morgnscakes, I agree. Any small town that can support a few fine restaurants can possibly provide a good income for the scratch cake baker. You just have to market to the right people.
And for those bakers who have been using box mixes and say they decided to to do a test and offer scratch against the box... guess what... except for those recipes passed down from relatives, I have spent a tremendous amount of time developing and tweaking my scratch recipes, not to mention the time spent studying the science of baking. You don't decide one day to be a scratch baker any more than you decide to decorate cakes one day and you immediately create a masterpiece wedding cake. I have had my share of bad and mediocre scratch cakes and I wished I had a good Duncan Hines. It is just as unfair to say that the public does not like scratch cakes as it is unfair to say a doctored mix is not good. There is a place in the market for both. But don't assume the public does not like scratch cakes done well, that simply isn't true.
Well said, thank you. This has been an interesting thread though!
FromScratchSF, thanks for agreeing. The one thing people don't consider is that the competition is getting tougher. I am a fairly new business and I am taking customers from the box mix bakers. I know this because every single one tells me where they "used to" go to get their cakes. And my prices are double and triple. One of my markets is a small town. From what I know, the bakers in this town are straight mix and one actually raids Walmart in the middle of the night for cakes, pies, cookies, etc (a family member was a Walmart manager and she told me).
one actually raids Walmart in the middle of the night for cakes, pies, cookies, etc (a family member was a Walmart manager and she told me).
You mean they buy the premade cakes, stick them in another box and resell them??? Do they at least re-ice them? 
Do they mark them up??? That deserves a thread all by itself! LOL!
My 17 years of sales experience (my past life) taught me that anyone will buy anything at any time, you just have to convince them that they want it. I said in the start of this thread that I felt it's out jobs to be saleswomen 1st, bakers/decorators 2nd... but holy smokes, if you are able to pass a Walmart cake off as your own and people buy them from you for a profit, then I have to bow down... because that's like, legendary ice to Eskimo sales! LMAO!
My new grandson just had open heart surgery two weeks ago. The whole waiting room was filled with family members from both sides. The other grandmother started talking to me about my bakery. She was recently laid off when Walmart let go of their higher paid managers. She travels up and down the east coast and loves to visit the famous bakeries. She's not a baker, but she is a well knowledged bakery customer. We finally started talking about my business, which is rather unique. Then she said, "You know ____ Bakery? They come into Walmart in the middle of the night and buy a hundred items at a time, all frozen, cakes, pies, cookies, everything." Now this is the only legal bakery (independent) in our town. Her cakes on her site are not straight and the decor is Wilton class stuff and no more. This is why I say beware of low end bakery items. Someone can put a serious dent in your business and you can't recover if the knowledge isn't already there.
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