Hello, I am trying to make a vanilla cake from scratch (since everyone always asks is it is from scratch) even though to decorate it takes me hours! I have made 3 different vanilla cakes from scratch and they all have that same flat taste. I find the cake mixes are so much better. What do I do? Please Help>>>Thanks

I don't know which recipes you have tried, but I love Sylvia Weinstocks original yellow cake recipe, http://archives.cnn.com/2000/FOOD/news/02/09/sylvia.weinstock/yellow.cake.html
It has a very similar taste and texture to box mixes, while still tasting from scratch.

Just read her recipe and it sounds Devine. Thanks for posting it.

Try this one out, it a great cake to start out with. When I first used started with scratch i used it - add extra vanilla-

It's all about the vanilla!! I recently ran out of my regular Watkins brand vanilla, and had to use the store brand of vanilla. Same recipe, but I was embarrassed to even serve the tasteless cake.

Thanks...I will try the recipe..and vanilla>

I second Sylvia Weinstock. My other favorite is Warren Brown's yellow cake from his book, Cake Love.

Thanks I tried the Slylvia Weinstock recipe last night and it was delicious. It actually tastes really good...It reminds me of a mix...Thanks so much

I made Magnolia'a Vanilla Birthday cake using a recipe I found on here. It was alright, but nothing to brag about. I'll be sure to try Sylvia Weinstock's.

I know, I love Magnolia and go there no and then. Love them, I also have the Magnolia cookbooks and tried the vanilla cake 2 times and it is not really that tasty. Try the Sylvia one, its really good and I made people try it and they love it.

CakeLove has a great yellow cake. He uses brandy (I use cognac because it is sweeter) as an extract. I'm not sure if he uses vanilla too, but I do. His site has a how-to video. Also, I use Rose's white chocolate cake with extra vanilla. My personal favorites are the two above. For selling purposes, I think SW is the best traditional.

I bought my sister Cake Love for her birthday last year. I'll check out some of his recipes as well.

Cake Love is a fantastic book.

I have an awesome sugar cookie vanilla cake recipe that's my #1 seller. It has alot of good reviews but people are having a hard time with cooking it. It should be whipped a bit once the egg whites go in and it takes over an hour in the oven, even in a small pan. I cook mine forever it seems. It forms a sugar cookie crust on top that can be peeled off and eaten. It's awesome. I make it every week for orders. Look it up in the recipes.

Cakelove and Sylvia's are both excellent suggestions.

But if you are used to a cake mix, it will take a while for your taste buds to adjust to the real butter flavor of a scratch white cake mix. What you will have to do is eat nothing but scratch for at least 3 months, then try the cake mix again. You will then notice that the scratch cake is not flat, just different. Cake boxes use flavor enhancers. To my palette, I cannot take the taste of a box mix any longer because it tastes artificial to me.

Also another good experiment is to try a cake using all three major brands, you will see a difference in taste that way also. I did that test one day for chocolate. We were amazed at the taste difference in brands. For years my MIL was a die hard BC cake mix person - yellow cake only. One day I tried to use a DH (before I went exclusively to scratch) and I couldn't believe the taste difference.

So bottom line, it is your taste palette that feels it is flat. Serve it to someone who exclusively eats scratch and they can tell you how it really tastes. And if it tastes flat, add more flavoring like a pinch of almond extract, or vanilla bean paste instead of extract, or put in an extra tsp of vanilla. But I am putting all my bets on your taste buds being use to mix instead of scratch.