I'm doing a wedding in two weeks and the bride wants a 14", and a 10" Red Velvet cake, made from a recipe that she gave me. The recipe doesn't sound right, plus I have to also make a a few white cakes for her too! I've never had Red Velvet cake, but from looking at the ingredients, its a lot of work, especially for two pretty good sized cakes, food coloring alone!!
What do I do? Are the box versions the same. I'm tight on a budget of what I can afford to do. Feeling overwhelmed. Not even sure if there is an answer and I just needed to vent. 
Did you agree to use her recipe when you accepted the order? Before you priced it?
If you priced the cake-- then she requested you use her recipe, I would charge more...
When the red velvet cake mixes came out we did a taste test I made a scratch red velvet and a box one both had the same homemade redvelvet frosting.
Then we had 5 couples for the neighborhood come test them
The results ?
everyone said they tasted the same that we could all agree on
Those who had it before like the scratch cake. It was just like Moms. it was a denser moister cake than the bos
Those who had it for the first time like the box cake they said it was lighter and not as dense as the scratch cake.
so if she gave you the recipe YES she will know the difference
Before there was a box mix there was 3 ways to make a red velvet cake
scratch a white cake mix with red food coloring added and a few Tablespoons of cocoa or a choc cake mix with red food coloring you see that alot in church cook books from the 70's but the scratch is always what they think of when Mom or Grandma made it
The only way would be to make one and have her taste it....
Did you agree to use her recipe when you accepted the order? Before you priced it?
If you priced the cake-- then she requested you use her recipe, I would charge more...
I agree but if you have already agreed to it you need to do it, no real difference to me if you gave her chocolate instead of red vel. its the cake she wanted.
Just a thought
~Alicia
If it was my wedding and I gave someone a recipe to bake for my wedding cake, I would not want them to try to save money by giving me a box mix instead.
If the recipe doesn't sound right to you, you should question it with her. Maybe it's a family recipe and that's the way they like it to taste. Or maybe she made a mistake when she wrote it down for you.
IMO, there's nothing wrong with box mixes, but to me substituting without her permission would be like someone ordering yellow cake but you give them chocolate instead because it's on sale.
Just my opinion.
We were having a huge discussion here about red velvet cakes at the beginning of the week-I would DEFINITELY know the difference between my granny's recipe and a box. It's not even in the same league-but it's because I grew up with that cake, not because I'm slamming anyone's box recipe!! If you do a search on this site for red velvet cake, you will get recipes to see if hers is similar, MANY varying opinions, and probably more than you ever needed to know. Good luck to you-I would probably have to quadruple my recipe to make a 14" tier, but I wouldn't quadruple the food color. I would add a little more buttermilk or water.
Thanks for the advice. I agree, I don't want to fool her with a box if her fiance loves this recipe.
I compared it to the ones on here and the ratios are way off. 1 1/2 C of Shortning? only 1 1/4 cups of flour? Sounds gross to me.
I did talk to her and I'm going to make a small cake of each: scratch vs. box and let her decide.
Thanks everyone!
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