Scratch Or From The Box?

Baking By CandiBakes Updated 21 Jan 2014 , 12:41am by MBalaska

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CandiBakes Posted 20 Jan 2014 , 8:33pm
post #1 of 6

Do you bake your cakes from scratch or are you using a box cake (betty crocker)? Do you focus more on baking or decorating your cake? Or both? Just curious. :-) 

5 replies
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Godot Posted 20 Jan 2014 , 8:45pm
post #2 of 6

AScratch. A cake is only as good as the sum of its ingredients. It doesn't mstter how gorgeous a cake is - it doesn't matter if it's not good.

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postexchangecat Posted 20 Jan 2014 , 8:48pm
post #3 of 6

Scratch, Agree with Godot its all depends on ingredients :).

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cakeyouverymuch Posted 20 Jan 2014 , 10:12pm
post #4 of 6

Scratch.  My mother wasn't much of a baker when I was young, but cakes were always scratch, and I just cannot get used to the texture of box. 

 

I even use scratch recipes for pudding cakes (the ones where you pour the liquid over the top of the batter and the cake rises up through the liquid that turns into a pudding under the cake).

 

As to baking or decorating: all I have to say is that if your focus is one OR the other you're not going to be in business long.

 

That said, I have no problem at all eating an ugly cake.  Though I'd never try to sell an ugly cake, there is no cake so ugly that whipped cream won't make it edible.  There is, however, no amount of decoration and no application of whipped cream that will make up for a cake that just plain tastes bad.  Whether its a badly made scratch cake (not all recipes are created equal), or a chemical tasting box cake there is only one place for a cake that tastes bad, and that's the trash bin.

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-K8memphis Posted 20 Jan 2014 , 10:12pm
post #5 of 6
my opinion is that i try to not exclude any potential viable resource--might not be my plan A but i want all the tools i can get--cake mix companies have budgeted millions of dollars over the years for their research & development teams--who am i to argue with those kind of resources--to me there's a time and place for cake mix cakes--scratch cakes typically are not as versatile not as resilient-
 
i have had some memorably miserable scratch cakes--i can still taste the egg white--it's not for everyone--when it's done right it is indeed a beautiful thing--but so is a cake mix cake when  it's done right--personally i think it's the fillings and icings that take a cake over the top-- the cake itself is often the canvas for the paint--

 

also some people think freezing cakes is a sin against god--again i don't want to limit myself to not use freezers--srsly freezers are vital pieces of equipment--

 

likewise some hate shortening, 3" cake pans, quarter sheets, square cakes, there are tons of phobias tons--my suggestion is to keep as much of an open mind as possible--there are things i do well that peeps on here say are impossible--i'm so glad i grew up before the computer age--

 

:)

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MBalaska Posted 21 Jan 2014 , 12:41am
post #6 of 6

I've learned to bake it all, and embrace the difference.  Mostly because everyone else likes something different and I'd make what pleases them, as I make things for gifts.

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