guilty pleasure

What is it about cake mix that makes Americans so giddy? I love baking from scratch but I still love cake mix cakes. Perhaps the taste memory from my childhood is too strong to overcome. While in Paris, we stopped at Thanksgiving, a Cajun restauarant and American grocery store, carrying a random array of outrageously overpriced American goods like corn syrup and barbecue sauce. Among other things, we happily paid 6 euros for a bag of flaked coconut and another 6 for a box of Zatarains red beans & rice mix (both priced at about $2.50 in the US). Being an expat makes me crave weird things. We baked this cake for father's day and wow, did it taste good! Definitely chemical-y, but still good. It's almost depressing - to love real food and cooking and still enjoy processed junk like this.