Do I avoid the "do you use a mix" question?? - Page 16

the minute you add baking powder or soda you're adding...

CHEMICALS!!!! (gasp!) ---

and MINED from the earth (baking soda!) no less -- just like that "digusting" titanium dioxide (and let's not even get going on judging things by their "names" -- that way lies very bad ju-ju!!!!)

oh yes, and SALT -- a chemical mined from the earth!!!! (or created from the world's sewer -- aka sea salt! --- after all, all sewers eventually empty into the oceans!)

and has also been pointed out -- flower -- HAH --- so processed -- with chemicals -- like peroxide -- you know that stuff that bleaches hair and supposedly kills bad buggies in wounds

oh yes -- SALT and SUGAR -- both highly poisonous at the right concentrations (and look at what salt does for blood pressure and sugar for teeth waistlines!)


and as any biochemist will tell you ---

it's ALL!!! chemicals -- just some dressed up w/ "pretty names"

oh and go check on the amount of "foreign substances" (like bug parts, etc.) that are allowed to be present in so-call pure sugar and flour, etc.

so, don't talk to me about the PURITY of scratch.

it ain't, never has been, never will be

it's just a METHOD.

as they say....

there's more than one way to skin a cat (or bake a cake)

and you go your way and I'll go mine.

different strokes for different folks

one person's trash, another's treasure.

beauty is in the eye of beholder (and good taste in their mouth! --- make mine chocolate!)

now --- to your baking, whatever the method.

may all your cakes rise and never fall
all you BC be smooth, bubble free and never slump, droop or melt.
and may all your customers fall all over themselves praising your creations

says Yogi Bear through a mouth stuffed w/ cake and smeared w/ icing stolen from yet another pic-i-nic basket.

This thread is SOOOOO far off point. No where in this thread was it ever asked (by the OP) which way was better.

To answer a question though.. gums aren't in all fondants. The one I make has no gums.. just gelatin (or agar agar if it needs to be vegetarian). Granted gelatin is made from the cartilage of animals, but if that's okay with you it's okay with me. If not.. I'll gladly make you the veggie version.. it'll just cost you a little more since agar agar is more pricey and harder to find than gelatin and it can be harder to work with.

I am just against sneeking things like propylene glycol in foods. (and the sneaking is done by the company not the baker) It shouldn't be necessary to add things like that to foods. Soy lethicin and the gums don't 'scare' me.. I'd just rather not eat them as I don't enjoy the flavor and texture they impart on the cakes. It's not that I think they are going to kill me. They can gum up your colon though.. pun intended.. . Hell.. WATER in high enough quanitities can kill you. Oh and those bug parts you speak of.. are allowed in cake mixes too.. they are allowed in all foods made for distribution. Sorry to add to the debate, but I hate it when people's personal choices are put on the firing range. Now everyone is snubbing everyone and the point of the post seems moot.

I did want to productively add that they do make unbleached cake flour (pastry flour). I know King Aurthur sells it. It's not widely available, but if you want it it's there. http://www.kingarthurflour.com/shop/detail.jsp;jsessionid=FDD68B25E3557D7575A9533E0004C0B5?select=C79&byCategory=C541&id=3331

Again.. this thread was never intended to be about the PURITY of scratch baking.

I'm all for happy baking.. so do your thing.. whatever it may be.

the OP, in asking this question:




did in fact open up the issue of purity as that is how so many justify that scratch is better and mix is not.

I stand by:

beauty is in the eye of the beholder.

just go to an art museum and pick what you think is beautiful and compare it to others choices.

story of example -- three peoples reaction to a Jackson Pollack
"OK...whatever"
"HMMMM....interesting"
"THAT"S STUPID!" said very loudly.
(all three from my sister's kids, last one leading me to nearly drag the child from the museum immediately!)

Cakes are works of art, the bakers and the decorators.


And there's NO accounting for taste in art.

I am not a professional, just a mom who provides cupcakes and cakes to the school. I use box mix on cakes that are mostly for the decoration, i.e. kids school cupcakes and kid birthday cakes. They are after the buttercream (which I always make from scratch). I have watched them lick every molecule of buttercream off the cake, throw away the cake and ask for another piece. In this case, baking from scratch has no meaning.
However, when it comes to cakes for the teachers or large events, I will bake from scratch. I have been told that my cakes are very tastey. At the same time I have had folks rave in my face about other folks box mix.
Box mix is quite good now, especially with all the modifications one can do to personalize it. But I have to say, I have a sadness that people in general do not have an appreciation for baked goods (or any food for that matter) that are made truly from scratch. Sometimes it seems that society's taste buds have been burned by all the "fast foods". Not trying to critize, just observations....I am one of those folks who will take advantage of the "fast food", especially when busy making a cake from scratch.
End of soap box.

Add Cream of tartar to the list..

Cream of tartar is is the common name for potassium hydrogen tartrate.

Cream of tartar is obtained when tartaric acid is half neutralized with potassium hydroxide, transforming it into a salt. Grapes are the only significant natural source of tartaric acid, and cream of tartar is a obtained from sediment produced in the process of making wine.

I put that stuff in my egg whites!!!?

And what about imitation vanilla (not that anyone would use that), but it comes from a waste product of the wood pulp industry, lignin. How much of the prepackages stuff we buy has imitation vanilla in it??

Just shot me and get it over with.

Ok here's a slight twist to it. The question of scratch frosting, or betterbucket. Because if you prescribe to the scratch is healthier concept should a bucket frosting be eliminated also? Don't shoot the messenger, or questionier.

Mike

Oooooooh Mike... you are baaaaad. Need to be spanked with a spatula..

oh, I know...

just seems Smokey is a bit to serious to care about cakes.....

but Yogi....well, is there any pic-i-nic basket he didn't like????

Oh I can GUARENTEE this thread is NOT going that way. Hehehehehe

Mike

My two cents. Sorry I haven't read all of the replies with this topic. But, a oouple of responses I have if someone asks about my cake. I tell them that a lot of the time I start out with a box cake mix but then I turn it into a supper enhanced mix where I add a lot of my own ingredients like: sour cream, pudding, butter, extra flour, extra sugar extra flavoring mabybe spices etc. so by the time I am done they wouldn't recognize it as any box mix that they have ever had!!! The response is usually, oohhh do you share your recipes. I just smile! I have a lot of secrets that have taken me YEARS to learn! Of course it's different if one of you asks. I do refer a lot of people to cc!

"donning my flame retardant underwear"....

when i was gonna add frappacino type drinks to my shop, many of the formulas had guar gum and xanthan gum in them.

not wanting to kill my customers....so they'd come back and buy more stuff....i looked these things up.

guar gum is made from guar beans

and if i remember right....xanthan gum was made by a fermenting process ...made with basically sugar.

someone smarter than me prolly knows more about this...but that made it less scarey to me.

Throwing a tub of sour cream into a cake mix and calling it "scratch" or " homemade" is like adding milk to kraft mac and cheese and calling it homemade fettucini alfredo.

If scratch bakers get get "uppity" it's because they're pushed into it by the "enhancers" talking about how much better their cake is than ours. My cakes aren't dry. they don't crumble, we carve them all the time, and BTW, we use all organic ingredients ( except cake flour, and we use the unbleached King Arthur for that). Our milk and butter comes from a farm about 25 miles from here. Our eggs come from a different farm about 15 miles in the other direction. I know the guy that imports my vanilla beans personally. We don't use corn syrup, shortening, or preservatives of any kind. It makes a difference.

The college kids who work for me ( and college kids will generally eat anything) tell me all the time that they can't eat Coldstone anymore, now that they've had our homemade gelato. They don't like the cookies at Mrs. Fields anymore etc. etc.

Once you've had good homemade, you can't go back to scratch. Just like Italian boys don't eat Ragu, cause they grew up on Mama's sauce. Same thing...once you've been to Paris etc.
The point is do what you want, or what you like. The majority of the American food industry is based on selling us food with dubious ingredients and convincing us it is delicious. It's a successful model. You can make money, but can I tell you how proud I am when I can look someone straight in the eye and say " Everything in this shop is made from scratch every day. It's awesome.

Yes.. most of the emulsifiers and gums are derived from natural sources. I don't find them scary.. that's not why I avoid cake mixes. I just don't like the texture and flavor of mix cakes. Propylene glycol is a tad scary as it is used in many things including pesticides, deodorants, and can be used as anti-freeze in your car. I'm sure it's in trace amounts.. but still.. I tend to try to avoid things like that if I can even if the FDA has stated it is generally safe for use as a direct food additive. I'm sure that the mixes could do just fine without it. Though I have never said once that people who use mixes are horrible. Quite the opposite.. I am more of a do your own thing and be proud of it sort of a person. I am a proud scratch baker.. but I don't knock those who aren't..

Oh and Mike.. I would never spank you.. perhaps your wife would though.. if you were provoking a bunch of ornery cake people. :p