RBI makes cakes from scratch, including Kosher and gluten-free.  He's very proud of his products, too.

Grocery stores generally use commercially made (mix) cakes that arrive in frozen slabs and are then cut into the desired shapes.

I thought it was in interesting group of "testers", if a very small sampling.  It covered male & female and very young to well into middle age--and the results didn't surprise me one bit.

I've only entered 2 cake tasting competitions.  In both cases, my entries were essentially WASC cakes using the particular flavors or ingredients prescribed by the contest.  I came in 2nd the first time and 1st the second time, competing against--and beating--at least 10 other cakes in each contest, most of which were NOT based on box mixes.  I even had to supply my recipes to prove that I'd used the special ingredients. 

In each case, the judges were professionally trained pastry chefs--big, recognizable names in the industry including 3 who've authored baking books.  I received glowing compliments on my cakes and icings (I don't use a standard meringue BC, either).

I suppose I could have just been the best of a bad bunch of bakers, but I didn't take it that way because several competitors owned successful, high end baking businesses.  I was ecstatic that a group of "educated" palates really liked my cakes.  Some of the competitors asked me about my cakes and when I told them that I started with mixes, well, let's just say that they weren't very happy.

I really marvel at people being angry at others for what they like--that's pretty funny.

ive been thinking a lot about this and one thing that i think is hard for americans to get used to is that (generally) a scratch made cake has a slightly drier, slightly larger crumb. I think it provides a great deal more flavor that way, but old betty's cakes are "tender" and "moist" *cringe* because of the oil and the fine crumb. 

i think it's a matter of educating the palate, as previously mentioned, and if you get a chance to be with someone when they are tasting the scratch cake, pointing out, the butter and the natural flavors on the tongue. 

then give them the BC and let them really taste the chemical aftertaste. 

also, now i can't stop thinking about my mom's homemade chocolate bundt cake with a confectioner's sugar glaze, which she would make when she was jonesing for something sweet. so simple. so good.

AConsidering the excitement that people are reporting with the return of twinkies, it doesn't surprise me that people think that boxed mix cake is "moist" opposed to gummy. If you use a term to describe something enough times, people associate those two things even if it doesn't mean what they think. It's all in the marketing, which I guess the guy calling a box mix cake "homemade" proves. Homemade used to mean from scratch, but then convenience foods came along and spawned commercials for homemade foods that are just add water and stir.

I didn't watch the show yet,but the people who come to me for their cakes would probably not have chosen the mix, since they are generally looking for something that isn't full of chemicals, and they know the difference.

AFirst of all, the RBI cake had fondant on it, which may have swayed the tasting - I really do not like fondant, even my homemade (not marshmallow) fondant, which I think tastes as good as you can possibly get fondant to taste, is not yummy and I hate the texture of all fondants.

Next, they ask a kid, a competitive eater, a might-as-well-be female stripper, and a male stripper who thinks box cake is homemade. This is not exactly a good sampling, or a large sampling.

Lastly, RBI and safeway produce a LOT of cake. Their recipes have to be large scale. Something happens when you bake on a large scale - the quality gets lost somehow. As a home-based baker with a small (comparitively) amount of product being made, it makes sense to me that my cakes (and all of yours) would probably taste better than RBI's. There is a cupcake bakery here where I live which got its start when the lady who used to have a home-baking business won cupcake wars. She used the money to start a storefront, and now has 6 chains around the state. I went to the chain by my house and got a strawberry cupcake. It was dry, dense, and nasty... so bad I actually spit the bite out and threw the rest away. I'm sure her cake was good originally, but now teenage workers mix and bake the cakes with high-volume recipes and the quality is bad.

It is true that baking a cake completely from scratch is difficult and umpredictable. The only way to make it come out well is to use the best of ingredients, use recioes that are good, with the correct chemistry, weigh the ingredients for precision, make sure they're at the correct temperature, be sure your oven is calibrated correctly, use good quality pans and pther tools like bake strips and flower nails... if any of these things is off, the cake will not come out with an optimal result. I've noticed that using a different type of flour or butter with the same recipe makes a huge difference. Lots of ingredient and recipe teating must be done if you want to get a great scratch cake.

AI'm hoping that the strawberry cupcake I had was a fluke, and not the usual standard of the store. However, I've been afraid to go back and gamble another $3.50 on that assumption! As for being successful, that is not always due to quality, I have found - how else do you explain the success of mid-level chain restaurants which serve pre-made and distributed fast-food quality food, sell it for far more than it's worth, amd make you tip an ill-trained server. If you doubt that chain restaurants serve pre-made fast-food, then proof is in how no matter what city, state, or country you visit, the food at these restaurants tastes identical.

This particular cupcake shop has managed to get 6 insanely prime retail locations - that is a huge key, as I have seen some retail locations around which seem to be "cursed," as no buisness is able to thrive there. Also, she was on cupcake wars, and is famous from that. There are also no other cupcake bakery chains in the state - there are a couple stand-alone shops, one of which just went out of business recently - they were in a very bad location.

............sure if proper judges or people actually looking for a nice cake would have been consulted, that wouldn't have happened.........

     Just what do you mean by "Proper Judges"???    And just what is wrong w/ the everyday, average people?  They may not be looking for a *wedding cake* but that doesn't mean they will not be eating some and *liking* it. 

Okay, so the "cake experts" were a little kid, a woman who wants to look like a drag queen, a guy who just shoves food in his mouth without tasting it, and a dude who's probably on steroids and wears ripaway pants.

1. Kids eat their own boogers, I wouldn't ask them to judge anything.

2. I can't even think of anything for this chick.

3. That guy summed it up "It's what I'm used to"

4. He's pretty, but put a bag on his head and tell him to shut up so we don't have to listen to him talk about homemade anything. His mama cooked him up some cake mix, so that's what he thinks is good eatin'.

These are the people who would go to Italy and complain that Olive Garden has better Italian food. If they had used a group of foodies, or people who shop at Whole Foods, I'd be willing to bet they'd have different results.

If your target market is the Betty Crocker lovers, have at it. My target is people who know what chemical-free food tastes like, and that's who hires me. People just don't ever get scratch-baked food anymore, so they have no idea...I went to my son's high school and was doing something cake-related with them, and the kids were talking about how good a local grocery store's cake was. I told them that it was crap, and to taste the chocolate cake I'd brought that was baked from scratch. They were shocked at how much better it was, and I gave them the lecture on nothing artificial etc etc. Now I have to bring the chocolate cake to their events or they all pitch a fit and whine to the teachers.

AHa ha! That just about sums it up, can't think of anything more to say to that.

A

I thought of something for the cake woman...she must have fallen off the stipper pole and hit her head a few too many times, so that explains her.

Some of you may be old enough to remember when DuPont admonished us that there was "better living through chemistry." Lots of people still believe that, I guess. By the way, I made several gourmet recipes for mac and cheese using rather expensive natural cheeses.Then I made it using Velveeta. You will never guess which was my husband's favorite. :)

A

My DH said basically the same thing about the kid... "A demographic known for eating their own boogers and putting ketchup on everything is not who I want judging my product."

I thought it was amazing that at no time did anyone mention the LOOKS of the cake or the number of servings. The $12 cake didn't feed near the number of people as the RBI cake. It just wasn't a proper comparison no matter how you look at it. The $12 cake would have been right at home on the pages of Cake Wrecks.

I have to ask why the producers of this show thought that this "study", this - expose - on cakes that people prefer, actually revealed anything about anything?

What a crock of shyte.

What's the point of comparing $12 in ingredients only (including eggs! whoopdeefrickendoo!), to $2200 in labour, equipment, licences, premises, rent and other costs of running an approved food business, plus ingredients and ARTISTIC ABILITY?? When the cakes shown are at a ratio of 1:15 in terms of servings?

Taken at face value, all I can assume from this story is that Americans have no appreciation for bespoke, custom baked cakes made from scratch. And that is sad if its true.

I can't believe though that their point is, "Oh how silly you brides are for paying more than $12 for your wedding cake, you so SILL-EEEEE, bahahahaaa!"

AYou so SIL-EEEE! ahahahaha

But I'm not angry...lol.

AThe judges may not be the ones who would buy the wedding cake, but they could be the guests at a reception eating it. Gotta have looks and taste for an amazing cake. That's why i don't like the trend of covering the whole cake with fondant. Fondant does not taste amazing.

A

Yep. Feel free to not like it.!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

The kids who have had my cakes have had their eyes opened to good scratch baking. One of my daughter's friends refused to eat her own birthday cake that came from a grocery store because she said that it wasn't as good as the one that I made. If you hold a low standard as the norm then you don't know the options. Box mix is a low standard.

AIf you watched that show and decided that they were right and a home baked and decorated cake from a box mix is better than a professionally baked from scratch and decorated cake, then have at it. I'm sure the show had some kind of disclaimer running across the screen at the end saying you can sue them when your wedding is ruined because you thought your guests would prefer your cake after watching the show.

A

They might be fine with it if they don't have any other frame of reference, though. All I know is that when clients come to me and start talking about weddings they've been to where people left half-eaten pieces of cake sitting around all over, they were from the bakeries that use mixes or start with a mix and add stuff.

AMy kids have eaten my scratch cakes with Swiss meringue or French buttercream all their lives. We were invited to a party for a little girl in my 4 year old's nursery class at church, and the mom served box cake cupcakes topped with powdered sugar crisco (Wilton class) frosting. My kids took one bite of the cupcakes and then told me they were gross and refused to eat more. Since twinkies are back on the shelves, I bought a box and brought it home yesterday. I gave one to each of my kids. They asked, "What is it?" and then tried them. They hated them! I hadn't had one in years - they were gross! Weird texture, somehow dry and gooey at the same time, and the filling was sticky gooey with no actual flavor, just sweet. Blech! An eye opening test is to bake a good scratch recipe side by side with a box mix and taste them together, really noticing thr texture and flavor differences.