I usually try to stick with duncan hines, I personally think they are the all around best mix, I dont personaly like straw mix of any kind except dh, I as a 100% box cake mix only user and lover do taste an artifical flavor in most other straw cake mixes, so I guess that the scratch bakers taste that in all boxed mixes. I am pretty sensitive to taste as well, I know a real can of coke from a generic brand, I can not stomach any diet sugars either.

This is an interesting thread, especially the discussions about the supertasters and the non tasters. Maybe someone can explain this to me.
I think coffee smells good.
I do not like to drink coffee, leaves a terrible taste in my mouth (please don't post "but you haven't tried so and so's")
When we drive by a skunk on the the road that has been hit, it smells like coffee to me, always has, ever since I was a child.

Jibbies

jibbies that is so funny! i'm glad i finally found someone else that agrees with me as i have said the same thing about coffee and skunks my whole life, lol! i do not care for coffee at all. i'm a tea drinker all the way.

in response to the op i like duncan hines the best. i use a doctored recipe by crissandracakes on the wilton website i found when i took the wilton classes earlier this year. i love it and people request it over and over. i do agree that it's all a matter of personal taste, much like vanilla over chocolate or strawberry over banana...

I can also taste the box flavor of boxed cakes. I am still looking for a great yellow and butter scratch mix. Everyone I've tried so far, I can taste the flour I guess. It just do not have that taste that makes you want to eat .

Sweettreats, I understand what you're saying about tasting like flour. Someone else referred to it as too "earthy". That's what I usually don't like about scratch cakes I've made. They have a taste of raw flour that is just not appealing to me (plus mine often turn out flat - I must not bake at the right temperature or something).

I don't detect a chemical taste in most box mixes except strawberry, which I think tastes artificial and absolutely ghastly. I think strawberry is a difficult flavor to replicate. I like most of the Betty Crocker mixes, including the Golden Vanilla that one poster hated so much. : ) I think the milk chocolate just doesn't taste like anything. It doesn't have enough cocoa in it to make it very good. I don't think the BC Chocolate Fudge has enough cocoa, either. I add additional melted chocolate to both. I ALWAYS doctor my mixes now and I love the added richness and more substantial texture. But the next time I bake one I'm going to taste very carefully for this "chemical" taste and see if I can pick up on it.

I bake from scratch for my business but will doctor a cake mix if I'm baking at home for my kids' school party or fun Friday treats. In my opinion, yellow cake mix is the worst. A doctored yellow mix doesn't even come close to a good scratch yellow cake. Not only is the flavor off but the texture and color as well. A scratch yellow cake isn't nearly as yellow as a box mix. To me the color is the biggest give away if you use it to doctor a mix.

I think the best way to make a doctored cake work for you as a scratch baker is to use a quality filling and buttercream. If you use a good scratch filling, it brings the flavors together and makes the doctored mix work.

I love ease and consistency of the box/pre-mixed cake mixes, and the only issue I really have with scratch is because it always has a floury taste to it.

I do see how some people could tell the difference, same as one can with homemade vs. the refrigerated pre-baked store bought cookie doe's...

metrocakes, I would love to try ur scratch yeelow cake if possible. Wouild you please IM me

I just bought 11 cases of Betty Crocker Golden Vanilla 'cuz it was on sale and it's my most requested cake flavor and my favorite--everybody's different that's for sure!!!!

Well let me put my two cents in, I have always been a scatch baker for over 30 years. I can tell the difference from a mix and a scatch cake. The best mix (And this is just my opinion) is DH golden butter recipe. To me it taste more homemade after adding sour cream, milk, butter and Watkins vanilla.

I couldn't tell you if a cake was scratch or box. I use box, and I like it, and I especially like WASC. I've made scratch cakes and they were dry, and my family didn't like them. Then I've had other people's boxed mix cakes, and danged if they weren't dry too. I mean, it took me a while to be able to make a good box cake!

Even though I am a cake maker and teacher, the box vs. scratch cake debate doesn't hold a candle however, to the stove-top vs. microwave popcorn debate, IMHO. Ever taste most other popcorn vs. stove-top popcorn? No comparison. The only micro popcorn worth buying is Pop-Secret Homestyle. The absolute best micro popcorn ever that comes even close to stove top.

And don't get me started on REAL kettle corn vs. micro kettle corn....if there were a hell for popcorn it would be micro kettle corn....Sorry. It's a sore subject for me, the whole popcorn thing.

Well let me put my two cents in, I have always been a scatch baker for over 30 years. I can tell the difference from a mix and a scatch cake. The best mix (And this is just my opinion) is DH golden butter recipe. To me it taste more homemade after adding sour cream, milk, butter and Watkins vanilla. But I'm glad that after finding this site I will doctor up a mix but only DH. It's a matter of taste. Everyone has different tastes and likes.

double post.

Well let me put my two cents in, I have always been a scatch baker for over 30 years. I can tell the difference from a mix and a scatch cake. The best mix (And this is just my opinion) is DH golden butter recipe. To me it taste more homemade after adding sour cream, milk, butter and Watkins vanilla.

I couldn't tell you if a cake was scratch or box. I use box, and I like it, and I especially like WASC. I've made scratch cakes and they were dry, and my family didn't like them. Then I've had other people's boxed mix cakes, and danged if they weren't dry too. I mean, it took me a while to be able to make a good box cake!

Even though I am a cake maker and teacher, the box vs. scratch cake debate doesn't hold a candle however, to the stove-top vs. microwave popcorn debate, IMHO. Ever taste most other popcorn vs. stove-top popcorn? No comparison. The only micro popcorn worth buying is Pop-Secret Homestyle. The absolute best micro popcorn ever that comes even close to stove top.

And don't get me started on REAL kettle corn vs. micro kettle corn....if there were a hell for popcorn it would be micro kettle corn....Sorry. It's a sore subject for me, the whole popcorn thing.

I like Duncan Hines for white or yellow cakes. I've tried several white and yellow scratch recipes (some from the "big name" decorators) and I haven't found one yet that doesn't taste like cooked flour - bland and just icky tasting - and the texture is always SO heavy.

I've found some great chocolate scratch recipes (Colette Peters Chocolate Bourbon Cake is FAB-U-LOUS, for one) so I normally do those but I will occasionally do a chocolate cake using the Darn Good Chocolate Cake recipe from the Cake Mix Doctor book, but for white or yellow I go with Duncan Hines and doctor it up.

I like the smell of Pine-Sol. It makes my house smell so clean. My poor 22-year-old daughter says it's the smell of her childhood. The smell of fresh baked bread might have been nicer, but nope. It's Pine-Sol for her!

cakesbylj:

so sorry i spelled her name incorrectly but here's the link to the basic recipe.
http://www.wilton.com/forums/messageview.cfm?catid=3&threadid=89614&FTVAR_MSGDBTABLE=&STARTPAGE=1

there's also a really delicious chocolate one on page 6. i've used the basic recipe for just about every flavor DH makes with great success. i usually add some lorann flavors to make it even tastier. hth!

Just an interesting bit of info... If you look at Sugarshacks blog, she says that DH has changed their formula and do not work well with doctored cake mixes anymore, such as the WASC.

DH has always been my favorite taste wise..but I may have to try BC and see if the result is different.

I don't really know anyone who bakes from scratch any more. I would probably know if I had scratch, just because it would be different. I'm sure my preference would be box because it's what I know. Boxed mixes definitely have a smell, like a fake vanilla smell. I love the Cake Doctor recipes. I use a simple white cake from there with butter and milk in place of oil and water. I also use the Darn Good Chocolate Cake. Lately I've decided it's too rich so I may take the choco chips out. I've never had anyone complain that my cakes taste fake, and I only bake from doctored mixes.

I love all the scientific input about tastes! I'm not sure if I'm a supertaster or not. I can taste and smell the chemical artificial sweeteners, but I think pretty much anyone can. Because cane sugar upsets my stomach, I can definitely tell the difference between real sugar and high fructose corn syrup. I was eating some wonderful Snyder's Buffalo Wing pretzels when someone else pointed out that all they could taste was MSG. Ever since then, I can tell immediately if something has MSG in it, and I usually won't eat it. I recently made my friend try another brand of ranch flavored pretzels. Even after I described the MSG flavor (kind of vinegary), she still couldn't taste anything.

Cilantro tastes like soap to some people. There's a whole I Hate Cilantro community online! Scientific research is being done to see if it's a genetic thing.

Have you ever had one of those weird short circuits where something tastes like a color? Terriaki beef jerkey once tasted purple to me. I had that brand many, many times again and was never able to repeat the experience.

Huh, Indydebi. Never heard that one. I'm in Az and eat both Mexican food and Thai food (and cook) with cilantro. Never had so much it tasted like soap to me. Wonder how much is too much? Maybe I'll 'spike' my veggie lasagna (Dinner Doctor) I'm making tomorrow. Do a blind taste test on my guests?

Interesting about the cilantro. it explains so much since it is a flavor I HATE!!!! It does taste like soap.