Bake Dolly Parton’s Favorite Southern Desserts at Home With These Duncan Hines Cake Mixes

Dolly Parton's favorite cakes can be your favorite cakes, too.
Dolly Parton's favorite cakes can be your favorite cakes, too. | Sebastian Smith/Duncan Hines

Dolly Parton’s affinity for Southern cooking isn’t exactly a secret: In 2006, she even published a cookbook featuring 125 treasured recipes, some developed at Dollywood restaurants. Now, the 9 to 5 star has teamed up with Duncan Hines to make it easier than ever for you to whip up a couple classic Southern cakes at home.

“I have always loved to cook and, growing up in the South, I especially love that authentic Mom and Pop kind of cooking,” Parton said in a press release. “I am excited to launch my own line of cake mixes and frostings with Duncan Hines, bringing that sweet, Southern-style baking experience I enjoy to others.”

The collection comprises banana cake mix, coconut cake mix, buttercream frosting, and chocolate buttercream frosting; and Duncan Hines has published a recipe for each mix. There’s “Dolly’s Favorite Banana Puddin’ Cake,” which also calls for instant pudding mix, a large banana, and vanilla wafers (among other ingredients). If coconut is more your speed, you’ll probably enjoy “Dolly’s Favorite Coconut Cake,” an indulgent offering topped with buttercream and coconut flakes.

Choose your fighter.
Choose your fighter. | Duncan Hines

Starting this March, the Dolly-themed products will appear in grocery store baking aisles around the country. But you don’t have to wait that long to get your hands on them. At 8 a.m. EST on January 26, Duncan Hines will release “Dolly Parton’s Baking Collection”—a $40 kit that includes all four baking items, recipe cards for both cake recipes, a note from Dolly herself, and a collectible tea towel and spatula bearing these wise words: “If you are what you eat, then why not be sweet?”

Why not be sweet?
Why not be sweet? | Duncan Hines

The kit will be available to order online until supplies run out, so it’s probably best to act fast.