Your Preference For Ur Business - Cake Mix Or From Scratch?
Business By surfergina Updated 24 Apr 2006 , 3:28am by FancyLayne23
I figure if I'm charging a hefty amount of money for a dessert, it better be good!
I agree 100% - that is why most of mine are from a mix - always predictable, and always rave reviews. (and those of us who use mixes actually make good money selling them too!) 
I don't have a fridge at the market...the only baked goods I sell there are cupcakes, muffins, scones, cookies and bread. I have a pamphlet that I hand out with a menu listing all the cakes, cookies and pastry (along with custom cake orders) that they can order from me. I do have several large coolers at the market to store the eggs that I sell, and I also sell vegetables and home-canned stuff. Check with your state's department of agriculture about their rules for selling at farmer's markets - they're usually about the same for the one's regarding domestic kitchens. In Pennsylvania, I have a food safety course certificate, a license from the department of agriculture, and a home-inspection certificate. I don't need to have a separate kitchen or any special adaptations to my existing kitchen.
the only baked goods I sell there are cupcakes, muffins, scones, cookies and bread.
I make all of those things from "scratch" also. I put a lot of fresh fruit in my muffins and scones - but then I make sure to tell folks that buy them that they should be refrigerated....those are very perishable.
What is your favorite kind of yeast for your breads? I like the Hodgson Mill brand. We also can get fresh ground whole wheat flour from Great Harvest Bread Company in Columbus. What (if you don't mind telling us) are the most popular breads that you sell?
I like Hodgson Mill and good old Red Star yeast. I use King Arthur flour pretty much for everything, although I really like Bob's Red Mill flours and grains for specialty breads. I also occasionally sell sourdough bread made from a starter I started from grapes about five years ago. That's always a big hit! The most popular breads that are sell at the market are olive oil and garlic foccacia, pumpkin walnut gruyere foccacia (from an issue of Cooking Light), cinnamon braid with vanilla glaze, and a white loaf made with buttermilk and wheat germ. Since I raise chickens, alot of my breads have an egg thrown in even if the original recipe dosen't call for one!
I like Bob's Red Mill too, but I can only get them in the 16 ounce package here, and that doesn't go far when making bread! (they have lots of varieties and the odd grains too!)
I love a good sourdough bread too. There aren't many folks that can keep a starter going very long. I make friendship cakes with that - I have starter that my mother gave me several years ago - not sure where she got it from though.
I sure wish I had a source for good farm fresh eggs all year long. I have a place, but it is a drive - it's much easier in the summer time when she is at the farmer's market too! I bet your breads are to die for!
I am not a business... I occasionally do cakes for friends and family and friends compensate me for the cakes...
That said, those people that I mainly catered to are hispanic, mainly from Puerto Rico or Cuba, and they LOVE the taste of a scratch cake soaked in simple syrup.. especially with almond extract and Brandy and Amaretto liquors.
Like someone already said here, they say that it reminds them of the cakes they used to eat when they lived in Puerto Rico and/or Cuba.
So, if I had a business, it would be scratch cakes.
I order from Bob's Red Mill online. I can get some of their stuff at the local Giant Eagle, but the mark-up is ridiculous because they sell it in the organic section. I usually freeze any extra sourdough starter that I have, and keep a bit in the fridge to use whenever I need it. It does take some patience to work with, but the satisfaction you get knowing that it's wild yeast that you captured and grew is really cool! I'm a scientist by day (and a big geek!) so making my own starter was like some big microbiology experiment for me. 
I have used a doctored recipe from the cake mix doctor and did not prefer it to good old Pillsbury cake mix. It has a good texture for carving as well. I do doctor my chocolate cake mixes with extra oil and sour cream because otherwise they are just too dry.
I am not a business... I occasionally do cakes for friends and family and friends compensate me for the cakes...
That said, those people that I mainly catered to are hispanic, mainly from Puerto Rico or Cuba, and they LOVE the taste of a scratch cake soaked in simple syrup.. especially with almond extract and Brandy and Amaretto liquors.
Like someone already said here, they say that it reminds them of the cakes they used to eat when they lived in Puerto Rico and/or Cuba.
So, if I had a business, it would be scratch cakes.
Hi, I would be interested in a recipe or two. I have a few friends nearby that have asked for cakes soaked like you mentioned. One is from Puerto Rico and the other is from the Dominican Republic. If you wouldn't mind sharing your recipes I would love to make a cake like that for them. [email protected]
Kat
flytrap77:
Sure. I will send a couple of recipes as soon as I can. 
I have Cake Mix Doctor......but honestly, some of the recipes have so much "stuff" added that I feel like I might as well do scratch! There are some good ones in there tho. My daughter bought "101 Things To Do With A Cake Mix" for me, and it's 90% POKE CAKES! Don't get that one!
I use mostly mixes, but add an extra egg or two and increase the oil or butter. I use real butter.
Also, my favorite BC icing has butter in it and I think this really improves the flavor of the icing. The only time I don't use the butter is for true white icing. The butter alters the color. I also use cream for the liquid in my BC instead of milk or water.
Good Luck!
I currently use mostly mixes because I haven't mastered a cake from scratch. Everything tastes like flour (I must be doing something wrong) except my carrot cake so that I do from scratch. That's why I am taking a few culinary courses.
Once I open a storefront though I would only bake from scratch. I think it adds to my "standing out from the competition". I know of local bakeries who decorate beautiful cakes but use cake mixes and have heard some people are turned off by that. I wouldn't want to be known by the fact that I use cake mixes and there's Betty Crocker boxes in my dumpster. Just my opinion though. I also plan to use local products (local dairy farmers, local egg farms, etc) to add to my selling point.
I think where those bakeries get into that reputation is by using those horrid generic cake mix things. I don't think that using a name brand one and adding to it will be a bad idea. I don't have much luck with the scratch cakes, but have rave reviews with the doctored mixes. I would not change what works for me just because I moved to a different location. My reputation is built on what I am doing now, and I would not want that to change. (just my opinion here!)
Hey izzybee,
Would you mind sending me the White Cake Recipe? [email protected]. I have been looking for a good recipe!
I find the doctored cake mixes are the best, and people always think they are from scratch! I always add espresso powder into the water for chocolate, and always substitute the oil with sour cream. Makes a fab chocolate cake! As far as a white cake I have a great recipe that is full proof everytime! You can IM me for it if you would like.
CAN YOU ALSO SEND ME THE RECIPE, I have try some recipe and they come out either to dry or no taste at all 
........ [email protected] thank you
I think the key is adding to it also. I have started selling cakes (right now I'm just a wedding supply business) so I agree with you, I wouldn't start doing something one way and then change. That's one reason I haven't started selling cakes, I need to have my set recipes first.
I am a mix gal myself 99% of the time. (Pillsbury; used to be Duncan Hines until they changed their mix.)
Someone mentioned that many people are used to (and prefer) mixes in the US because they feel it is a moister cake. From experience and comments made by customers I agree with that observation. That's not to say that mixes are better than scratch (of course not!); that's just to say that my target market is used to (and likes) cakes from mixes.
So I don't feel guilty about using a mix because I've been given plenty of positive feedback on taste; my business is all by word of mouth; and I am honest about the fact I bake from a mix.
I admire people who bake from scratch. Not my thing though! (Not now anyway.) There is a market for both ways.
Hey izzybee,
Would you mind sending me the White Cake Recipe? [email protected]. I have been looking for a good recipe!
I find the doctored cake mixes are the best, and people always think they are from scratch! I always add espresso powder into the water for chocolate, and always substitute the oil with sour cream. Makes a fab chocolate cake! As far as a white cake I have a great recipe that is full proof everytime! You can IM me for it if you would like.
CAN YOU ALSO SEND ME THE RECIPE, I have try some recipe and they come out either to dry or no taste at all
........ [email protected] thank you
Okay, I will send them soon. This are recipes I have used for a long time so they have been tried and tested.....
Okay, I will send them soon. This are recipes I have used for a long time so they have been tried and tested.....
As long as you're emailing things out, I'd love a copy. [email protected] Thanks!
I've been a "scratch snob" for a long time, but I'm getting more practical as I get older (especially since most people seem amazed that I put anything in the oven and decorated it myself--they don't care whether I made it from scratch or from a box). Plus, I live in Denver and have had some spectacular failures (I assume from the altitude) with scratch cakes. Mixes just seem to perform better.
Izzybee I would also love your white cake mix recipe please e-mail me at [email protected]. Thank you so much
izzybee, I hate to bother you with another e-mail, but could you please send your recipe to [email protected] - Thanks!
I really don't see how anyone is CHEATED by getting a cake that starts from a box mix. It takes just as much talent, time and money to make, bake and decorate one that has a box mix as an ingredient as it does one from scratch. It is not right that some folks try to belittle those who choose to do their baking that way. I do it all the time, and never do I feel as though my clients are being cheated. And I have NEVER had a complaint about any of my cakes. It is up to the individual baker as to how she/he chooses to make their product, and just because some choose to use a mix - does not mean they are less of a baker.
I love scratch cakes because I like to use fresh organic ingredients and high quality cocoa. I find that it's NOT us bakers who belittle each other for using one or the other...it's customers. JMHO.
And It DOESN'T take as much money to bake scratch vs. a box mix. I tell my customers they get high quality cakes made from scratch because I use high quality ingredients such as callebaut or valhrona chocolate and madagascar bourbon vanilla which is NOT nearly the same as Hershey's cocoa or bakers chocolate or imitation vanilla extract! So, when I charge customers, it's not only for my time, but for the ingredients I use.
Besides, don't you want to be able to offer your customers not only a cake that you took the time to decorate, but one that you baked without the help of supermarket brand cake boxes?
My preference is scratch cakes and yours might be cake mixes...but I guaranttee you...it's NOT the same...but whatever you use, you're still "baking" so it doens't make you any less of a baker in that sense.
I only use high quaility ingredients in my cakes also - just because I use a cake mix as a base in most of my cakes does NOT mean that I use cheap ingredients. I use the high dollar vanilla and chocolate also - so you see my cakes are not "cheap" either.
I have been baking cakes for over 25 years and NEVER once have I had a complaint from a customer. If I didn't tell them - they would never have known there was a mix in it to begin with. I also find it is very rare that a customer asks exactly what is in the cake.
You think yours is better because it is all organic that is fine - you go ahead and think that. I know with my business I have never had a complaint, and my cakes always get rave reviews. It is not right that people say that because a mix is used - the cake is cheap and the customer is being cheated. That is NOT the case.
One way is not better than the other, no matter how you make them. If the customer is happy that is the bottom line.
Another request Izzybee for your white cake recipe please if you dont mind [email protected] . Thank you Izzybee
I don't usually get into this stuff, but this is getting funny. and Whoa!!! Easy there, Quadcrew. You're taking this way too personal I don't think any one (including myself) used implied or thinks that we are "better" as you put it. The person who started the forum asked what our preferences were. I don't think anyone was calling you "cheap", but it sure sounds like you were calling some people on here "snobs"...do what you like, man...it's YOUR preference.
Just another note though...when you said customers don't "ask" exactly what's in the cake...where I'm from, we have health regulations
where you must label your products with ALL ingredients used for reasons such as allergies, etc. Or if you sell at farmers markets, you must have a list of all your ingredients available for customers to see...
Understand, please, that this is a forum and someone asked a question...so when someone gives their opinion as to what they prefer...they're doing just that and not calling you cheap or a cheater or less of a baker.
just for the record....I use all cheap ingredients!!! and cake mix too!!!
but I dont sell them.....but when I do...don't you worry I will stick to the cheap stuff!!!
I'm trying to do all scratch cakes just because I think that's a big selling point in my area. My tastebuds prefer the moist-ness of a doctored cake mix, but little by little, tweaking my recipes, I'm getting the taste I want. Also, I started using mexican vanilla in my recipes and it makes a world of difference!!!! However, I still haven't found a scratch strawberry cake that I like, they're just all too dry.
I don't usually get into this stuff, but this is getting funny. and Whoa!!! Easy there, Quadcrew. You're taking this way too personal
I don't think any one (including myself) used implied or thinks that we are "better" as you put it. The person who started the forum asked what our preferences were. I don't think anyone was calling you "cheap", but it sure sounds like you were calling some people on here "snobs"...do what you like, man...it's YOUR preference.Just another note though...when you said customers don't "ask" exactly what's in the cake...where I'm from, we have health regulations
where you must label your products with ALL ingredients used for reasons such as allergies, etc. Or if you sell at farmers markets, you must have a list of all your ingredients available for customers to see...
Understand, please, that this is a forum and someone asked a question...so when someone gives their opinion as to what they prefer...they're doing just that and not calling you cheap or a cheater or less of a baker.
Well said cupcakequeen!!!.
Thanks, everyone! You all made senses that doctored cake mix is a way to go, for both better tasting and time saver. I have tried to make it from scratch, but not as good as the cake mix.
I'm going to check with my library and see if they have any doctor cake mix cookbook. Any suggestion? Cake Mix Magic or Cake Doctor?
Again, thanks for your generous opinion!
I have the cake mix doctor and every cake I've made from it has been excellent... I picked up another book called the The Cake Mix Bible... I haven't made any cakes from it yet, but they look pretty darn good in the pictures. It also has some cute ways to decorate your cake.
My belief on this issue is do what your customers want... When I was doing this a business I was using mixes and plenty of business.. Lots of referrals and returning customers!! That says a lot. I offered a good product and my customers were happy!! I had one bride ask me if I baked from scratch... I had no trouble telling her the truth and she still booked with me!! If you have a good product (scratch or mix) and people are coming back for more, there's no need to feel guilty or feel like your cheating them!!
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