I tried an off brand of powdered sugar once and it was horrible. I could tell the difference. There is pure cane sugar and beet sugar and the off brands use beet sugar. I have used Sunny Select pure cane sugar and it was fine. Just beware of beet sugar.

Sometimes thought the "name brands" just dont work like they should. I cant get Toll House chocolate chips to make a smooth ganache ( i use Hersheys milk choc) and I cant make Jet Puff marshamllows melt smooth for MMF ( i use walmarts great value)

Ditto on Philadelphia Cream Cheese. I used the GFS brand (comes in a big 3lb box and when you make 8 lbs of cheeseball for a catering, it's darn convenient!). Hubby could tell a BIG difference and it was one of the few times I had leftover cheeseball at the event. After that, I unwrapped each of those rectangles of the Kraft Philly brand!

I used the Walmart brand choc cake mix as a base for my chocolate cookies. then walmart discontinued it. The grocery manager told me, when he broke the bad news to me, "I knew YOU'D be upset over the news!" I tried the name brand cake mixes .... DH and BC .... but they just didnt' work the same.

Linda, Junior's Cheesecakes only uses Philadelphia Cream Cheese and has stated that others are inferior.

ha ha ha Some of you guys are soooo funny. It cracks me up how we get these idea that a "brand" name is better than a Generic. The brand name is a brand name because they spent all that money on marketing to make their name a household name. They run commercials etc.

MANY MANY MANY of your "generic" or store brand products are manufactured by your favorite brand name companies. Nothing on the packaging tells you who manufactured it. Just who it was manufactured for. They are less expensive than the name brands because they don't spend as much on marketing, packaging, and advertising.

I've tried lots of different products during my lifetime and yes, there are certain products I like better than others. But I could never say that the "best" products were always name brand.

You should do your own little taste tests sometimes and see what happens. Just make sure you do a little "blind" taste test for yourself so you don't allow your pre-conceptions to taint the results. Then you'll know for sure if you definitely like one brand better than another or if you just think you do.

I LOVE generic brands when it comes to caking. Saves me money and tastes the same, I think. I do however use real vanilla from Mexico and farm fresh eggs.

Not only have I done taste tests, I have also done recipe testing. Trust me, at today's prices I would love to use the store brand butter over LOL. But in baking tests for cakes and frosting there was a noticeable difference.

Dole crushed pineapple and store brand. Both are 8 ounces. However the store brand has more juice than pineapple. I measured both to find out. It is not always taste. I am not paying for juice. Maybe Dole is the source for both, but they know how to slightly change something to sell to store brands. They are not going to give the sane standards to the store brand products.

High fructose corn syrup instead of real sugar is another example. I have yet to find a store brand product that does not contain it.

For some of us it is a matter of what ingredients we want to ingest. Because I can purchase ingestable items not laddened with chemicals or artificial ingredients is why I buy the stuff I do. It has nothing to do with their years of marketing and such. Afterall it is my money to spend.

It is true that many big companies make the store brands, but they cheapen them. Valspar used to be a respected paint company but they also made Lowe's name brand which was one of the worst on the market. Valspar dropped their quality line and gave their endorcement and name to the Lowe's brand. Still terrible paint, but higher volume with the name that used to be respected.

Generic flours and sugars are not as consistent in their processing, creating an inferior product. If you scratch bake and want consistent and the best results, food scientists will tell you to stay away.

I don't know of any celebrated cake or pastry chef that does not explain that the very best of every product should be used. There is a difference. It separates the great cakes from the good cakes. BUT, not every baker wants to cater to this clientele. My ingredient prices are about the retail prices of my area bakeries.

If you want the best taste with a few compromises on ingredient costs, here is my suggestion... Off brand sugar... run it through the processor to even out the granules. A few more spins and you have superfine sugar which is great for cakes. Get rid of all, even vanilla, "extracts" that are not real. The flour can be used if you are happy with the results. Off brand butters are usually inferior. A mix of off brand and name brand butter may be a good compromise. Splurge for vanilla bean paste in frostings. Even a 50/50 mix of extract and paste will make a big difference. As you experiment and are able to adjust your price, add the good stuff a little at a time.

Depending on where you buy it can make a diff, too.

I was 'educated' on why it was sometimes hit-n-miss on being able to find certain items at places like sam's club. Let me use Stouffer's just as an example. they make a batch of their frozen lasagna and discover they forgot to add the oregano. It's still perfectly good lasagna except for that little lack of oregano. They can't sell it in the regular stores, but places like sam's will buy up this non-conforming batch at a super low price. What a great deal ..... I buy 6 to put in my freezer.

A few months later, I want to restock my freezer with this great price lasagna but sam's isn't stocking it ..... because it was a one-time buy of a non-conforming product.

Same name brand .... not the same quality.

You definitely have to watch the Nestles and Hersheys chocolate chips - they've reformulated some of them to include less cocoa butter and more oil. Even their candy products have been changed so they now melt differently and have an awful (IMO) mouth feel. Many companies have been doing this since the laws were changed a few years ago to say how much of each ingredient is allowed for it to still be considered chocolate.

This is all very interesting, because I have absolutely NO brand loyalty whatsoever. I buy from my wholesaler and have products/lines that I prefer, but if I need it I buy what's available.

For chocolate chips, buy the chunks. The smaller the chip, the more the stabilizers... they hold the shape.

I only use eggs from my chickens and I have a wheat field beside my house--it costs a little extra to have it milled fine enough for cakes, but it is worth every penny. If my climate zone was correct I would grow the sugar cane and cacao. Oh and did I mention that I am FOS!

I'm a Duncan Hines girl--French Vanilla (doctored up a bit) is my base cake mix, they do have a strawberry that is excellent if you substitute 1/2 of the water with an equal amount of frozen strawberries (the kind in the tub)--I have people ADDICTED to my strawberry cake and will order just to have one around. I don't make high volumes of cakes, so I think using box mixes would get expensive if I did. Pillsbury stuff of all kinds is gross. Betty Crocker doesn't rise as much. I only use Domino powdered sugar, Land'O'Lakes butter, Crisco (oil and shortening), Dean and Deluca cocoa powder, Creme Bouquet flavoring, World Market (if there is one near you) has 2 good size vanilla beans in a pkg for $2.99 (if you only use 1, freeze the other), Philly cream cheese if the cream cheese is the star, if used in baking like marbled brownies, store brand works OK.

I had an interesting thing happen the first year I started doing cakes--I burned the motor out my stand mixer (this was before I got the KitchenAid) making chocolate icing late at night, so I quickly ran to the store and got some Duncan Hines Chocolate Buttercream in the can and used it. People RAVED about the icing on the cake, so that's all I use now for everyday cakes (it is hard to find, so I stock up when I find it). The Classic Chocolate and Dark Chocolate are too runny. It can't be used for anything with tiers, but is great for sheet cakes.

A cake never leaves my home without being frozen (un-iced), I have a freezer specifically for cakes. No son, you can't put those fish in there. I bought it (Whirlpool) online at ABT Appliances because locally all I could find was too shallow for 18" layers.

So am I not a real baker if I use boxes?

CakewardHo, I love your sense of humor. You make laugh!

You can call me "Ho" for short--lots of people do.

There are certain products, that I buy Brand name only. But I really like the "Always Save or Best Choice brand" of Powdered Sugar, I have tried several brands, but for my Buttercream recipe this one is the best, it is also the cheapest. I have told others about this store brand and most have agreed. Chocolate is another funny item, I sometimes get good results and then there is total failure. I didn't know about the Nestle chocolate either, Thanks for the info.