I have never made a cake from scratch before but I've always wanted to. Whenever I watch those cake shows on food network the cakes look so nice and firm and easy to work with but whenever I make a cake using a box mix it always seems to come out too soft and crumbly and hard to frost etc... What's the best cake type to make, box or scratch?? 
This is a delicate question. You will find people on here who adore box mixes and those of us that are strictly scratch bakers. I am personally a scratch baker. Scratch cakes do tend to be denser ( I mainly make butter cakes).
I do love the Hershey's Chocolate Cake, the flavor is wonderful and I am not a chocoalte person.
I have a white cake recipe that I LOVE...it is in the Betty Crocker Recipe book. It is called Silver White Cake. It is dense and has great flavor. But I tried many different scratch cakes previously and just did not like any of them. So just be patient, I am now only a scratch baker...(unless budget comes into play...boxes are faster to get together...)
i find that working with a box mix "as is" to too difficult to work with. it crumbles too much and is a pain to decorate.
then i discovered the WASC recipe!!...it is based on a box cake with other ingredients added to make it more dense
http://www.recipezaar.com/69630
this is the only box-cake recipe in my records though, as i prefer to make scratch cakes.
Thanks very much for that suggestion staceyboots! I will try that one and maybe I will even get sassy and try using a filling with it too! So you think it would be okay to make this a week ahead if time and freeze it until the day I need it? I've never done that before, so cakes that have been frozen come out okay? Thanks for your hlp everyone!
glad to help!
of course, you can go ahead and freeze the cake. as far as i can remember, i made a WASC cake and froze it for about 2 days before decorating it. check out the link below on freezing and feel free to ask any questions...CC'ers are always here to help!
http://www.cakecentral.com/cake-decorating-ftopict-590076-.html
i've never had much luck with scratch cakes. they always came out really dry and my family wouldn't eat them.
using a box mix "as-is" is WAY TOO soft. and not dense at all.
i've started using this recipe and use it for ALL flavors:
1 box cake mix (any flavor)
1 box pudding mix (4 serving size) in a flavor to match or compliment the cake
4 eggs
1/2 cup veg oil
1/2 cup water or milk
1 cup sour cream
it makes a really moist yet firm and dense cake. i've not had any problems with it. i get so many compliments on how yummy, moist and delicious my cakes are.
I love the vanilla butter cake that is on here from the Mermaid Bakery (she is a CC member). It was my first ever scratch cake and was a delicous success!!
http://www.cakecentral.com/cake_recipe-4313-Vanilla-Butter-Cake-from-The-Mermaid-Bakery.html
I also like the Hershey chocolate cake from the back of the cocoa box. I have the WBH book and might try a chocolate butter cake this week when I make cupcakes for my SIL's 30th birthday. I'll let you know how it comes out.
I was a box-mix-extender-baker before this cake, now I'm a scratch girl! It's all what you like, what you are used to, what you want to do. Definitely personal preference, not necessarily what's right or wrong.
I reall like David's Yellow Cake from here on CC. This is one of the yummiest yellow cakes I've ever made. In fact, I made a wedding cake with it and it was perfect. Everyone raved about it. http://www.cakecentral.com/cake_recipe-1216-Davids-Yellow-Cake.html My family loves it. For chocolate I also use the Hershey's recipe.
There are a couple of big threads, with recipes, on scratch cakes in the archives.
Theresa 
There are a couple of big threads, with recipes, on scratch cakes in the archives.
Theresa
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