I need help. My business is growing and I can't keep up buying cake mixes at the store anymore. My DH is pressuring to go scratch but I don't want to disappoint my loyal customers.

I am looking to replace
french vanilla
Chocolate fudge
kahlua chocolate fudge
Lemon
butter pecan
white
strawberry

Please help me. I am soooo tired of driving to Super walmart every other second. Growth is good but sometimes it hurts. My DH also wants to open other stores in the next couple of years so I definitely need to work this out.

Thanks in advance for all your advice. This website has always been so supportive.

Here are some good scratch recipes I found on this site. They are not the ones you requested but good to have in your toolkit.
My favourites are the double chocolate cake, the butter vanilla pound cake and there is a toba garret yellow cake that can be found on epicurion.com. If I can find it I will send it.
As for the strawberry cake still looking for a good scratch recipe. If you get one please share it with me.

The Butter vanilla pound cake found in the recipes section of this site is really good too.

White Chocolate cake:

6 oz. excellent quality white chocolate
5 oz. unsalted butter at room temperature
3/4 c. sugar
6 eggs, separated at room temperature
1/2 c. cake flour sifted, then measured
3 T. almond flour

Preheat oven to 300. Line 2 8x2 inch pans with parchment paper and butter. Melt chocolate and set aside. Cream butter with about 1/2 of the sugar until fluffy and nearly white in colour, about 2 minutes. Make sure to stop and scrape the bowl at least twice. Add egg yolks one at a time, mixing after each addition until yolk is well encorporated. When all of the eggs are added, continue to beat until the mixture is no longer grainy and the sugar is dissolved, about 3 minutes. Pour in the white chocolate, which should be cooled to no more than 95 degrees. Mix until smooth and glossy. Set Aside.

Blend the almond flour with the cake flour with a wisk in a small bowl. Fold into the eggs and chocolate mixture.

Beat the egg whites with the remaining sugar on medium high speed with a whisk attachment until soft peaks form . DO NOT OVER BEAT.

Fold egg whites into chocolate mixture using 1+3 method. ( Add one quarter of the egg whites initially to lighten chocolate batter, then fold in other 3/4 very gently) Do NOT OVERMIX

Spread evenly into two pans. Bake for approx. 30 minutes, but begin testing for doneness at 32.

This cake is delicious when moistened with a syrup of vanilla bean and Godiva white chocolate liquor or white creme de cocoa.

Vanilla Cognac Cake

This is such a great cake. For really stellar flavor I use Navan, which is a cognac infused with Madagascar vanilla. http://www.navanworld.com/navan.htm
It has almost the exact same amount of alcohol as vanilla extract, so while the 1/4c. in the recipe may seem like a lot, the alcohol bakes away and you're left with a simply awesome taste.


4 egg yolks
2/3 c.sour cream
2 T vanilla extract
1/4 c. Vanilla Cognac
2 c. cake flour ( sifted, then measured)
1 c. sugar
1/2 t. baking powder
1/2 t. baking soda
1/2 t. salt
6 oz. unsalted butter at room temperature

In a small bowl wisk, vanilla, cognac and 1/3 of the sour cream together.

In your mixer bowl, with the paddle attachment, place all of your dry ingredients, and mix briefly to combine. Add butter and the remaining sour cream, and mix on low speed until combined. Then adjust your mixer to medium speed and blend for about 2 minutes. Scrape down the sides, and add your egg yolf mixture in three batches, beating for 30 seconds and scraping the bowl after each addition.

Bake in a 9 inch springform pan lined with parchment at 300 for about 35 minutes. The cake should be flat ( no domed top) and just nder 2 inches tall.

Double Chocolate Cake

This recipe makes a lot of cake.

3 ounces fine-quality semisweet chocolate ( about 50% cocoa solids)

1 1/2 cups hot brewed coffee
3 cups sugar
2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 1/2 cups unsweetened cocoa powder (not Dutch process)
2 teaspoons baking soda
3/4 teaspoon baking powder
1 1/4 teaspoons salt
3 large eggs
3/4 cup vegetable oil
1 1/2 cups well-shaken buttermilk
3/4 teaspoon vanilla

Preheat oven to 300°F. and grease pans. Line bottoms with rounds of wax paper and grease paper.

Finely chop chocolate and in a bowl combine with hot coffee. Let mixture stand, stirring occasionally, until chocolate is melted and mixture is smooth.

Into a large bowl sift together sugar, flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, baking powder, and salt. In another large bowl with an electric mixer beat eggs until thickened slightly and lemon colored (about 3 minutes with a standing mixer or 5 minutes with a hand-held mixer). Slowly add oil, buttermilk, vanilla, and melted chocolate mixture to eggs, beating until combined well. Add sugar mixture and beat on medium speed until just combined well. Divide batter between pans and bake in middle of oven until a tester inserted in center comes out clean, 1 hour to 1 hour and 10 minutes.

Cool layers completely in pans on racks. Run a thin knife around edges of pans and invert layers onto racks. Carefully remove wax paper and cool layers completely. Cake layers may be made 1 day ahead and kept, wrapped well in plastic wrap, at room temperature.

The yellow cake recipe can be found at : http://www.epicurious.com/reci.....ews/109358

i second the moist yellow cake by toba garrett on epicurious. it is wonderful!

recently i was chatting with another member, she was looking for strawberry cake and i recommended using the yellow cake as a base. she used the recipe but substituted half of the buttermilk for a strawberry/berry mix fruit puree (a smoothie really, the brand is NAKED- red machine) as well as strawberry oil. she said it was really good. but she said that next time she'll try all buttermilk PLUS puree. i had this thought today that that may be too much liquid, so i thought it would be good to do puree plus dry buttermilk. that way there is still the benefit of the buttermilk adding moisture to the cake, but not changing the ratio of liquid and dry ingredients.

the yellow cake can also be a base for lemon cake (add lemon extract and lemon zest). french vanilla (add french vanilla extract). butter pecan (add crushed pecans toasted in butter, and butter extract).

the kaluah chocolate fudge... use a great chocolate recipe and instead of using coffee, use the liqueur. my absolute favorite is one that i found in margaret braun and kate sullivans book.

One Delicious Chocolate Cake (Kate Sullivan)

2 1/3 cups all purpose flour
1 ½ cups unsweetened cocoa powder
1 ¼ teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon baking powder
1 tablespoon baking soda
3 cups granulated sugar
5 eggs, room temp
1 tablespoon vanilla
1 ½ cups buttermilk, room temp
1 ½ sticks unsalted butter, melted
1 ½ cups strong coffee

Preheat oven to 350. Grease and flour sides and bottoms of pans. Set pans aside.

In large bowl of mixer, stir together the flour, cocoa, salt, baking powder and soda. Stir in the sugar.

In small bowl, combine the eggs and vanilla extract. Mix into the dry ingredients. Stir in the buttermilk, melted butter and coffee. Divide batter evenly among pans.

Bake at 350 until toothpick comes out clean (start checking around 35 minutes. this recipe perfectly makes two 4" and two 8" rounds.

If your business is expanding too much to keep buying cake mixes.....I would think it would be real difficult to use scratch recipes. You would have to increase all of your recipes for volume and I would think that might be hard to do. Also, if you plan to open other shops, I think it would be difficult to find bakers who could all get the same results from your scratch recipes. Also, there would be a lot more ingredients you would have to keep on the shelf than what a cake mix would be.

Commercial bakeries all order their cake mixes or bases from bakery suppliers. They buy the mix in 50 pound bags. I would think that would be the way you would want to go.

There are lots of good scratch recipes to be found, but some important tips to remember are:

1. Butter, eggs and liquids should be at room temperature. I like to sit my eggs in hot tap water while I get everything ready.

2. Creaming butter and sugar together takes between 3 to 5 minutes. This is important and you can't overbeat at this stage.

3. If the recipe says to add eggs one at a time be sure to beat well after each one.

4. Use good quality bakery flavorings and extracts. I prefer Creme Bouquet, but there are others available.

5. Use good quality flour. King Arthur, which is available at Publix or at www.kingarthurflour.com, is excellent. Also Robin Hood, which is from Canada, is excellent.

6. Something I learned on CC: wrap still-warm cakes in plastic wrap and refrigerate or freeze. Thaw, unwrap and decorate. Cakes will be super moist this way.

Good luck, you can do it !

Thank you all for your help.

I will start trying recipes today.

I tried the commercial mixes but they are not like the mixes at the store. My customers did not like them at all.

And for my basic ingresients Sysco delivers them to me so I don't have to run to the store. But htey don't carry betty crocker cake mixes. I have even contacted betty crocker to see if they would ship to me and the answer was no.

I do have worry that an employee will struggle hte scratch cakes. SO I am very torn.

I appreciate all you guidance Thanks again.

your husband sounds like one of those people who somehow, somewhere, for some reason thinks everything in a restaurant or bakery is made from scratch. I don't know where that idea came from or why it continues to run rampant, but it's just not true.

I saw a comment from one CC'er recently that pointed out how bakeries buy their cake mixes in 50 lb bags .... we buy ours in 18.75 oz boxes.

If everything was made from scratch, then GFS, Sysco, USFoods, and others would only sell flour, sugar and eggs, & maybe some spices, then have a big giant field out back where everyone could pick their own beans and potatoes. Then everyone would make their own lasagna noodles from scratch (which they don't); they would stand there and peel enough potatoes to feed 200 people (which I should as HE** don't do!). They wouldn't have hundreds of thousands of pounds of pre-packaged, frozen food items that are bought by restaurants and bakeries all over the country.

Gosh, how does he feel when he goes into a restaurant and there is a bottle of ketchup on the table with a Heinz label on it? Is he upset or disappointed because they didn't make their ketchup from scratch? If ketchup is ok, then why isn't other stuff ok? Is he ok with you buying your flour or does he expect you to grind it yourself? Is it ok to buy butter in the refrigerated section or does he expect you to churn it yourself? If already-made flour and butter is ok, why isn't already-measured dry cake ingredients ok? I'm admittedly carrying this to the ridiculous, but the idea that all commercial food places make everything from scratch is also ridiculous.

When brides ask me if my (catering) foods are "fresh or frozen?", I tell them "I don't grow my own corn and I dont' kill my own chicken."

I am a 100% box baker and I make a lot of my cookies from cake mixes. It was VERY common for me to go thru the walmart checkout with 36-48 cake mixes in my cart EVERY WEEK, along with 7 dozen eggs and 20 lbs of p.sugar. Cashiers called me the cake lady and customers loved asking me "why?" Who cares?

I'm with you .... I don't like the commercial cake mixes either. That's why I stick to Betty Crocker.

Just call your walmart grocery manager and place your order thru him. They will have it all boxed up in the back for you to pick up. Or check with your Sam's Club to see if they will order the Betty Crocker for you. Is there a CSD (Convenience Store Distributor) in your area? They stock cake mixes to deliver to Village Pantries, 7-11's, etc....see if you can get a delivery from them.

But the idea of "you HAVE to change to scratch" is just not true.

P.S. I saw an earlier post about letting eggs come to room temp. My food safety course instructor, who was a prior health dept inspector, said room temp eggs are a big no-no. When I asked him about recipes that specifically called for room temp eggs, he said "I've asked chefs about that and none of them have ever been able to explain to any degree of satisfation what difference it makes."

So you will never see room temp eggs in my kitchen.

Keep in mind what keeleym said about the cakes having a different texture and taste than your current cakes. I too was (am?) looking for scratch cake recipes. While I have found some great tasting cakes they definitely are different. Also the recipes that I have tried taste very dry after a day or 2 so for me that is a drawback on the scratch cakes!

Can't you just find a supplier that can provide you with mixes in bulk instead of going scratch?

heavenlys,

i notice alot of people seem to think that scratch will just plain make your life harder. its more work and its more costly.

well...ITS TRUE.

HOWEVER, if its what you want to do. go for it. ITS OK. and you're likely to be proud of yourself, you just may also find that your customers enjoy it even more so.

if you want to stay with box, thats your perogative. i do though, encourage you to give it a shot and do the best you can, either way.

Tried out 7 choclate cakes today. We found 2 we liked but one of them was dark chocolate so I may use it for another recipe.

Let me clear up poor DH is kinda taking a beating about pressuring me. When we started the business I baked out of the hoem doing a few cakes a week. Then we grew and opened a store and over the past 5 years we have continued to grow. I have looked at all avenues for getting cake mixes to me. I clean out Super walmart everytime I go. I have tried preordering them too but they aren't very organized and soemtimes forget or sometimes put them out and sell them. I checked into sam's club but they don't carry them. So as we look at our 5 year plan for the next 5 years we wnat to open 5 satelitte stores. SO I fear keeping up when we expand.

I love my mixes and the convenience but I need to find a way that will work for our future. Betty corcker is a bitter old non existant woman who will only sell her mixes to someone with a grocers license.

Hubby doesn't think everything has to be made from scratch. He has manged restuarants for over 20 years so he knows everything is add water.

Thank you all for your ideas and support. If any of you knows betty crocker could you put a good word in for me.

Thanks again
JUlie

I posted this a while back. Maybe you'll find it useful?

http://forum.cakecentral.com/cake-decorating-ftopict-365153-scratch.html+tutorial

You might find this thread helpful.

http://www.cakecentral.com/modules.php?name=Forums&file=viewtopic&t=365233&postdays=0&postorder=asc&&start=300

julz71 was so nice to compile all the recipes in one long post on page 21. You will find more recipes on the following pages too.

I agree with indydebi though. I recently made a scratch cake and my sister prefers my box ones. It doesn't hurt to perfect a few good scratch recipes either.

[/quote]

i'm sorry if i responded in a way that seemed offensive . i didnt mean it to sound rude, i just thought it worth mentioning. more like...lookin' out for ya! [/quote]

You didn't, I was just being bit**y , sorry . I suppose I should refrain from posting when I've had a very bad day , although spending time on CC usually makes me feel better .