Chocolate "with real chocolate chunks and real fudge."
Duncan Hines already had eight brownie mixes called Decadent, but with Betty Crocker's entry the battle for supremacy in "decadence" is now engaged. Mr. Tidbit expects to see at least as many Decadent dessert products as he now sees Supreme dessert products. In that competition for supremacy in ... "supremacy," Betty Crocker makes several Supreme Bars mixes, as well as "Original Supreme" brownie mix (and the new Decadent Supreme cake mixes); Pillsbury's regular cake mixes are Moist Supreme (Betty Crocker lost that one -- the regular Betty Crocker cake mixes are only Super Moist), and Ghirardelli changed the name of its Chocolate Syrup brownie mix to Chocolate Supreme.
AL SICHERMAN
