I was thinking the same thing. 
What if they like the grocery store cake better? Some people here have grown up on Publix cakes and that's all they will eat. It's kind of like your mom's cooking. You like what you're used to. 
It would definitely be interesting, though!
I was thinking the same thing.
What if they like the grocery store cake better? Some people here have grown up on Publix cakes and that's all they will eat. It's kind of like your mom's cooking. You like what you're used to. It would definitely be interesting, though!
Agree it would be interesting! Maybe do this with a group of friends ... don't tell 'em what's up.
It's a very good point that it could depend on what a person is used to. Put a mix cake and a scratch cake side by side and I'd probably pick the mix cake everytime. (I'm not starting THAT debate! Just pointing out that "what you're used to" is a a factor.)
(fee charged of course) --
you bought a very small cake from the local grocery store
and then served a piece of it along side a piece of your cake.
Would that kill the "oh but grocery store cake is so much cheaper" lament?
Did you try this Doug?
I have to agree... i would maybe try it on a couple of friends or family but not a bride...because then you kinda screw yourself if they say they like the store bought one better
Hey wait a minute! We're missing the boat here! If they DO like the store bought cake, then we just buy it at the grocery, take a couple of hours to decorate it and BOOM! Profit, baby, profit!!
(I'm kidding, gang! I'm kidding!! )
I have to agree... i would maybe try it on a couple of friends or family but not a bride...because then you kinda screw yourself if they say they like the store bought one better
Hey wait a minute! We're missing the boat here! If they DO like the store bought cake, then we just buy it at the grocery, take a couple of hours to decorate it and BOOM! Profit, baby, profit!!
(I'm kidding, gang! I'm kidding!!
)
Hmmmmmm......cuz their little cakes are always perfectly iced...JUST THE ICING, not the decos.....bastards, I hate them for that.
Indy - you know what is funny, I did EXACTLY that when I first started doing tastings......and the doctored mix won out EVERY time. (which is why 95% of my cakes are doctored mixes)
You mean you compared them to a pure scratch or to a grocery store cake?
(PLEASE - not wanting to get the debate going, just my observations here!) Indy - I would do scratch and dr'd mixes - I really didn't know what would be preferred, and that is just what happened. (and I have been a baker for almost 30 years before this) I quit even offereing the scratch, no one ever picked it (this was after about 8 or so tastings)
_jaime_ that is great that it worked out for you that way! It really is a matter of what folks are used to. My Gramma really only likes my scratch cakes, so I know to make those for her. (and she will make a terrible fuss if she is here and doesn't get that kind of cake - being 92, I let her!) 
Yes, she does! She is very active (still drives to church down the road from her house) She does not like cakes from mixes at all - it is because of her that I love to bake/cook - she always let me do whatever I wanted in her kitchen when I was growing up - the only stability in my life was at their farm. I love her dearly.
Now - so who is gonna try the grocery store vs. own at their next tasting??
Well, I could show them a picture of the grocery store cake that I saw today. It had been delivered and was waiting inside to be taken out later (it's record heat here today, I was leaving my cakes in the kitchen for a different event and just saw this one sitting there.)
It was iced like a monkey did it, not even any attempt was made to smooth out the icing, the icing was whipped so much there were all kinds of air holes in it, you could see the cake through the icing, the filling was bulging out of it already (wait until they leave it outside for a while), and the roses on it were all made of white chocolate. Guess what's going to happen when those babies are taken outside in 96 degree heat and the humidity that goes with that? It was so bad, I made my daughter come inside and look at it, I needed a witness.
It made me feel better about my own cakes, though! I love to see a competitor's cake so that I can compare and contrast. Looking at styro cakes at wedding shows tells you nothing, but seeing one in real life will give you the real story. If I could have one of THOSE at my tastings I'd book every customer that walked through the door!
i had a guy bring me in a gob of grocery store icing once....he wanted me to make his icing "like this"
i think my icing is da bomb diggity...i mean i use as much butter as paula deen...and he wants a hunk of fluffy white grease.
taste is SO subjective!
i had a guy bring me in a gob of grocery store icing once....he wanted me to make his icing "like this"
Had that, too. I did a free cake for my daughter's friend's BD. Gramma comes down with her diagram of what the cake should look like (did I mention this was FREE cake?); the flavors they wanted (did I mention it was FREE?) and at the bottom of her notes was written, in big letters, "NO BUTTERCREAM! WHIPPED CREAM ICING ONLY!"
I pointed to those big words and said, "I dont' DO kroger icing. If you want a kroger cake, it's 2 blocks that way."
(Have I mentioned yet that this was a FREE cake they were getting?) 3 tiers, mind you!)
But that was the day I coined my "I don't DO kroger cakes!" phrase! 
BTW, daughter tells me the icing was a BIG hit at the party! 
Amusingly, this actually reminds me of the reason why there is a cake sitting on coolikg racks upstairs right now.
All of my life, I have made box mixes, and it is only in the past six months that I have begun to master scratch cakes. Last week, I made a small two-tier cake for a family friend who graduated high school. We had the cake here, and my father has been absolutely RAVING about the cake all week, and wants one "just like" it! Not the two tiers, not the decorating, but the flavor of it. Apparently, I "make a damn fine cake," according to him.
It's just a recipe straight out of betty crocker, too. Plain and simple. Basic two sticks of butter, milk, vanilla, and PS buttercream, too. ...he wants it the color of his Jeep, though, which is a coppery orange color. -.-
It really just depends on the person tasting the cake whether they'll prefer it or not!
Czar, I fully expect you did your civic duty of photographing it for CakeWrecks!
I was sneaking around looking at it and trying not to get caught, so I didn't photograph it! My husband asked me the same thing, though. It was reaaalllly bad.
I haven't had anyone bring me grocery store icing yet! I think I'd throw it at them if anyone did that.
I had a MOB ask me recently what our local grocery store used as icing, I think they call it Bettercreme... I held my breath and really expected her to ask me to use that so I was planning my "no" to her in my head. Instead she she said "that stuff is nasty!"
She later went on to tell her daughter that my buttercream was "the bomb!"
I had a MOB ask me recently what our local grocery store used as icing, I think they call it Bettercreme... I held my breath and really expected her to ask me to use that so I was planning my "no" to her in my head. Instead she she said "that stuff is nasty!"
She later went on to tell her daughter that my buttercream was "the bomb!"
Yeeahhh baby! 
It pays to use real butter!
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