I'd pit my doctored box cake against your scratch cake anytime and dare you to tell the difference! (I did this once to someone who 'always could tell' and guess what? She couldn't! ) In fact the bakery I worked for used the doctored box mixes and we were constantly told how much better our 'scratch' cakes were to their homemade.
From a box or scratch, taste is what matters--and how you get there shoudn't matter.
Ditto...well said! 
Not to sound like a snob or elitist but....100% Scratch. No box cakes come from my kitchen.
I'd pit my doctored box cake against your scratch cake anytime and dare you to tell the difference! (I did this once to someone who 'always could tell' and guess what? She couldn't! ) In fact the bakery I worked for used the doctored box mixes and we were constantly told how much better our 'scratch' cakes were to their homemade.
From a box or scratch, taste is what matters--and how you get there shoudn't matter.
Sounds like you need a visit from Bobby Flay.
And I used to rock a box mix I doctored before I even had a pc to be on a forum to know what that means...
So I ask this... if you feel you need to doctor it then you can't be completely happy with it to begin with right? Let that sink in a bit... really.
I know I wasn't. And as soon as I could correctly learn the methods of scratch baking for various recipes- that is what my family preferred.
Case in point, my son just last week was begging for me to make box cake one time because he missed the flavor, since that's what he had when he was little.
And It does have that commercial chemical- fake flavor like super sweet kids breakfast cereal taste. Don't tell me it doesn't cause it soo does. And that's OK if that's what you or your customers like. Some people really just gotta have their Capt'Crunch.
But when a box mix was made for them they couldn't eat it all and they were clutching their tummies saying it's not as good as they thought it once was, but now it's like a rock in their tummies and they didn't feel good.
Wholesome ingredients are far better for your body. And a family who eats more wholesome ingredients will know and can tell the difference.
Maybe the people you tested that against don't, but I would question two things. The quality of that scratch cake and the discerning pallets.
Oh brother...I was just saying I didn't think it mattered! I just use an extract to 'doctor' the cake that's it. And it tastes great. I learned from the bakery I worked for and it was their most popular cake. That's it. No 'mine's better than yours'...just 'mine's from a box and no one can tell the difference'. Point of fact I make all my chocolate cakes from scratch...big deal if someone else makes one from a box. I wish I had a box mix that I liked more than the chocolate scratch cake--I'd buy it believe me. Because to me taste is what it's all about and how you get there is up to you and is NO BIG DEAL! So why even ask the question? It's cake-- not brain surgery. Enough said on the subject.
I am a snob when it comes to many things....only drink Starbucks, etc..... For years I ony made scratch cakes. I now make much larger cakes and thus make a scratch and box cake to extend it. They are turning out better than any scratch only cakes I made for years (and I thought those were good.)
It shouldn't matter to each other who does what, IMO. This topic as well as the "legal" issue usually doesn't end well.
I agree. Whenever I see that subject heading, its "oh good lord, here we go again"!
Mb20fan.. Where did you get the cool smilies from? I love them!
Here is an idea, make several different cakes - all box, dr'd box, scratch, and do some tastings with the different cakes, with several different clients. YOU see what works for you.
I know what works for me (I did the above) and I have a business that has grown by leaps and bounds the last 2 years. You have to make the decicions as to what works for you.
I do all 3, but the Dr'd mixes by far outsell the others.
It basically comes down to preference. There was a point in time where I actually made my cakes from scratch, but then my business grew and I decided to start using a box mix. I don't knock what other people do because that's the best part of being an entrepreneur, you can run YOUR business any way you like. The cakes that come from the bakery is rarely made from scratch one of my old bosses explained to me that she use cake mixes because it was cost effective. So I say, to each is own.
I personaly don't like scratch cakes. The consistancy is different the texture is different and dependig on the humidity and weather you can't tell how your cake is going to turn out. At least with a mix you know that it is going to raise and what it is going to taste like. We went to a reception where the cake was scratch. I knew the baker but had never had her cakes. To this day I still haven't. The hall refused to serve it. I found out later that they thought that the cake was molded or something and even kept frozen pieces in case that the heath dept. needed to be contacted. Turned out that she used her very very sulfer well water in her cakes. And guess what her cakes tasted and smelled like. Rotten Eggs!
I would rather have consistancy in a box mix.. which ever brand you like as they too are all different. And when someone doctors a cake mix it doesn't mean that there is a problem with it.. it just means the same as with scratch that you want to make it into a different flavor.
There are so many cake mix doctor books and 101 cake mix books that you can make some fantastic different cakes that would be difficult with scratch.
But please just use what you like best and if your getting clients and praise from your family and friends.. just be happy! dont fight.. its all good. its cake!
I personaly don't like scratch cakes. The consistancy is different the texture is different and dependig on the humidity and weather you can't tell how your cake is going to turn out. At least with a mix you know that it is going to raise and what it is going to taste like. We went to a reception where the cake was scratch. I knew the baker but had never had her cakes. To this day I still haven't. The hall refused to serve it. I found out later that they thought that the cake was molded or something and even kept frozen pieces in case that the heath dept. needed to be contacted. Turned out that she used her very very sulfer well water in her cakes. And guess what her cakes tasted and smelled like. Rotten Eggs!
I would rather have consistancy in a box mix.. which ever brand you like as they too are all different. And when someone doctors a cake mix it doesn't mean that there is a problem with it.. it just means the same as with scratch that you want to make it into a different flavor.
There are so many cake mix doctor books and 101 cake mix books that you can make some fantastic different cakes that would be difficult with scratch.
But please just use what you like best and if your getting clients and praise from your family and friends.. just be happy! dont fight.. its all good. its cake!
Well said. These threads usually turn into a cat fight. You're right...it's just cake. Let's agree to disagree and be friends 
I personaly don't like scratch cakes. The consistancy is different the texture is different and dependig on the humidity and weather you can't tell how your cake is going to turn out. At least with a mix you know that it is going to raise and what it is going to taste like. We went to a reception where the cake was scratch. I knew the baker but had never had her cakes. To this day I still haven't. The hall refused to serve it. I found out later that they thought that the cake was molded or something and even kept frozen pieces in case that the heath dept. needed to be contacted. Turned out that she used her very very sulfer well water in her cakes. And guess what her cakes tasted and smelled like. Rotten Eggs!
A good scratch cake does not have water in it, especially well water.
Well, actually i take that back. The only scratch cake I have made that had "water" in it was a chocolate cake that had coffee. While water in a cake works for chocolate cake, I prefer the richness of dairy products in a cake. I avoid recipes that use water as the liquid.
It is certainly possible to make great scratch cakes with water. All our cakes are dairy-free and use water in the recipe (bottled water, not well water), sometimes by itself and sometimes in combination with soy milk or rice milk. They are still quite rich and you would never know they were dairy-free if you tasted them.
Scratch mixes are also just as consistent as box mixes as long as you stick to the same formula each time.
The sulpher water would have been a problem in ANY cake she made, scratch or mix. Has nothing to do with being a scratch cake.
It boils down to doing what works for you. If you like baking from a mix then bake from a mix. If you like baking from scratch and so do your clients then roll with it.
*As stated before, I prefer to bake from scratch (as well as cook from scratch. I'm not wasting my culinary degree. hahaha). Every single store front bakery in our town uses a mix or doctored mix, sleeve fillings or fillings from a bucket and crisco cream icing. I don't because I like having a different product and I stand proudly behind my baking skills, same as those box mix owners do. Roll with what works for you. If I went to box mix I'd tick off a lot of people and my reputation would be ruined because I've built my reputation on scratch baking. Too late to change it now even if I wanted to, which I don't. The same thing would happen with the people who bake from a mix if they went to scratch baking. When people like a product they want the same thing again, not something different.
It may all be cake but it's like comparing apples to oranges.
It's like comparing homemade chicken noodle soup to canned. Some people prefer the homemade soup others like the canned better.
I bake exclusively with organic love and locally grown pride 
Just sayin... ingredients in Duncan Heines "Golden Butter" cake mix:
Sugar, Enriched Bleached Wheat Flour (Flour, Niacin, Reduced Iron, Thiamine Mononitrate, Riboflavin, Folic Acid), Vegetable Oil Shortening (Partially Hydrogenated Soybean Oil, Propylene Glycol Mono- and Diesters Of Fats, Mono- and Diglycerides). Contains 2% Or Less Of: Leavening (Sodium Bicarbonate, Monocalcium Phosphate), Dextrose, Modified Food Starch, Salt, Cellulose Gum, Maltodextrin, Artificial Flavors, Colored with (Yellow 5 Lake, Red 40 Lake), Gum Arabic.
Notice the lack of butter in the above list.
Umm, that's because you are supposed to add the butter to it. The back of the box says to add water, eggs, and butter. Hence the "Golden Butter" name.
I'm so sick of this argument. But, just to answer OP's question, we use both doctored boxes and scratch, depending on the cake, and we sell our cakes.
I'd pit my doctored box cake against your scratch cake anytime and dare you to tell the difference! (I did this once to someone who 'always could tell' and guess what? She couldn't! ) In fact the bakery I worked for used the doctored box mixes and we were constantly told how much better our 'scratch' cakes were to their homemade.
From a box or scratch, taste is what matters--and how you get there shoudn't matter.
Just sayin... ingredients in Duncan Heines "Golden Butter" cake mix:
Sugar, Enriched Bleached Wheat Flour (Flour, Niacin, Reduced Iron, Thiamine Mononitrate, Riboflavin, Folic Acid), Vegetable Oil Shortening (Partially Hydrogenated Soybean Oil, Propylene Glycol Mono- and Diesters Of Fats, Mono- and Diglycerides). Contains 2% Or Less Of: Leavening (Sodium Bicarbonate, Monocalcium Phosphate), Dextrose, Modified Food Starch, Salt, Cellulose Gum, Maltodextrin, Artificial Flavors, Colored with (Yellow 5 Lake, Red 40 Lake), Gum Arabic.
Notice the lack of butter in the above list.
Ingredients in From Scratch, SF's Yellow Buttermilk Cake:
Cake flour, sugar, baking soda, baking powder, salt, butter, buttermilk, vanilla.
You know what else tastes great to a lot of people? Cigarettes.
Ingredients in most cake flours:
Wheat flour, chlorine, benzoyl peroxide, (niancin 3.5mg Per 100g) (iron 2.9mg Per 100g), thiamine mononitrate (vitamin B 044 mg Per 100g) riboflavin.
Ingredients in most baking powders:
Bicarbonate of soda or soda of bicarbonate, Monocalcium Phosphate or Sodium aluminum sulfate, may or may not contain cream of tarter & corn starch (modified food starch). Modified usually meaning the corn starch is made from genetically modified corn.
Except for the butter versus shortening bakers, or all butter versus half butter half shortening bakers such as myself, theres really not that much difference in the two lists of ingredients. The only way around the chemicals in both baking supplies or mixes, is to switch to baking with certified organic ingredients only.
I can tell a doctored box every time. There is a chemical and artificial aftertaste that cannot be disguised. When artificial puddings are added, that doesn't help. The texture is also easy to spot.
90% of all scratch cakes I have had have been just ok or bad.
When people do a taste test and say the "doctored" or "box" won, the scratch cake was not baked by an experienced scratch baker.
An artisan cake, that is, baked from scratch with the finest ingredients, by a baker who has taken his/her craft to the artistic level, is the pentacle of cakes. Four star restaurants, artisan bakeries, and professional pastry chefs do not use boxes. To get to this level, years of experience and a love of the scientific aspect of baking are critical.
When a great scratch cake is experienced, there is no competition.
I can tell a doctored box every time. There is a chemical and artificial aftertaste that cannot be disguised. When artificial puddings are added, that doesn't help. The texture is also easy to spot.
90% of all scratch cakes I have had have been just ok or bad.
When people do a taste test and say the "doctored" or "box" won, the scratch cake was not baked by an experienced scratch baker.
An artisan cake, that is, baked from scratch with the finest ingredients, by a baker who has taken his/her craft to the artistic level, is the pentacle of cakes. Four star restaurants, artisan bakeries, and professional pastry chefs do not use boxes. To get to this level, years of experience and a love of the scientific aspect of baking are critical.
When a great scratch cake is experienced, there is no competition.
Despite my post with the white flag in the air, asking for peace....I have to say....WELL SAID. I agree with you.
An artisan cake, that is, baked from scratch with the finest ingredients, by a baker who has taken his/her craft to the artistic level, is the pentacle of cakes. Four star restaurants, artisan bakeries, and professional pastry chefs do not use boxes. To get to this level, years of experience and a love of the scientific aspect of baking are critical.
When a great scratch cake is experienced, there is no competition.
I think this is the important part. A craft. Experience. Years.
A lot of those who bake have trouble with scratch because it is a science and if you mess one part up, the whole thing is off.
Again, I did not intend to start a pissing match and haven't been here long enough to know that this is a sore spot and would cause this sort of discord. Sorry for asking.
Not to sound like a snob or elitist but....100% Scratch. No box cakes come from my kitchen.
I'd pit my doctored box cake against your scratch cake anytime and dare you to tell the difference! (I did this once to someone who 'always could tell' and guess what? She couldn't! ) In fact the bakery I worked for used the doctored box mixes and we were constantly told how much better our 'scratch' cakes were to their homemade.
From a box or scratch, taste is what matters--and how you get there shoudn't matter.
I'm beginning to wonder if you're not happy with your decision to use box mixes, but don't want to change what you're used to.
You are always getting defensive of your decision in these types of threads when a scratch baker states they don't use mixes.
You have the right to stand tall and say you use mix the same as a scratch baker has the right to stand tall and say they are scratch.
Yes I'm a scratch baker. As said before, it's about finding what you like.
It depends. Mainly, I use doctored mixes. For a couple of flavors, I use a straight box mix. I always make chocolate from scratch. In my experience, customers are concerned about the taste of the cake and are less concerned about whether it was made from scratch. That's just been my experience, though.
Why does everybody always think that this conversation boils down to a pissing match. It isn't. I know I put out a one line that said I bake from scratch, not mix. But in no way does it imply that my way or the highway, or I'm a better baker, or any of other stuff. I think this is good conversation that should come up from time to time.
Now if I said something to the affect, like Gasp!!! How could you even think of using a mix! - that would be a pissing match. But nobody here is judging anybody on their process of making a cake, whether it be from scratch or a mix or doctored or any of the dozens of ways to make a cake. Rather I find it more of stating of fact rather than opinion, or judgment either.
But you can hear the written word in your own head whatever way you want. I always give the benefit of the doubt towards the positive. But that is just me.
This is just a friendly suggestion. 
But, it might be a good idea for CC mods to add a sticky to each forum for members to reference on the subject of scratch versus mix, legal versus non legal, and"how much do I charge, or how much would you charge for this cake", subjects.
All of these topics or subjects have been brought up numerous times and hashed to death. Nine times out of ten, the threads start out perfectly fine, but can easily becoming quite unpleasant.
Sooooooo.... In order to do my bit to help out..
I've added some links just in case one of our Mods thinks it IS a good idea to make up a reference list. "Hint hint" 
Some previous threads on scratch versus mix.
http://cakecentral.com/cake-decorating-ftopic-677321-0-days0-orderasc-.html
http://cakecentral.com/cake-decorating-ftopict-596517-.html
http://cakecentral.com/modules.php?name=Forums&file=viewtopic&t=37304&postdays=0&postorder=asc&&start=0
http://cakecentral.com/modules.php?name=Forums&file=viewtopic&t=710262&postdays=0&postorder=asc&&start=0
http://cakecentral.com/modules.php?name=Forums&file=viewtopic&t=695501&postdays=0&postorder=asc&&start=0
http://cakecentral.com/cake-decorating-ftopic-43557-0-days0-orderasc-.html&sid=709520e5db18d630f97e29ef9df46e87
Some previous threads on legal/non legal.
http://cakecentral.com/modules.php?name=Forums&file=viewtopic&t=585024&postdays=0&postorder=asc&&start=0
http://cakecentral.com/modules.php?name=Forums&file=viewtopic&t=712604&postdays=0&postorder=asc&&start=0
http://cakecentral.com/modules.php?name=Forums&file=viewtopic&p=6227878&sid=24fb27d4818ecb53466b1c68987bc564
http://cakecentral.com/cake-decorating-ftopicp-7017561-.html&sid=3d3394a60f7818a08716ff3b7f3aedf2
http://cakecentral.com/cake-decorating-ftopict-642532-.html
http://cakecentral.com/modules.php?name=Forums&file=viewtopic&t=44409&postdays=0&postorder=asc&&start=0
http://cakecentral.com/modules.php?name=Forums&file=viewtopic&t=701405&postdays=0&postorder=asc&&start=0
Some previous threads on what do I charge?/pricing cakes?
http://cakecentral.com/modules.php?name=Forums&file=viewtopic&t=673780&postdays=0&postorder=asc&&start=0
http://cakecentral.com/modules.php?name=Forums&file=viewtopic&t=676948&postdays=0&postorder=asc&&start=0
http://cakecentral.com/modules.php?name=Forums&file=viewtopic&p=7094573&sid=89653b4f14a877b7fe63a9ce92c16b4e
Thanks warchild! I know I am guilty of starting threads on things that have been discussed previously. But sometimes the search brings back a ridiculous amount of stuff and there's no way of seeing if your exact topic is listed.
That and I like to see myself write.
Warchild
heehee Thanks Mb20fan!
I've been having a good chuckle over your cool smilies. I love the flogging a dead horse reference, and the two fisticuff guys duking it out the best. They're so funny and so perfect for some of the heated treads we get on here!
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