using cake mixes from boxes - Page 4  

Chasey can you post this under the receipes sections so that i made try it out. I have been trying all different kinds of bc receipes and i just can't find the right one that everyone likes hopefully this one will work. Do you use this one to deorate with too or just to frost your cake?

Hmm, I'll add my two cents in here as well

I'm a hybrid baker: about 1/2 my cakes I make are scratch, and about 1/2 are boxed. Anything dealing w/ chocolate is most definitely scratch. My personal taste buds just don't taste enough chocolate in a box regardless of how much I add in.

My white/yellow cakes are always boxed; I grew up on boxed cakes and it seems most people around here must have as they ADORE my cakes. I can make a scratch yellow/white cake just as well, but I prefer the taste/texture to the box as that is what I'm used to. I heavily doctor the cakes so as many would say, the box is just an ingredient, not the base.

For me, most box cakes are more expensive than scratch (except my chocolate cake; that is MUCH more expensive scratch). I use premium ingredients in both.

I have also found that every bakery around here but 1 uses mixes. The one that does not is known for the decorating skills but not for the cakes taste. Most do not like the cakes taste.

I've also found that MANY famous cake decorators bake cakes using a mix as the base (typically the pillsbury plus or some 50lb bag similar).

I do tell all my customers, but that is for allergy reasons, etc. No one has had a problem but I do always get the reaction of "I can't believe this is a boxed cake!" I then remind them it's not, it's just an ingredient. I also ask which type they prefer, in which they are typically clueless. If someone says the prefer scratch, i'll make both and let them decide.

So do I feel like i'm cheating them, nope I feel like I'm giving them one of the best tasting cakes in town in my opinion, of course.

Sure!

And yes, if you want to make roses or do the basketweave, definitely stiffen it up with more powdered sugar!

edited to add I tried:
Uh oh, something is strange on my screen. I typed up the recipe in all of the required boxes and the purple box on the left containing newsletter, forum posts, log out, etc. is partially covering up the last line that must have a submit button! I can't seem to figure out how to move it, lol, so I can't submit! Please enlighten me.

Wow... was this actually a post about scratch vs. mix that didn't end in a knock down drag out debate? I'm impressed CC!!

It's one of those personal decisions... some like mixes, some will doctor them, and some will not and others like scratch. If the customers are happy... that is what is important. So many bakeries use commercial mixes for their cakes... big 50 lb bags of cake mix. It's a consisitent product that takes no time to whip up.

Me... am a scratch baker 100%. Use premium inredients... make my own vanilla extract... use vanilla beans in place of extract in a lot of cases... the works. It's important to me and a big part of my marketing plan. People seek me out because of what goes into my cakes and I charge a pretty penny for them. Works for me.

I love baking... the whole process is fascinating to me. I bake breads... make pasta... I rarely do anything from a box or a can. (though I do love me some junk foods now and again... cheetos... mmmmm)

I know some don't love the baking aspect of cakes as much as I do, and if they love mix cakes it's no skin off my back. We all have to do what we love.

Me too. It makes for great conversation at tastings, bridal shows, consults, you name it! Especially when it comes to people asking what is in that cake??? It's exciting for me to talk about the fresh ingredients, and the imported chocolate. Or how I make a batch of SMBC. Or the process of carefully folding in the egg whites into my buttermilk cake. Or my fondant has absolutely no unpronounceable preservatives or ingredients in it.

To the OP... you have to think too that not everone one here sells their cakes. CC is a nice varied cross section of the decorating community.

Why?

You order a pizza from a pizza place, and they use premade dough, canned sauce and frozen pepperoni.

You order any food from any restaurant and they are using premade frozen foods they buy from GFS and Sysco. It's NOT all made from scratch. (And at the low end of the food cycle ...the fast food places .... you'd be amazed at which places receive all of their food precooked and they just nuke it for you.)

"Cheating" implies doing something underhanded or illegal. It is not illegal to use a mix.

Bakeries use mixes all the time. They buy theirs in 50 lb bags and just add water. Some of us on here buy ours in 18 ounce boxes and add eggs, oil and water.

So the "fancy" cake you bought from a bakery came from MORE of a mix than what I use.

I'm also one that is very up front and do tell clients that I use mixes. If my customers of 30 years are fine with it, then I don't see why it should be a problem to anyone else.

There is a great talent involved in making a good cake from scratch .... and I'm not one of those people. On the flip side, I never assume that "all scratch" is always better because it's not whether it's scratch or mix .... it's how talented is the cook or the baker. I know people who can screw up Kraft and Mac-n-Cheese!

I agree, its really only under handed if they ask and I say yes I make it from scratch, when its doctored!!

There is nothing underhanded about being honest lol

And of course, as always, it's up to the individual what they use. But it is comforting to know that there are restaurants and other food establishments out there that are still kicking it old school. Yo.

Well with all the time we save using mixes we have to fill our time with something, right?

Oh, I wouldn't have been able to resist, either!!

I just love it when I go to the GFS and Sysco food shows ... see all of the new (prepared) foods they've come out with ... and then in a week or so, I see the "new" menus from the restaurants advertising these very same foods.

I love it when I go into either place to pick up my order and I see the chefs from the big name hotels and big name restaurants in there picking up their order .... using the very same prepared foods thast I use in my catering.

But my favorite pizza is a locally owned place in my hometown, started by a couple who came straight from Italy .... and it's the best pizza ever!! They are only open 3 days a week ... and they do enough business to only have to be open 3 days a week!

I thought I hated icing (I'd scrape it off of every cake, even one I'd done myself and just eat the cake*) until I discovered IMBC. Now, that I can eat all by itself. Yummmmy!


*Except every now and then I'd eat the scraped-off icing as a dip for potato chips.

SallyBratt, hello. I agree with most of what your saying, I would feel a bit wrong if I didnt tell them it was a box mix. And I dont think you are a snob.

It is also not your fault, you were obviously not aware that you could have looked the subject up as you are a newbie and people should be more considerate rather than attack your comments so rudely!

To be honest it pisses me off that so many people get up themselves over certain subjects, to the point we stop being kind!!!!

I hope you havent been put off, this site and the people on it can be sooo helpfull and lovely.

xx

Another scratch/mix thread without K8 Why isn't she posting anymore? What's up with that?



I love me a great scratch cake with premium chocolate and vanilla beans....ummm better then you know what....