Thank you all for your replies. I don't think I fully explained what I really wanted to say when I first started this post. I don't like to see people bash each other. I love baking. I can follow a recipe pretty well. I just haven't practiced enough to get a srcatch cake recipe just right. So I mainly use box mixes. I don't bake for profit just for my kids and family. I've had people ask me "Did u bake this from scratch because box cakes are so artificial". You don't know how much that bothers me. Just because I'm not talented enough to whip up a scratch recipe doesn't mean I did'nt put my heart and soul in making this for them. I love to cook and most of the time its from scratch. I guess its just the mexican in me refried beans and homemade tortillas! What I'm trying to say is before we go off bad mouthing box mix bakers we need to look inside our shopping carts the next time we go to the grocery store. I bet besides the lettuce and tomatoes everything else is probably in a can or box. And we still bring this home to our families. So in my opinion I think we all take the easy road in one way or the other. Were not perfect so lets stop acting like we are and start helping each other out. I hope I did't offend anybody I just think we need to take a good look at ourselves before we start making negative comments.

Jeanne, think about how many more culinary schools there are now. I think there's a definite upsurge in all things baking as well as cooking right now. I mean my own kids love to cook and bake.

My son is alll about scratch--turns his little beak up at self rising flour even (deliver me!). The daughter, a little more down to earth, she can do scratch but is not afraid of a mix or that fabulous cookie dough from the deli section to eat raw of course.

Anyway~~

Not that the cooking schools are not out there to make a fast big buck but there's a ton more schools even community colleges adding foodie courses ergo much more interest is being generated. Really. There's lots more interest I think.

I finally finished all 5 pages. no comments but just a story to share. I love baking ,do both scratch and box .The funny thing is i, I never used box mixes before started selling cakes. Few of my customers asked for boxed cakes and then I looked up doctored recipes .

Interesting thread. I wonder what my mom and grandmother would say. My mom was a cake mix baker, but made cookies from scratch. My grandmother baked by sight and touch only, no recipes!! When she was in her 90's it was BY TOUCH only!! As her sight was almost non-existant at that point. It was crazy watching her in the kitchen. My sister tried to write down one of her recipes once and gave up. It blew our minds that anything really good could come out of that old 1920's oven, made by this sweet blind lady, using a pinch of this and a handful of that , but honest to God this woman made some of the best baked goods I EVER had. Kids in her neighborhood kept showing up at the back door for her cakes and cookies!! They had to say "please" and "thank you Mrs.____" that was her only rule. "Have a cookie, it won't hurt ya none, it's good for you." She'd say. It was way too cute.

So anyway. I started with mixes, then doctored mixes (which can be quite good) now I'm baking from scratch. The "bake by touch" thing, yeah...that could take a while.

As for me do both, but I only bake for friends and family, and people I know well. I don't advertise, and I don't sell them. It's funny though when soemone compliments a cake taste and it happens to be a mix, I always say oh it's just a mix I doctored! I have no prob admitting it

*Yup a mix can be messed up...my sweet sis can mess up anything, even a pot of water! She actually boiled a pot of water till it was gone! LOL...poor thing!

There have been some great points made on here tonight, I just want to say also, it's hard to read peoples expressions from typed words. It took me a while to get used to certain people on here who I thought were coming across as mean, but now I know they are total sweeties. As you read more and more of peoples posts you can see their personalities come through more, and you can see their intentions. I have gained so much knowledge and insight and many many many laughs from people on C.C.
Hope you all have a great weekend coming up
Oh ya...
Deniro will you come teach me how to make homemade beans and tortillas???? Oh my gosh...i'm drooling! That sounds so yummy...sigh...

Absolutely! My friends think I'm nuts cuz I work and rush home to cook! But its rewarding to see your family enjoy a good meal! The only bad side is you end up spoiling them and then they expect it every night! Even when your sick!!!

My family is spoiled, but thats the way it should be. I have to say they all spoil me right back

They would be in heaven if I learned to make real homemade mexican food+tortillas....wow they would be impressed!

I really want to make chili rellenos mmmmmm
My neighbor send homemade stuff over all the time and it is soooo good. She tells her son to tell me that as soon as she learns english better she will come teach me, I can't wait! I told him he could stay here and translate the whole time, he wasn't going for it typical 15 yr old huh

LOL.. I have store bought crackers, but I do know how to make them as well. If I had the time everything in my home would be made by me... but until they add those extra 24 hours to the day that I have been wishing for I'll buy some things.

And of course I was speaking in general about not being able to fudge up a mix... there are people out there who can mess up pretty much anything and I do know that. My little sis is borderline.

I think I am a renaissance girl at heart. I'd be happy in the kitchen all day making things for my family (so long as someone else did the laundry ). I think I just long for simpler times when life wasn't so crazy. Baking/cooking things from scratch brings a little of that back for me. That right there is why I am passionate (for myself) about scratch baking. I even make pasta 85% of the time. My mum says I'm a glutton for punishment, but it's like therapy for me. If my son wants pasta with red sauce for lunch I make sauce while the pasta boils. I never buy jarred sauce. Like I said... I am odd.

Bottom line for me is that I do what I love and the rest of the world can do whatever they love. I would never hold it against someone if they baked from a box or loved them some Prego pasta sauce.

jeanne, are you sure you're not the long lost 9th child from my family? Like I've said many times I'm the youngest of 8 (5 girls, 3 boys) and unfortunately none of my siblings share my passion for baking/cooking and housework.

I guess all of my Mom's domestic virtues were passed on to me and I feel very fortunate about that. My friends think I'm nuts to come home from a long day at the Salon and make my pasta dough, while my tomatoes are simmering......but, they never turn down an invitation to dine at my house
The only things in my freezer are ice cream (homemade), buttercream and 2 cake layers. I buy my meat as I need it (2 or 3 times a week to the butcher shop.)

It may sound stupid to most people, but it makes me and my family happy. I'm a simple girl at heart, I guess. I feel very very fortunate to have the time and means to live this way.

To deniro the OP, don't let your family/friends make you feel that way about your cakes. You mentioned that "you aren't talented enough to bake from scratch", that's not true. It doesn't take "talent" it just takes practice and the right recipe/ingredients. You ARE talented, not everyone can bake, even from a mix. Believe me, as I said the thing my MIL turns out from a DH mix, is more like a flat hard tortilla. Must be her damn oven

I think that we all want to provide a fresh, homemade product to our customers and families. Before I started the "WASC why is the cake mix necessary" thread, I felt that if I used a mix, then I can't tell my customers its baked from scratch. What I have learned from all of you wonderful CC'ers is that its ok to use a doctored mix for some of my recipes and I am not deceiving my customers. As someone said, a mix is just premeasured ingredients, and we add the eggs, oil, etc. This is far superior to the grocery store chains that use frozen cakes. I guess we have to define what "scratch" really means. I agree that we need to be concerned about what we feed our families, and use fresh ingredients, stay away from manmade chemicals, etc. I try to use unbleached flour, and unprocessed foods. The thing that bothers me about cake mixes is what additives/chemicals are added that I wouldn't use if I did not use the mix. Ugh!!! Life is so difficult sometimes!!!!

Bonniecakes--If you get a collection of good, basic scratch recipes that you know how to make and work well for you, you can just stick with those. I have basics that I use all the time, and I can change out the fillings, etc to give different combination choices. I have a list of cake flavors and filling flavors that go with them that I give my clients, then they can mix and match when they choose their cake flavors.

[/quote]If the cake is good and I like it, I could care less if it's scratch or mix.

But this whole "if it's retail it MUST be made from scratch" theory from food-snobs cracks me up! I laugh everytime I see a Golden Corral or Applebee's commercial advertising their newest menu item ... and I lean over to my daughter and tell her, "Oh that looks good! Remind me to order it on my next GFS truck order! I'm sure we have room in the freezer for it!" My sister was SURE her favorite soup at Applebee's was made right there in their kitchen ... until I gave her a frozen container of it for Christmas. [/quote]

This is hilarious!

Chutzpah I would love to learn spanish! I only speak english, it's all i've ever spoke and I can't even get it right half the time. Now it's even worse because of a head injury i'm still healing from, so half the time it takes me forever to get a simple sentence out cuz I can't remember the right words to use. One day I do hope to learn it though My oldest son and one of my closest friend were teaching me quite a bit before the injury, but can't remember any of it now...oh well at least i'm alive!

Processed yes... everything must be processed in one way or another. But the flour I have sitting in my kitchen has wheat, barley, and vitamins B1, B2, Iron, Folic acid and a couple other vitamins/minerals that I can't recall at this very second. None of which are not found naturally in the foods we eat. The additives that people shun are the propylene glycol and the chemical preservatives that are most definitely not in the flour and sugar I buy. I even buy aluminum free baking powder/soda. I am not trying to say that a cake made from scratch is "healthy"... far from it. Cake is not good for you. It's loaded with sugar and fat and if you eat it daily it will certainly be detrimental to your overall well being. That holds true no matter if it's from a mix or not. Even some preservatives aren't bad for you. Vitamin E is a great preservative and if you see tocopherol on the list on ingredients that's what it is... just vitamin E.

It's a personal preference... end of story. No $64,000 question. The only question you need to ask yourself (the general you) is why are you allowing yourself to be offended that someone doesn't feel the same as you do about how you make your cakes. If you are happy... it shouldn't matter if others don't care for it.

to the op, ive worked at a bakery, a small family run one, been in business since 1953 and they make all their cakes by weighing out the ingredients, what most would call from scratch.

But if you search for the definition of 'from scratch' it means 'from the beginning'. So if one says 'baked from scratch' it would mean you baked it from the beginning, and would have nothing to do with the mixing of the ingredients, and thats how, i think, most places can say, 'baked from scratch'.
thats how i see it anyway.

I, personally, don't LOVE baking. I LOVE decorating!!! Unfortunately, if I ever wanted repeat customers, I needed a good cake under the decorations and I do BOTH from scratch and from mix. I don't know how many people have said to me (about other cakes), "The cake is either beautiful and tastes like dirt or it tastes wonderful, but it looks like doo doo." To be honest, if I could find a frozen cake that tasted good, I would probably be tempted!!! )

So, while I understand and admire those of you who can, and do, always bake from scratch, I emphatically believe that I am meeting a need and doing my very best at it. If my customers didn't like my cakes - inside and out - they wouldn't come back. I'm not cheating or lying to my customers. When they ask, I tell them the truth. It hasn't seemed to hurt.

I have a friend who actually does her baking from scratch... yes, she even grinds her own wheat and makes her own butter. She also makes her own soap. She sews all of their clothes... for all I know she even weaves the fabric. (ok - maybe not) But, I guess if anyone had a right to claim "from scratch", it would be her!! And she's pregnant with her 7th child!!

I usually try to stay out of any thread that starts to get controversial, but I just felt that some of the comments weren't fair. I put a lot of time and effort into my cakes and I don't think that anyone should look down on those of us starting with a mix or say we're giving an "inferior" product. I understand that fresh is better than stale and that certain things are more healthy, but as someone else stated - cake isn't exactly healthfood anyway. Thanks for the time!

i know im going to offend some...but the only people who get testy about these threads are box/mix bakers. please stop with the arguement that you cant tell the differance between box or scratch, that there are chemicals even in the flour scratch bakers use as if to devalue the crafT...or that adding sour cream to duncan hines some how makes a cake taste like its from scratch. you cant compare artisan bread with wonder. now, dont get me wrong...i love wonderbread, eat it all the time. though good...its wonder bread. finally...yes a customer assumes that a bakery is selling products made from scratch...just like you assume that the doctor you see when you go under is the doctor that performed your complete surgery. there are things called fair assumptions. it is what it is. box cake mix & processed cheese is what i grew up on...i just choose not to eat them now. ok...im ready for the firing sqad.

I said chemical preservatives... not additives. This is beating a dead horse. No one is going to change anyone's views on the subject. It's not like someone is going to read your words and say "you know what??? I'm going to abandon my own prefernce and grab me a box of cake mix next time I am in the store." and vice versa. I know that a lot of the crap they put into our foods is naturally occuring, but just because it is, doesn't mean it belongs in our food. MANY things that are naturally occuring have no business being ingested. But again... I was just trying to clarify that it's not the nutritive additives that people complain about. The word chemical doesn't have to have scary undertones. Water is a chemical.

It is a preference... and there may be a stigma, but maybe if people stopped hiding the fact that they bake from a mix it would lessen or maybe even go away. It's perpetuated by both sides. You know that I don't care either way. I have stated it over and over again. I don't believe that you have to bake from scratch to sell your cakes. I only believe that *I* have to bake from scratch to sell cakes. If you use a mix and doctor it (or not) then go for it... just don't feel like you have to hide it. I state clearly that I bake from scratch because I want people to know what they are getting. Some people prefer mix cakes and they probably wouldn't want my cakes if they do. Some people really only want scratch baking and this lets them know that I'm a good fit. I'm not saying you have to plaster the DH label all over your site or even mention it if you don't want to, but if you were asked you shouldn't have to feel bad about saying our cakes start with a mix and we add in our own blend of ingredients to make it our own special recipe.

This is getting to the point of babble so I'm done. But just don't lump me in with the ones who are shunning. I always feel I have to defend myself as a scratch baker because people assume I look down on those who don't share my love. I don't.

If you are going to seek out the monoesters and gums and preservatives and add them to your scratch cake I'd call you an schmoe for not just buying the box. Why go through all the motions if you are going to just add the same stuff right?

If I was on a ladder and I had one leg out. Am I falling or standing on a ladder?

Jeanne, no I don't think that all one kind of bakers think the same about all the other kind of bakers.

I think you are very up front and cool. I dig that you bake all scratch. I do both. For white wedding cakes I would be scared to use my scratch white because I have to chill my cakes to deliver them because that's how I've always done it. If I chill a cake made with butter I do not like my results.

I mean if a bride wanted to really fork out the money I would babysit my scratch white cake for her. But none of my brides ever have wanted to up the ante that much.

I like to try & make people think and make me think and I like to myth bust. Some of us might not realize that our 'accepted' foods contain so many 'extra' things.

Duncan Hines white cake mix does not have any preservatives.

I'm not trying to make people change how they do things.

I'm trying to get people to be myth-busters and destroy the stigma.

Potato chips are as good as tortilla chips and good cake is good.