Hi Fellow Cakers!
I thought this would be a kinda neat question to ask:
If you had the perfect (I mean, had the money, resources, everything was going to make it work out) opportunity to open a cakery/bakery....how many of you would use bulk cake mix to make the cakes instead of from scratch recipes?
My wilton teacher belongs to a HUGE Cake club and when asked the question she replied..."most of us cake decoraters use cake mix to make cakes because we're cake decorators, not bakers".
Makes sence...unless the perfect opportunity above pops up.
What would you do?
For the past 30+ years I've always baked from scratch but recently I've used cake mixes and 'really doctored them up'. I'll have to agree with Alton Brown - nobody does it like a mix so why bother. And frankly, if you sift and add other ingredients plus special flavorings nobody will be the wiser.
Recently another member of our cake club said that someone asked them if their cakes were made from scratch or boxed. They replied from scratch but felt funny saying that. The instructor in our club replied this way - "actually, if you didn't grow the wheat, grind the wheat, harvest the sugar . . . . they you technically didn't make it from scratch". So scratch is relevant, so if you add something to something else you are the creator = SCRATCH MADE! 
That's really a personal choice. On CC this subject comes up from time to time and the scratch bakers are die-hards and the box mix bakers are quite content with that. I have some scratch recipes and some boxed. My own preference is to develop a list of good, tried and true cake recipes (either scratch or box, whatever works best) and use what works because I don't have the time to fuss with new recipes when a new client shows up (been there, done that, got the teeshirt...
)
Well, I'm only just finishing Wilton course I, but I decided to learn how to decorate cakes because of my love for baking. I'm a scratch girl all the way.
My undecorated cakes are made from 'stratch'.....do not use a box mix.
Most of my decorated cakes are doctored cake mixes. Sometimes I wonder if people that grew up eating box mix cakes have developed a taste for box cakes........their tastebuds have learned that is how a cake is supposed to taste...does that make any sense??
I don't think the general public cares if it's from scratch or a mix. They just care if it tastes and looks good to them. I think we as bakers and decorators have a preferance on what works best for us (ie. BC or Fondant - / reg. fondant or MMF / butter or shortening / mix or scratch etc.) If it works for you and the people your sharing your talent with - it's all good!
"I don't think the general public cares if it's from scratch or a mix. They just care if it tastes and looks good to them."
Where "general" is the operative word here....I've heard of people turning their noses up at cake mix cakes because they feel their being cheated out of home made.
[quote=cookie4]Recently another member of our cake club said that someone asked them if their cakes were made from scratch or boxed. They replied from scratch but felt funny saying that. The instructor in our club replied this way - "actually, if you didn't grow the wheat, grind the wheat, harvest the sugar . . . . they you technically didn't make it from scratch". So scratch is relevant, so if you add something to something else you are the creator = SCRATCH MADE![/quote]
I actually agree with this. If you are doctoring up the cake mix(making it your own), then the cake mix is actually part of the ingredients. I personally bake scratch and doctored cakes, and they both taste great. If I made the cake mix my own by just using as an ingredient, then I would not feel bad saying I made this cake from my recipe. Jen
I think it would depend on the recipe....I have a tried-&-true doctored chocolate cake recipe that I use and I wouldn't change that...but my Grandma's pound cake is another one that is truly mix-free and I would still use that..same for my carrot cake....but the french vanilla is a doctored recipe. I guess it varies.
I used to get really upset about it and searched and searched for a mix-free choc. cake but none of them tasted as good as the Dr'd one so I said, if it ain't broke, don't fix it!!
I think people would be surprised where they can find cake mixes. I used to work at a very nice restaurant known for their delicious cakes. Imagine my surprise the first day I walked back into the stock room to get chocolate chips, and saw all those mixes stacked on all those shelves........
Their carrot cake was from scratch, and I don't know that you can really make a good carrot cake from a mix............ but I could be wrong........
I was asked that question and I told them the truth even thoyugh I did not like them asking me 
. But a friend of mine who had worked in a bakerk told me that the bakery use mixes, i was shocked 
. Soo when a person asked me I again told the truth, but I told them that the bakery uses mixes. They were shocked. People, from what i gather always thought that bakeries bake from scratch. To me as long as the cake tastes great and look great It does not matter.
I agree that it depends on the cake. I always make carrot and pumpkin from scratch. But chocolate, white, etc cake mixes provide a nice starting point for a really yummy cake.
Crissy 
Many moons ago when, Swan, came out with the first cake mix they were awful. As years passed they kept improving them. Now, they are so good most think they are better then scratch.
For some reason cake mixes can't shake their rep from the early days.
There are some cakes that are not as good as scratch as Banana, Carrot but they are still very good. But when it comes to the basic flavors they work.
I had to make a huge batch of Brownies and didn't have the time. I bought a big box at Gordon's Food Service, they ae so good.
I agree with most of the other posts on this topic. Before last year, I never even considered that bakeries may have mixes in their kitchens. Now that I'm into baking/decorating I've noticed that of the 3 nice bakeries around here, only one says "cakes from scratch". If a bakery bakes exclusively from scratch these days, they're sure to put it in their advertising...rather than simply "baked fresh". Just my 2 cents... I think there's no wrong way to make a cake...as long as its good!!!
i use mixes and use the cake extender recipe. But my carrot and sou cream pound cake is from scratch. I would love to back a good yellow or white cake from scratch if some one would not mind sharing a great recipe. I do noticed one thing, to bake from scratch to me is more exspensive causing the prices to go up for decorated cakes, which people sometimes balk at. I told a person that if I had to bake from scratch, I would have to charge more.
Scratch - I would choose scratch. No matter how doctored, it's still got a cake mix taste to it. Not that I think that's a bad thing, but I don't want my cakes to all have that cake mix taste. I have made box mixes for a long time (not decorating), and they have served me well, but now I want to focus on something different. As a newbie to decorating I don't make a lot of cakes so I can focus on finding the good scratch recipes. If I were a bakery I would think I would offer mostly doctored mix's with a few "signature" scratch cakes (at a higher price because they are indeed more expensive to make). I honestly get more praise on the Toba Garrett Chocolate fudge cake than I do on the WASC. I also don't think you have to grind the wheat to make a scratch cake. I think the methods are very different between scratch and mix. Again, I like both, but right now am focusing on scratch.
I'd love to bake all from scratch but for me I think the cake mix + the durable cake recipe comes out great and I haven't priced it out - but I think it's a little cheaper. At least time-wise it seems to take less time than measuring out all the ingredients for a scratch cake. I've done chocolate ghiradelli cake from scratch and I've made the AWESOME carrot cake recipe from this site - which is AWESOME! I feel like charging double just for grating all those carrots though!
If I had my own bakery, I would want to bake from scratch. However, I think in a lot of bakeries if they do high-volume, they don't have as much time and have to cut corners where they can.... and if using pre-measured dry ingredients that still make the cake taste great helps them to sell more and have more time to decorate, then I completely understand that. I think if you're a smaller, custom-order bakery then maybe you have a bit more time or are able to charge more and can afford to make the cakes from scratch (time-wise & $$ wise).
For right now I hardly make cakes from scratch just b/c of the time factor... and I truly feel you need to weigh the ingredients - my other cakes where I didn't weigh didn't come out as good as when I did! It's more of a science then using the mix.
If a customer asks, I tell them I use a mix but add ingredients so it doesn't take taste like cake-mix. I call it "enhanced" cake mix. I haven't had a complaint yet - most people tell me it's the best they've ever tasted! I think the buttercream dream icing helps too... 
Most people are used to the nastry all-crisco crap. Blech!
I vote for scratch cakes.
BUT, I have always loved the process of baking. So to me, it's kind of like extending the fun of cakes.
For a while I was doing doctored mixes, but frankly, if you're already adding 5 more ingredients to the mix, time and cost-wise, why not just do it from scratch and skip all those chemicals and preservatives they put in the mixes?
That's my thought anyway ... not that I've prefected my scratch recipes yet! Still working on that - but like I said, it's fun for me.
I'll never tell! When asked if I make scratch or box, I just say, "I baked every cake myself". That seems to make people happy!
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