Well I think you have your answer, anyway here where I live people don't have time or don't want to do alot of baking so they have me do it. They don't ask if it is from scratch, as long as it taste good and they like the way it looks...they always come back. I don't advertise, I rely on word of mouth. Good luck in your business.

I'm so glad to see everyone in support of using mixes. I've never received as much praise for a scratch cake as I do for BC mix cakes. Some I doctor and some I don't but I get rave reviews and have no intention of going strictly scratch.

Not that I'm telling you what you should do in your shop, do whatever works for you, but I'm going to go against the grain and speak up for scratch baking. I never use mixes because they taste nasty to me, and no matter how much doctoring you do I can still tell the chemicals are there. I went to culinary school for pastry, so I think that most of the problems that most people have when they bake from scratch probably result from the techniques they use when they mix the batter. I remember thinking that the chefs were full of it when they told us that baking was chemistry, so you had to be precise with technique, but it's true. Mixes are more consistent because they're full of stuff that allows anyone to make them with the same results, but I don't like the texture of a mix and the ones that I taste from stores, etc. are usually pretty consistently bland favor-wise. I have different recipes for each cake, and I've developed a lot of them myself to get them to where I like them...I suggest that all of you box-mix users get a copy of the Cake Bible and have some fun trying out different recipes. You'll see the difference, I swear! I know you all probably have that book anyway, but it has really good explanations of why certain recipes work the way they do, so it makes doing the cakes easier.

Indydebi, I totally agree about the chemical taste in the ready made cookie dough but give me a package of it and I'll eat every bite of it. Don't tell......... I remember times that I bought cookie dough at the grocery store and ate half of it on the way home..........

Thought I kept all this well hid but one night I was working in my bar and my daughter came in with a tube of cookie dough and a spoon. Decided that the apple didn't fall far from the tree. Now I have 6 grandkids that are just as bad only I feed them homemade.

Thanks for making me feel better about my box mixes. I'm like you--if it ain't broke, don't fix it.

Diane

Wow, I didn't expect this response! Thank you all so much. The guilt cloud, at least I guess that's what it was, is gone. Still not sure if it was a guilt thing, an inferiority thing, or what, but whatever it was, its gone now. I'll still make my chocolate cake from scratch. I think I may have gotten that recipe here on CC, and it's incredible. I'll also still play with scratch recipes, but like tasteebakes, my kitchen space is very small, I know my recipes by heart, and when I start doing 6 or 8 cakes a week,(maybe more some day!) it will be alot faster.

As for the bridal show, I'm just going to do samples of my most requested flavors.

One last item - about the roll cookie dough - I have been known to buy the stuff just to eat the dough, not even thinking about making cookies! SSHHHHHH don't tell!

I would agree that box mix bakers should feel no guilt. I believe box mix recipes can fail. If you beat the batter too long, oven is too hot etc etc. You name it. For some even a mix fails them. If someone has a good doctored mix or just the plain recipe on the box and your people love it then great. I have had people tell me the box mix doesn't turn out for them. So, no, I don't get why box bakers mention feeling guilty.