I'm with you K8memphis! Just let everyone make the kind of cake they want to make. It doesn't mater!

way to go, k8! i have a feeling i know the exact thread that set you off, since i felt the same way when it was first posted 2 or 3 days ago...i rolled my eyes and clicked off, because i use both scratch and doctored mixes, and IF MY CAKE IS AT YOUR WEDDING, IT WILL BE DOCTORED WITH PUDDINGS AND CREAMERS AND SOME OTHER THINGS...THAT DOESN'T MAKE IT THE NASTIEST THING YOU'VE EVER PUT IN YOUR MOUTH.

(subtle, huh?)

in fact, just today, i dropped by the jobsite of next week's client to get her final payment...she said one of the ladies up front wanted to speak with me about making cakes for her family...when i walked up to her, she immediately commented that the samples i had brought in last week were the absolute best cake she had ever put in her mouth IN HER LIFE...wanna know what the recipe was? a devils food mix, doctored with kahlua and cinnamon, a couple ozs of appropriately flavored creamer, hershey's syrup, and lots of choc chips...i call it my triple fudge recipe. i topped it with a caramel flavored cream cheese. NASTY???? I THINK NOT.

OK everyone fess up to us not so "alert" members............what thread was so controversial that it warrants another one of "these" kind of threads?

You see if you don't want anyone to feel bad then perhaps these type of threads shouldn't get started at all. Doesn't it just keep adding "fuel to the fire" or "salt to an open wound"?


sara91, I agree with you SO much! I don't think it's just an Australian thing that some people care more about the "look" then the "taste"...........I feel that way almost everyday and it frustrates the heck out of me.

Here's how I feel......if you're going to spend 10 to 20 hours on a cake... that cake better be the best damned thing I ever tasted. I don't care if it looks flawless, that means nothing to me if it tastes like cardboard.

Mix or scratch whatever your pleasure, just make it delicious, that's my only requirement. If I'm going to eat those calories, they better be worth it
.
If you look at my photos it won't take you long to see that I put the "eating" before the "seeing" I figure that once they taste it, they'll forget about how bad it "looked". hehehehe

k8 I am with ya.......I have been blodied in several of those "discussions" I don't even read them now to save my own skin.

I guess I missed ALL the drama this week.

Just be proud of what you do and don't worry about it!

dkelly, I find it so frustrating, I should stop thinking about it. I have taught cake decorating classes and had numerous students from the most popular cake schools say they found the courses so stressful.

The teachers were so fussy to get everything perfect. It was not about the student enjoying the day and do it their way, the teacher took over and decorated the cake the 'perfect' way.

I think when learning cake decorating it should be about enjoyment and fun, not about achieving perfection.

Beginners spending hours crumb coating or ganching the cake to make it perfect, before the icing goes over the top. Get real!

When I go to a restuarant, I prefer food that looks rustic and natural, not completely over done. I don't want 10 sets of hands touching my food to make it pretty and manipulated. Same goes for cakes.

Anyway that is just my opinion. I am sure there are many who disagree.

I thought of another big one, more recently--which I thought I had rhinocerous hide by now but no, (I allowed) a poison dart to bite me in the butt. Where this big name decorator made a comment to the effect that if you 'taught yourself' and did not have a teacher/mentor you weren't very good. You had bad habits that were ingrained.

Eff tha-at.

I mean if your teacher was good you could learn some good stuff. But if your teacher sucked...hello-o.

I'm incredibly passionate about sugar art. It's been my best buddy and my worst nemesis just like has been the case for most of us.

But the times I got my hand slapped are not the 'nemesis' times. They only spurred me on, (ultimately) made me more determined. My nemesis times are the legality issues.

I apologize for being so introspective--I just wanted to 'splain this to Deb.

And there's 1300 look sees at this thread so it's of interest to someone--

OK what about the scratchists who are also buketists or canists because they don't have time to make their own icings...? Everybody has something they do great and something they rely on a manufacturer doing great enough to use consistantly. I don't know you didn't ground the flour yourself you didn't grow it either so we all start somewhere. I have had both terrible scratch and boxed cakes. I have also has tremendous scratch and boxed cakes so I don't thing there is a universally right and wronge way. There are many roads that lead to Rome and it would get a little crowded if we all tried to use the same one. Varie-tee is zee spice ov Life!

i just noticed either way we have to vote yes ha ha...

i've been here for over a year, and still can't believe everytime i see a thread "scratch vs mix" popping up now & then. don't they have better issues to discuss..

i'm a scratch baker, but none of my posts, not even one, that i criticized those who bake from mixes. to each his own. we are not robots or clones with the same tastebuds -- we are all unique, aren't we?

as long as the cake gets eaten, no crumbs left, it's fine, i'll say.

For the lack of better issues we get batter issues instead.
K8 we are all Batterists of one form or another ain't we now!

I'm just sitting here thinking that the cake mixinvixen described making last week sounds DELICIOUS! Now I want cake and I really DON'T care how it's made as long as it tastes good!!

huh?

Hot damn, now y'all are creating sub-species of cakers. Next we're going to have segre-cake-tion among us. Don't you see that it doesn't matter if it's boxed or scratch, fondant or bc, PSBC or SMBC? We all bleed the same when we use red buttercream.

Theresa

For example, my neice works at a Sam's Club bakery in a far distant city--I've seen her once in 20 years probably--it was so cool--she had me come in and make a rose for her--it was the best time--it could not have been cooler--I'd never in ten thousand years ask her to join me here or any cake board. Nev. er.

Sure she's a big girl (could take 'it') but I ain't asking her.
Who in their right mind would ask a loved one--even if you told 'em in advance what will for certain be said about the alleged crappy sh*tty disgusting low life cakes at the big box stores.

I may be perceived as worked up--but I'm not.

Get my neice on here and somebody start blasting and we'll see some kinda worked up. (I couldn't take it--I'd leave.) That hypothetical contrast will attest to the fact that I ain' t even close to worked up in any of these threads. It's certainly a part time passion of mine and I do like to lob in a few rounds--but I'm cool. Thanks though.

I too think those people are in the minority however there's only a little bit of poison in rat poison too so that does not an argument make.

And yes we do think our cakes are great and when someone disses them in general or specifically especially over a myth and ages old mass hysteria--I'll be there.

Or here--I think less drama is better--don't you?

Hey, if I'm a stylist, then soooooo be it. I don't even get this...is this thread seriously all drawn upon the very odd title of the post, which all I see is really a poll, with yes and yes answer...ok, I'm so lost.

So, yeah, I definitely shout it from the rooftop of why I am different and why i have repeat customers whilst others in my area fail to get off the ground.

**Scratch recipe cakes
**Un-packaged fondant
**Scratch fillings, no puddin, no lemon colored with extract piping gel filling here!
**The ability to actually sketch up something new instead of running to the Wilton yearbook for all of my ideas

I could go on.
If I didn't do these things...how would anyone choose me to be their decorator? Why wouldn't they go with cheapo down the street if I didn't promote my business as a step above the rest? Am I supposed to say "oh yeah, hey, so and so is just as good" I would be lying and doing my biz a huge disservice.

And this is a bad thing why?

And of course, my personal attitude about what I do with my business is not to be translated into what anyone else should be doing, in HERE, out there, anywhere. So please, let us not categorize my comments into any type of "hate speech against box mix users, or anything else" Everyone in here is awesome, and should do exactly what they feel they need to do for themselves. Free thinking and action is an awesome thing.

K8 -

Yeah, I've made negative comments about supermarket cakes. I'm guilty. But it's only because of the taste of them. I have never faulted those who decorate them, since I am aware that they can only work with the tools and supplies they are given.

I've seen the private work of those same decorators here in the CC galleries, and when they do cakes outside the job, the love shows through. Their work is impressive, because their creative juices, stifled at work, are allowed to flow.

Theresa

Damn I am lost...ok, K8, did you start this?? I need to go reread. So confused.

Yeah...ok, silly me. Yep...I agree. People who really honestly bash others for their style is uncool. It's too bad it continues.

No, I'm not an elitist cake pig....only when it comes to my biz...heh heh, slightly. Gotta be. Not in here, that's for sure.


YIKES! K8..I'm with ya!

Dizzy much Jamie? Too many swirls? Darling you are supposed to twirl your turn table and not you around your cakes...

I normally just avoid threads about box vs. scratch but this one looked interesting.

I do whatever works best. I love to cook and I love to bake. I had 2 grandmothers, one of them baked but, bless her heart, she couldn't cook worth a darn. My other grandmother was a fantastic cook but she really didn't bake much. I like to say that, fortunately for me, I inherited my love of baking and cooking from both of them.

I LOVE to cook everything from scratch but, there are time and other constraints and I can't always cook the way I want.

I started out baking all of my cakes from scratch but time constraints got in the way when I first started baking.

Now, I'm still experimenting with recipes and would love to bake all of my cakes from scratch because that's what I LOVE to do but sometimes, it just doesn't turn out as well. So I find what works best for me and that's what I do.

I have had people tell me that they only like boxed cakes and don't like scratch. As long as it tastes great, it doesn't really matter to me. Taste is the most important factor. And since I like crafty things, cake decorating is the "icing on the cake" - pun intended.

Everyone have a great day and great caking!!!

Yeah...I'm gonna rename myself "I don't read through threads before replying"...hee hee. It's the elevation...not used to it.

Ask my DH where MY birthday cake comes from every year........my local grocery store "Stop and Shop". I request it.............I know I'll get stoned by some of you for this, but hey I like their cakes.


I'll admit that my feelings were hurt by some things people were saying about scratch bakers..........ironically, some of the things you k8 said about scratch baking/bakers were also hurtful to me.

But, I'm a big girl and I've gotten over it. I can't control what others think or say and I'm certainly not going to let some people's (generic people) narrow mindedness bother me again.

I'm proud of what I do and I hope everyone else feels the same way. Being proud of our abilities and accomplishments is not a bad thing.........rubbing someone's face in it is not so cool.

"the meek shall prosper" are words to live by.....................

I dont think any comments in this thread are putting down scratch bakers. Its putting down the attitude that some people have that their product is superior and anything else is crap. That attitude is fine. If that is what you think, keep it in your own head. Its just hurtful, and quite snobbish, to put someone down for the techniques they use.

This is a fun site. There are novices and professionals. I like that I can help some people just beginning to decorate. I have the utmost respect for all of you. And why not? I would not want to be treated in such a way, so I will never treat anyone else that way.

All of your comments are so right on, though. So we really all agree we just want to be treated kindly, and who doesnt?

As far as grocery store cakes, some are bad, and some are good! I work at a bakery that is known in my area to produce the BEST cakes out of any of its competition. And its true. It is really good. I mean, WASC is better, lol, but if someone put me down for working at a grocery store I would feel horrible because I am really proud of my bakery and the work that I do there.

I am glad this thread got started. I dont think it is adding fuel to the fire, but more of an attempt to extinguish the flame that has, apparently, been around for quite some time.

Kudos to the non-snobs!

Could I just point out how very lucky you all are if that is the worst problems you have .........who the heck cares, if its good cake...eat it