Hello! I am curious as to which ingredients in your baking you have found that using a brand name makes a difference in your cake and which items you tend to buy the store brand. At this point, I think that I am only die-hard about using a name brand for butter, extracts, and powdered sugar. Everything else is the grocery store brand. TIA!

Watkins clear vanilla; Dominoes powdered (10x) sugar; Valhrona chocolate; these things I simply will not skimp on. Once you find a quality product, stick with it -- that's what your cakes become known for taste-wise.

Agree...butter, choc, PS and vanilla. And not exactly the same thing, but I also will only use fresh lemon juice, never from a bottle. And if I'm using fruit, berries, etc to flavor or make fillings, I will only buy it from an upscale market like Whole Foods or Wegmans. Fruit from regular markets, like Shaws or Stop & Shop, are a flavorless waste of space.

artscallion, I totally agree with you on the fresh lemons. I used the bottled stuff once and will never make that mistake again. It's nasty stuff!

I go with top-of-the- line butter, cream cheese, vanilla, chocolate, powdered sugar, flour...I'll use generic water and that's about it! ;D

Watkins double strength clear vanilla, Nomu vanilla paste, Rodelle vanilla beans, Rodelle vanilla sugar..

Rogers Icing sugar, Rogers granulated sugar, Rogers Berry sugar (US superfine)..

Brodies xx self rising cake and pastry flour, Rogers unbleached flour, Rogers AP flour, Rogers cake and pastry flour (not self rising)..

Cote D'Azur belgium chocolate, discs & slabs, Ghirardelli chocolate, Bakers chocolate..

Squires kitchen modelling paste & flower paste.. CK dry candy fondant (for cookie icing).

Lorann bakery emulsions, The bakers kitchen citrus emulsions, Lorann gourmet flavorings, Lorann oils, Watkins extracts such as banana, strawberry butter nut etc,..

Brand name or store brand butter, salted & unsalted, whichever is on sale, and the odd store brand baking need (Safeway or Presidents Choice) once in a blue moon.

I am getting away more and more from brand names but I will NOT EVER give up on dear ole' Betty (Crocker)! Most of the time I stick to Crisco; either Dominos or C&H pwdr sugar; and REAL (pure) vanilla (not necessarily brand but not imitation!)

Watkins clear vanilla? I've only ever seen Wiltons clear..... Watkins is better? Where can 8 find it?

Vanilla or other extracts (Penzey's or Nielsen-Massey) and spices like cinnamon, nutmeg, etc. (also Penzey's)
Cocoa (Penzey's dutch process or Hershey's unsweetened)
Chocolate (Ghiradelli or Baker's)
Shortening (Crisco)
Nuts (Fisher or Blue Diamond)

This isn't really for baking, but kitchen trash bags, Hefty

While I don't necessarily stick with a brand name for dairy products, I won't buy the Walmart brand (except for butter). If I'm at Walmart, I'll buy a local dairy brand (we have a few to choose from) but at Safeway, I'll buy their store brand.

I've never has a problem with store brand sugar (any type), flour, butter (unsalted), etc.

Crisco shortening. Only. Never anything else. Ever.

Peter Pan peanut butter (for cookies). Jif has honey in it and is sweeter than other brands. Peter Pan tastes more 'pure' to me.

Sun Maid brand raisins (for oatmeal cookies). tried a house brand via one of my suppliers and absolutely hated them!! they were super sticky and it was very hard to unclump them. Plus they tasted sour, not like 'sweet raisins'.

Clear vanilla, not brown (unless I need an ivory colored icing). I use the clear vanilla sold by my local cake supply store. She buys it in concentrated bulk and makes up the bottles herself.

Not cake/food related:
Only use Dawn dishsoap.
I won't eat generic cereal. (I've tried them .... if you cut the generic cheerios in half, you'll find they are half air whereas real cheerios is more solid, ergo I'm getting more oat fiber per bite!)
No store brand spaghetti sauce, mac-n-cheese, or canned mixed vegetables.

I only use top shelf for every ingredient. I have tried the store brands and I did not like the results.

Gosh Linda, I was going to say that. The very best I can get my hands on of everything... including top shelf spirits.

I've gone back and forth-first only brands, then tried generics, since costs are rising, some are definate NOWAY! And so back to brands.

Crisco brand-never will switch, tried a generic once, and opened it fresh and it was extremly soft, and it wasn't even warm out.
Duncan Hines-for my mix starter cakes, used to use good ole Betty-since she was cheaper to pick up, lol, but when baking larger cakes(which people want more and more) I found good ole betty wasn't getting done in the center even with heating cores without drying out on the edges.
Powder sugar-c&h, then price nearly doubled, tried generic for MMF-it screwed it up, went back to C&H, then Sm's opened up and had #25 bags of their generic-hesitated, finaly bought and it's fine-except it's raised $4 in the las year
butter-always generic-
nonstick spray-bakers joy, have tried many and that works the best, but sometimes the nozzle get plugged
Marshmallows for fondant found out from trial and err-kraft is the best-but there are a couple stre brands that I don't have issues with (but if they aren't on sale, I'l still buy kraft) and there are some store brands I'd just be throwing my money in the trash-because thats what I'd be doing with the fondant.

Powdered sugar. I only use C&H. And cake mixes. I prefer Betty Crocker but will use Duncan Hines if I can't find the flavor I am looking for. I don't like Pillsbury at all.

TerriLynn, it was actually my sister who discovered this. She was going thru an issue and she HAD to eat a bowl of cheerios every day so the oat fiber would kickstart her (clears throat) "system" each day. Without the cheerios, she became .... oh heck let's get it in the open..... constipated. She bought the generic ones in the bag and her system didn't work right. that's when she discovered she was only getting about half of the oat fiber because the generics were mostly air.

The things we learn in life, huh!

I have honestly not found a difference in powdered sugar....I use the big bags of Bakers n Chefs from Sam's. I also use the butter from Sam's.

If I'm using a cake mix, I only use Duncan Hines, and only Jello pudding mix.. For scratch cakes, and cake flour, its whatever the store has. I use mostly Ghiradelli chocolate, Polaner preserves, Libby's pumpkin....Tone's natural vanilla or Wilton clear...am working on steeping my first bottle of homemade vanilla, though. Should be ready in another couple of months. I only use Sweetex for shortening.

I have a friend who buys almost all her ingredients from Aldi...and she recently won a large cake competition against a bunch of other professional pastry chefs, and her CAKE won the best tasting award!!!! So.... I am not sure if brand names only taste best to US, or to everyone!!!!

What I will say about brands is that whatever brand you use...whether Aldi, or farm fresh butter and eggs....that is the flavor your work takes on. I have made frosting or cake at someone else's house before and nothing tasted right since I used their brand of ingredients!!!!! I wanted MY butter and MY vanilla and MY eggs and MY sugar. haha. So..your customers will get used to "your" flavor, no matter what ingredients you use....and that's what they will keep coming back for.

I know that some of my cakes AND fillings are easily replicated by ANYONE if they just go down to the local grocery store, pick up a few name brand items, and throw them all together. However, with the ingredients I use, and the way I do it, they'll not only never guess what I'm using, but they think its unique to me. Which actually it probably is, in a way...even my oven is going to bake cakes up slightly different than someone else's oven does.

Mine are:

All Purpose Flour: White Lily
Cream Cheese: Philadelphia
Eggs: Eggland's Best
Buttermilk: Malburger (it is gourmet and whole fat)
Sour cream: Daisy

Actually, come to think of it, I buy name brand on everything except butter and regular milk (I buy whatever is on sale for those) and haven't noticed any change in product taste of my finished cakes.

After trying generic gelatin and having difficulties with my homemade fondant, I will now only use Knox gelatin.

Thanks everyone for your contributions to this thread! I am learning alot-- I never had any idea that there were so many brands of chocolate or extracts! I am still trying to find all of my "brands" that I want to use consistently. This thread has reinforced my hunch that I need to consistently use whatever brands that I decide, because that is the "taste" that my customers will become accustomed to for my cakes.

Kitagirl, your comment about your friend that made a cake using Aldi ingredients made me smile. I buy my milk, granulated sugar, eggs, and flour from Aldi. Also, IMO, their pure vanilla is very good tasting. I spent something like $15 for a bottle of Madagasgar (sp?) Bourbon Vanilla from a gourmet store that was supposed to be soooo great and I hated it. Went right back to using Aldi vanilla.

King Arthur Flour
Penzey's extracts and spices
Philly cream cheese
Breakstone sour cream
Domino sugar - all types
Prefer Duncan Hines over Betty Crocker but will use either in a pinch

Definitely not a fan of generics although some Stop & Shop items have been ok.
Also a fan of Dawn soap!

I don't use Crisco in icing, but when I do use shortening in anything else, it's Crisco. I bought the store brand once before and it turned dingy yellow in a very short time. Long before the Use By Date.
I use Sysco Hi-Ratio shortneing.

First Street (Smart and Final) brand butter, sour cream, and other dairy products. I find them to taste 100% as good as the name brands. I was fussy about the brand when I lived in NC (Breakstone everything). But they don't carry those brands here - so I had to start over figuring out what I liked.

Flour, Sugar, I'm not particular. I use whichever name brand is on sale.

Ghiradelli Chocolate.

Dawn soap all the way!

Rice Krispies name brand for RKT.

Real Extracts. No imitation.

Fresh fruit and veggies from a local farmer's market - never canned with the exception of pineapple - then it's Dole only.