WOW...did anyone catch ABC's The Lookout last night? It was a wedding edition and one category was a wedding cake taste test.

Three cakes...a $2200 New York designer cake, a $300 supermarket cake and a baked-at-home from Betty Crocker cake mix cake that cost $12 to make. While of course the designer cake was spectacular in appearance, the Betty Crocker cake won the taste test everywhere across the country, even in a blindfold test. Now why do I bother to bake from scratch? (That's just rhetoric...no changes in the baking on the horizon!)

It does, however, show how people's tastes are trained toward a lot of convenience foods....while the high end cake was without doubt made with the best ingredients around and a box of cake mix's ingredient list looks like a chemistry experiment, people still like what's familiar to them in the end.

Rats, I missed it.  I have been watching the show but didn't notice it on the schedule last night.

When I was still in the "hobbying" phase I would try a new cake recipe and decorate it every Sunday, and take it to work on Monday for my co-workers.  One weekend I was running short on time and just baked a boxed cake mix and decorated it.  Monday morning - everyone RAVED over my cake telling me "this is the best one yet!"
 

Wow. That is crazy. I can taste the difference in a from scratch and a chemical box cake. When I moved my sister started having her friend (also a cake decorator) make the cake. She made a strawberry boxed cake and it was the worst thing I ever tasted but no one but my husband seemed to notice. Nothing against people that make box cakes, just not for me. 

AI meant to watch it. Maybe it'll show up on OnDemand. bct, a girl made a cake for a birthday party I went to, and it was so clearly boxed strawberry cake with goopy canned cream cheese icing. Gross! The cake was a mess, and Wilton fondant was used to cover the whole thing. I'm not sure if anyone noticed the 'boxed' taste, but I sure did. And the canned icing? Not even the close to the right consistency.

It is what we're use to is what we like. I remember my Mom baking scratch cakes for us as does my husband. I've gone back and forth depending on time for cakes I've made at home while my son was growing up. My son totally loves "bakery" cakes but his most favorite is Philsbury Fun Fetti. LOL Go figure. So next year when he gets married his groom's cake will be Fun Fetti while the cupcake Wedding cake will be made from scratch. LOL

Saw the "box" vs "scratch" back when he was in grade school.  Parents cooked lunch in the school's cafeteria for the kids and made homemade Macaroni and Cheese. No kids liked it because it wasn't Kraft from the box.

That was so disheartening. But it certainly wasn't a panel of couples seeking a wedding cake either. I'm sure if proper judges or people actually looking for a nice cake would have been consulted, that wouldn't have happened.

Here's the show.

http://abcnews.go.com/Nightline/video/cake-test-19633970#.Ud7Rb3PNhgc

I believe it.  The palate is trained.  

AI love how the guy is saying he loves the Betty Crocker because it's homemade! Doh!

AMmmmm, Kraft Thick n Creamy macaroni is the bombdiggity! I'm no food snob, except when it comes to cake.:-D

AI wish I could still eat Kraft Mac n' cheese. It gives me indigestion. :-(

Um I love Kraft mac n cheese but I make it with half the butter and so its WAY cheesier!!! mmMMmmm

I thought it was really funny that the reporter had to remember her husband and children...umm yeah they had hot bodies.

I use half and half too. Creamy factor upped!

Taste of cake aside, I was not impressed by the $2000 Ron Ben Israel cake.  I've become jaded by the beauty of the cakes I see on this website, I guess.

haha- that was very funny. I love that the 'beefcake' kept describing the Betty Crocker as homemade.   

I used to make birthday cakes for my coworkers..and once, in  a hurry - I made the WASC...it was a huge hit. Everyone said "this is your best one yet. We love it"...and these are all people not have not necessarily grown up with box cakes (like I did in America and most other Americans too ) -these people were from all over SE Asia actually...but all preferred the doctored cake mix. hmmmm.

I am curious which came in next and which was the dry one the little girl did not like.  I thought grocery stores use used box mixes.  I also wished they would have used better participants then a little girl, a guy that shovels food in his mouth without eating it and the other two.  They didn't have to use food critics but just more normal people.  Also, since 2 of the cakes had fruit, which not all people like (myself included) that could be some of the reasons they did not like the other two. 

AI liked it. Fun story. Everyday people picking the cake they like. Look at it this way...don't have to spend a lot on fancy ingredients ;)

Thanks for the link AZ, I just watched it.  I thought the results were really interesting. 

AHomemade I like homemade...homemade .....I was just gathering courage to try and bake from scratch..... :-(

The girl said something about the most expensive cake being the one she didn't care for, and her favorite being the cheapest.

What a joke. It actually kind of irritates me to see that video. All the hard work we do for people, all the love that goes into our cakes and treats, and it basically got body-slammed by these 'journalists.'

AZ is right. It's disheartening.

BTW.

AZ, top 100 cake designers in the US?! That's awesome!! Good for you!

ACrazy huh? I thought for sure the email about it was a joke, but nope...there it was in the magazine. Thanks!