I think the most important thing is that we are baking!!! It is just so much fun and it shows you care. Scratch or box baking is just plain fun!!
I think moms should teach their kids to cook, regardless of if they do box or scratch. They love to help mom in the kitchen. Even when it doesn't feel like help sometimes!!

I started out all scratch, but tried a boxed butter cake in a pinch, and everyone LOVED it...no one could tell. I still bake from scratch for home sometimes, but all the cakes I sell are box, unless it's carrot, I still dothat scratch. I consider myself a baker, even if using a box...I still bake cookies and everything else scratch, and was a baker before I ever considered decorating anything. I say kuddos to those who have been lucky enough to find reliable scratch recipes, and kuddos to those who use boxes and everyone loves them. I don't think there is a right or wrong on this.

For all those scratchers, do you have a fav. book you go from. I heard Cake Bible... ANything else?

oh, okay. you're talking about the "technical" term of a baker. actually, many of the decorators i know *hate* to bake, i think people think they go hand-in-hand, which is not the case. did you feel i was "trying" to make you feel inferior cause you used a mix? that was not my intention, as a matter of fact, i've pretty much decided to stick with doctored mixes for my customers, they seem to like them and i can focus all my attention on decorating cakes. i'm gonna post a recipe that i think would please both the scratch and box BAKER. very rich, dense and flavorful (like a scratch cake) with the ease and reliability of a box. best of both worlds.



white cake mix
small box of of vanilla instant pudding
1/4 cup of sugar
1/4 cup of water + 2 TB
8 ounces of softened cream cheese
1 tea. vanilla
3/4 cup oil
3 eggs

preheat oven to 350, grease and flour 9 inch pans. in large bowl, stir together cake mix, pudding and sugar. make well in the center and add rest of ingredients and mix for 4 min.

Everyone always refers to the cake bible and it is a wonderful reference (her mousilline buttercream is the best, but some of her cakes are not all that good, mostly a bit on the dry side. Don't get wrong, I am a big fan of RLB and btw, currently she is working on a new cake book (a friend asked her personally), but there are better "recipes" out there.

I have created my own cake cookbook, spending time breaking down cakes by categories and then doing test cakes when I can to compare recipes and find the best of the bunch. This, through lots of eating, sweat and dough, has produced my favorite cake book.

So, I would suggest finding recipe recommendations, narrowing them down, looking at ingredients (best chocolate cakes are the ones with a high liquid ratio) and start testing. You might want to start by checking out what the pastry chefs have to say on the matter at egullet.com. Cake central is to the home baker what egullet is to the culinary world.

well, i hate to break it to you nati but your a baker, at least according to the definition in the dictionary. i think you're confusing "baker" with a pastry chef.

dailey,
thanks so much for sharing that recipe, i cant wait to try it!!!

Nicole

Nati...

I just checked out your site!!! WOW!!! your cakes are wonderful!!!

Do you mind if I use some of your ideas????

So pretty!!!

Dailey - thanks for that recipe....I never have put cream cheese into one of the cakes (but sure have used a ton of it in my cheese cakes.....which are alll "scratch" )

Lisa - you said it best! Thanks!!

I use enhanced cake mix formula all the time, but I'm going to try the cream cheese recipe! Sounds good! Does the cream cheese affect the flavor?

your welcome! you can't "taste" the cream cheese, it just makes the cake rich and dense. another variation that i like is substituting a butter cake mix, or even yellow and replacing the oil with a stick of butter. this particular recipe is a favorite among 2 of my repeat customers. lastly, you should bake this cake at 325 as opposed to 350 as i had previously stated, sorry! this will help ensure the cake bakes more evenly as the addition of cream cheese makes it sink a bit. i'm actually going to try this recipe next week substituting crushed strawberries for the water, i have yet to find a strawberry cake that i enjoy.

I bake from only from scratch and get consistent, moist and yummy results every time. I have "my own" cookbook where I have all my recipes I have used for years and years and those are all I use. That's just how I grew up and still do it. I think the trick is to get a good set of recipes and stick to them. There are SO many to choose from and most are just not so good which can be discouraging to people trying to bake from scratch. Many times it not the baker, or that its from scratch its the recipe that is faulty. Of course sometimes, it is just personal taste.

That being said.... I love cake and as long as it tastes good I will eat it .....scratch. doctored, straight mix....whatever as long as its good! Me+Cake=Love

The most important thing is: We get to eat our mistakes!

I like scratch baking. I checkout books from the library and try the recipes. When I have to keep re-checking a book out, I ask for the book as a gift from family members for the next bday, christmas, mothers day, whatever.

Baking is Chemistry. It's hard, you have to get it right. In the back of the Cake Bible it explains about different ingredients and ratios and what each ingredient does for the cake.

My fave books so far are:

Whimsical Bakehouse -- for choc chip pound cake and IMBC
The Well Decorated Cake -- awesome Choc fudge and yellow cake
Sylvia Weinstock's Sweet Celebrations--Lady Baltimore white cake and Chocolate mouse that takes about 10 different bowls/pans and has about 16 steps.

Mrs Fish--I messed up IMBC at least 3 times before I got the hang of it.

Happy Baking!

Hey have any of you tried Alton Browns book. He is mr food science.... I may like that one more.

I wasn't thrilled with the Whimsical Cake House yellow cake recipe, but I'm not exactly thrilled with my baking skills either! I cannot, for the life of me, bake a good, consistent scratch cake. Maybe it's me, maybe it's my oven. Who knows? But I keep trying though!

Although it sounds as if many of you are tired of this subject, I thank you for all of the different view points. I just arrived home from work and pulled a box of mix out so that I could bake this evening and decorate to unwind. I am very new to decorating and it is my stress relief. I was thrilled to see this topic . I have a full time job and 5 children. I think doctoring a box is a perfect alternative for me at this point. Does anyone else have any doctoring recipes they could share or point me in the right direction?

For me, it is more rewarding to bake (and frost) from scratch....especially if its a carrot cake.

Naty

The most reliable cakes for me have always been rom the Magnolia Cookbook and More from Magnolia. I also have some vintage Softasilk recipe books that work great, but the Magnolia ones always come out fluffy, moist and tasty- not bland and dry and crumbly like many homemade cakes.

I do use boxed cake mixes often, though- most people expect them.

I have a real problem keeping scratch cakes moist!!! Anyone know any secrets????? I do have a recipie with a doctored mix and it is so moist and fluffy, probably my best tasting one. The only problem I have experienced with my doctored cake mix recipie is that they are not dense enough to use to stack (like for a wedding cake). Any hints on how to keep a cake moist I would appreciate!!!

Most scratch bakers use some kind of simple syrup that they spoon/pour/spray on the cakes to give them some moisture.

I perfer the cake mix route - the almond white cake that squirrlleycakes uses is the perfect consistency - dense but still very moist and delicious. (and uses a mix as it's base)