Less is more Mr. Tidbit was amused last year when Warm Delights, Betty Crocker's single-serving cake mix in a plastic bowl (stir in water, microwave -- voilà: warm cake), was joined by Warm Delights Minis.
But General Mills apparently has come to recognize that the tedium involved in preparing either size of Warm Delights is intolerable: measure water, pour in, stir and microwave for an interminable 1 minute and 15 seconds. That's more tribulation than the American public could be expected to undergo to produce a serving of warm cake. (And surely the American public could be expected to pay a little more to be spared that astonishing inconvenience.)
Thus the Pillsbury part of General Mills has brought forth Sweet Moments: refrigerated packs of two little single-serve tubs of various ready-to-microwave kinds of cake-type goodies. No adding water, no stirring, just open and microwave for only 10 to 15 seconds -- saving the convenience-starved public more than a minute altogether.
Mr. Tidbit couldn't do an ounce-for ounce comparison because the Sweet Moments includes the liquid you have to add to Warm Delights, so the Warm Delights dry mixes weigh less. Instead, he prepared the "molten chocolate cake" version of each and measured the volumes.
Regular Warm Delights (as low as $1.69 at one discount supermarket) produced about 3/4 cup of warm, delightful stuff, so it's about $2.25 a cup. One tub of Sweet Moments (half of a $3.18 two-pack at that store) produced about 1/2 cup, so it's about $3.18 a cup. You pay more than 90 cents a cup to avoid stirring in some water.
But then he looked at the ingredients of the Sweet Moments Triple Chocolate Molten Cake. There's not only water in there besides cake-mix ingredients, there's also actual chocolate (not just cocoa), cream and butter!
So he tasted the two products. Sweet Moments is definitely a lot gooier. Who would have guessed?
AL SICHERMAN
