I've made lots of scratch cakes and box cakes. Some of the scratch cakes can be very dry, but a scratch red velvet cake I make calls for buttermilk, and that seems to make it incredibly moist. I doctor up box mixes with the use of applesauce instead of oil and a box of pudding mix to match the flavor of the box mix or sometimes sour cream. There are lots of recipe sites but I seem to have the best luck with Ina Garten's recipes.

I do both--scratch and box mixes. Almost always, the box mixes are used in 'doctored-up' form. One, a cherry chocolate cake uses a box mix and is incredibly good. I've adapted to the smaller mixes by using a couple of 'cake mix' extender recipes.

Yes, I know that by the time you take the trouble to do an extender, you might as well have made a scratch cake but the point of it is to make the current size mixes work in the (favorite) old recipes that were formulated to use the larger mixes.

Only scratch here, because I'm picky. The only way to make a cake mix edible for me is to "doctor" it up. By the time I buy the cake mix, add the required three ingredients, plus the ingredients to doctor it, I might as well make a scratch yellow or chocolate cake with 8 ingredients. The cake mix doctored will take at least 5 if you count the mix, so I save no time. I also hang around "Cake Central" and they have a sour cream/almond white cake made with a mix. But you have to add sugar and flour and sour cream and almond extract, and it becomes more work than just starting from scratch in the first place. If you're happy with a plain, fluffy cake mix and a can of frosting, then I don't have any problem, go for it. Ashley does it all the time making cupcakes with her girls because they only want to sprinkle the stuff anyway, they never eat the cupcakes. They eat the frosting and the sprinkles and give the cupcakes to the dogs.

I'll admit, though, that I'm biased. I also refuse to use canned soup, packaged gravy or sauces, instant oatmeal. I think they just all taste terrible and they are expensive. The day will never come when I put a bite of jello anything in my mouth because it just feels so icky, I have a big texture issue. I know some others have health or mobility issues that make it difficult to lift a 5 pound bag of flour but they can handle a box of cake mix. That's fine too. I always use my bread machine to knead bread because my carpal tunnel makes it too painful to properly knead it by hand.

I do make my own convenience mixes for things like pancakes, biscuits, brownies and cake, as well as taco seasoning. I also have a daughter whose been diagnosed as celiac, and none of the homemade gluten free flour mixes are as good as King Arthur Flour's mix, so I do buy that. Nancy's gluten free brioche, though, is so good it's difficult to tell that it's even gluten free, that's an amazing recipe.

I guess that's why I've been on this Cooking Forum for about 15 years, because I actually like to cook. I didn't use convenience mixes before I retired, either, because I've always disliked them, most taste fake or salty, or both. Even when I was a single mother with a full time job and helping my disabled father run the farm, I still cooked and baked from scratch, had my big garden and canned my own produce. I like knowing exactly what's in my food and the food I feed to my family, heck, I even grow my own beef, for multiple reasons.

I will also plead guilty to Ocean Spray cranberry sauce in a can, jellied not whole berry. My girls love it. I don't eat it, I make LindaC's Cranberry Jezebel for myself, LOL. I also eat an A&W chili dog about once a year. I missed this year, for some reason, but I do usually have my one annual "that's not even food" moment. (grin)

Annie

I do both! I did do almost all from scratch before I went gluten free, but once I became gluten free, but it's so hard making a light GF cake. So now I mostly do mixes. If I do, I add some coffee extract to the batter if it's chocolate. Or, I make a chocolate coffee buttercream frosting.

for vanilla cupcakes I like normal vanilla frosting with a little homemade strawberry drizzle.

Haven't made a cake from a mix in more years than I can recall. I use 1 bowl recipes from my old Betty Crocker cookbook. They're almost as fast as a mix - everything goes in 1 bowl all @ once & mixes up in 4 minutes - & they always come out great w/ many compliments.

I cook pretty much like Annie....but don't have so many to cook for any more....and don't grow my own meat.
I can taste the artificial flavorings and preservatives in a mix.....and don't even go there with canned soup and things like sloppy joe mix ( just add raw meat and cook) and rice-a-roni and an envelope of taco seasoning and a shake bottle of "Italian seasoning" etc etc....And Jell-o? Just NO!
BUT I will eat a cake from a box before I touch gravy from a jar!!

I am remembering one afternoon the Wednesday before Thanksgiving and seeing a friend at the store also buying last minute stuff..and she was moaning because she was too late and they didn't have any gravy left!....this was a store who also sold preseasoned kabobs and ready to bake stuffed potatoes etc......
I said "I didn't know they made gravy for sale here!!" No she said...you know the stuff in a jar...over by the soup!
Just make it, I said!! "Well How would I do that?"....just put the stuff in the bag inside the turkey to boil in a pan with some water an onion and a stalk of celery....and pour that into the pan the turkey was in, thicken with some flour and boom!! Gravy!
Oh no she said, that's too much trouble, as she got into her car to drive 4 miles down the road to another store to see fi they had any gravy in a jar!

And Annie....you CAN make jellied cranberry sauce....just put the whole berries you cook through a food mill and if you want to be fancy schmancy, pour it into a mold....then plop in onto a plate to serve!

I will do both depending entirely on what I'm making.

Nothing against taking shortcuts, but I prefer the texture and taste of a 'scratch' cake. This subject has been covered in the past quite a bit, and at the risk of sounding like a broken record, I can easily detect a cake made from a mix, not only by its taste, but the smell is a dead giveaway to me. Blindfold me, and I'll prove it ☺

But I understand why folks love it and are even loyal to certain brands. For me, it's easier and more satisfying to whip up a cake with basic ingredients and be happy.

For those who think homemade cakes are dry and heavy, start by making the classics, Hot Milk Cake, Chiffon Cake, Wedding White Cake, to name a few.

Sol

I've cooked and baked for more than 50 years - even won a few prizes at it - but I guess I must have very weak or unsophisticated taste buds compared to others that post here. I have never been able to discern preservatives although I can detect artificial flavors and try to avoid prepared products that include them predominately. But I have no issues with using prepared foods for convenience sake as long as I think they taste good and I have to admit I get a little riled at those that poo-poo them automatically as being hugely inferior to everything made from scratch. Some times they are.....sometimes not. And sometimes they are just great time savers if you can't afford to spend hours in the kitchen. I would certainly never criticize anyone for opting to use them to make their life easier or faster.

btw, I will be the first to admit I LIKE Jello!! Not all flavors and seldom ever plain (unless they contain vodka or tequila:-)) And yes, I do know they are artificially flavored and I have made my own gelatin for various recipes but I am a big fan of cranberry flavored Jello. So there!!

I only bake from scratch because to me it's easier. You get the cake you want and the math is simple if you want to change the volume.

When I was a kid, the flour lived in a big, hard to open tin over the oven and we weren't allowed to get it down until we proved we could lift it, open it, measure out the flour (i.e., only as much as needed) and sift it, without dropping anything or making a big mess. My mother would buy the old style cake mixes for us to play at baking cakes with. Since I was big enough to have my own cookbook (7-8?) and measure out the flour for real recipes, I haven't had any need for mixes.

I don't disdain mixes, however. For the twice a year baker who has no other use for baking staples, it's a great way to go. The everything but water mixes are even better for dorm dwellers and clueless post-student non-homemakers. And I'm sure the kind Martha originally posted where you still have to cream the butter and add the milk and eggs are still good learning tools for little kids.

I don't taste the preservatives et al. as, oh, that's monodiphibitypoo, but there is a flavor that supermarket cakes (which are made with mixes!) and most mix cakes have which is the hallmark of artificial this and that. The less familiar you are with that taste, the more you notice it. I usually avoid birthday cakes because of that, or take the "diet sliver" to be polite. :)

gardengal, it's not the taste of jello, it's the texture. It just feels so.....gelatinous, LOL. I don't eat canned pie filling for the same reason and am still struggling with bananas which are both sticky and mushy. I have huge issues with texture. I have found that I can eat a banana if it's very firm, sliced very thinly and covered with copious amounts of chocolate sauce, which pretty much negates any health benefits from the banana. :-)

LindaC, I know I can make jellied cranberry sauce. I've done it, I've even canned it in half pint jars so I can have it whenever I have roast chicken. However, the girls like the Ocean Spray. I've made it plain, I've added oranges and raspberries and strawberries and pineapple. Nope, nope, nope and nope. It's plain Ocean Spray from the can. So I buy it, I slice it, I serve it to them and I make Cranberry Jezebel for Elery and I.

And yes, I bake all my own bread too. I like to bake. (shrug) Last night it was apple crisp, whole wheat bread and dinner rolls for tonight's supper with an elderly friend whose wife is in a nursing home and gluten free lemon bars for Amanda's birthday today.

Annie

i prefer from scratch. One, I have a daughter who has celiac. It is much cheaper for me to mix up a GF flour blend and bake a cake from scratch than it is to buy the GF cake mixes. Honestly, regular cake mixes can often be cheaper than making from scratch but I would have devote pantry space to the boxes and I would still have a lot of room devoted to my other baking staples. It is just more efficient for me to make them from scratch. We are a family of 6 all with a definite sweet tooth.

I have probably been baking longer than most of you, but I have to say, I like both usually. Can't beat a homemade banana, carrot or zucchini cake and I do like the hot milk cakes and angel food cakes. I used to make an orange chiffon cake that we liked. Mixes are sure handy to have, at least for me any more. My answer is both with the scratch a bit ahead.

Sue

Both here, too. I noticed yesterday that Publix was putting out a big display of Swansdown cake flour in their holiday baking section. That's the first time I've seen that, and I thought it was interesting.

For me, since wheat aggravates my asthma, I generally use a boxed GF mix if I'm making a cake that I will eat, but I prefer to do scratch for other people, unless it's a plain yellow cake or something like that and I know that they like the taste of boxed better than the real thing.

I do think canned frosting is anathema, though.

The ingredients, or at least one of them, in cake mixes do not sit well on my tummy these days. So, not only do I not make cakes from mixes, I will politely as possible decline the eating of same.

Not worth the pain.

writersblock, I agree on the canned frosting but my grandkids will take a can and a spoon and eat it, swearing it's like "fudge". Um....no. Just no, at least not like MY fudge.

It's too easy to beat some butter and powdered sugar and make frosting. I add either cocoa powder and espresso powder for chocolate, and I've been known to add flavored coffee creamer for raspberry chocolate for my mother. She loves the stuff, both the coffee creamer and the frosting made with it. I drink my coffee black but my girls and my mother and my daughter in law and The Princess all want about half a cup of flavored creamer mixed with half a cup of coffee. Eh, whatever, so I always have their favorite "flavor" around and find they make a passable frosting flavoring. I prefer Penzey's almond extract, but that's too "plain" for the kids' tastes and I've only tried the raspberry chocolate flavor creamer.

Annie

If you want fudgy frosting use Valrhona cocoa. Expensive, though, so maybe let the kids have their can. :)

It depends. If it's an angel food cake, ALWAYS from scratch - mixes don't even taste like an angel food cake (nor do ones from the grocery store or bakery). If I just need to make a cake quickly, I will use a mix and then I always add some form or extract - vanilla, almond or orange. It makes an enormous difference - the cake no longer has that awful artificial metallic taste. Then, I will split the layers and use raspberry jam or lemon curd and frost it with whipped cream. Quick and delicious.

I always make a chocolate cake from scratch. The only time I bake one is if I'm going to be with DS on his birthday and then I bake my late mother's recipe for buttermilk choc cake made in a flat pan.

The my pulmonary rehab has our annual Halloween party, I always take pumpkin crisp - you know, the kind where cake mix is sprinkled over the pumpkin, pecans put on top and tons of butter poured over it. I must have grabbed the wrong kind of yellow cake mix this time and it had an awful taste. Of course, since I was using it dry, I couldn't doctor it up.

Thank heavens that by the next morning, when I reheated it to take to rehab, the awful flavor had dissipated and it was delicious. Thank heavens!

Anglophilia, I especially agree about the angel food cake, even the pre-made cakes at the grocery have a weird taste and even more weird texture, Elery says it's like trying to eat a mattress. (grin) I'm glad your dessert mellowed overnight, I hate it when things are not as I expect them to be when I'm sharing with others.

The Princess was here today helping me can beef and it happened to be her 14th birthday. I asked what she would like for dessert and she said "Red Velvet". Of course she did, my least favorite cake ever, to me it's just a chocolate cake "wannabe". Plus I didn't have red food coloring, I only had neon pink. Anyway, I dragged out the recipe and set the timer. 10 ingredients and 8 minutes later, the cake was in the oven. After cooling we made cream cheese frosting, 4 ingredients and 2 minutes. Just like that, a cake from scratch...

The only problem was that I did not have quite a full pound of powdered sugar, so the frosting wasn't as plentiful as The Princess would have chosen. She ate it anyway. :-)

Annie

Anglophilia, I made your angel food cake recipe earlier this year, and it's perfect! You posted the recipe on the Table. Thanks so much for it.

Has anyone tried the fancy cakes mixes at Williams-Sonoma? Those always puzzle me, placed smack dab in the middle of a store that sells every imaginable tool to make cooking easier/more enjoyable and there are cake mixes.

Are they any good? I somehow doubt anyone here would have tried.

Rita, my DIL gifted me with a pumpkin bread mix from Williams Sonoma a couple of Christmas gifts ago. It was OK, but had that same weird fake flavor that the cheaper mixes have. Texture was better, though.

Annie

Thanks, Annie. That makes sense.

What's the difference between the balloon whisk you buy in the grocery aisle at the discount chain and the one you buy at Williams-Sonoma? Minimum $10, average more like $25 (-ish). Yeah, W-S might have better quality or durability, but for whipping today's eggs, can you tell the difference?

The point of W-S is to give people a delightful shopping experience so they can be separated from their money without protest. People who eat lovely take-out get beautifully matched baking dishes (for reheating said take-out) beautifully in their beautiful $8,000 ovens, and serve it on beautifully matched simple dishes.

Rather than running to the bakery on a Sunday morning, however, they'll buy a season defining pumpkin bread mix from the delightful store to bake up in their beautiful baking dish in their spotless because it never cooked anything more taxing than reheated take-out or pumpkin bread mix $8,000 oven.

And give it as a gift to Annie, because, after all, she bakes, so an expensive delightful season defining mix must be what she wants most of all. ;)

You should write the copy for the W-S catalogue, plllog ;-)

Season defining cake mix, indeed!

OK, Plllog, that cracked me up. (snicker) Yeah, the mix itself underwhelmed me, but the thought was there, I think. "Annie loves to bake and she's so busy, so she'd like this". At least that's what I liked to think as I baked that "season defining" mix in my much less than $8,000 oven which always needs to be cleaned because I either did a high heat roast or a rhubarb pie boiled over into the bottom, LOL. I do have beautifully matched simple dishes, though, $39.00 for a set of 12 at Menard's, white Pfaltzgraff Charlotte pattern, but I only have 10 dinner plates now because I dropped a couple onto my ceramic tile floor and broke them.

Ah well, I guess I'll give up living that Williams-Sonoma lifestyle and go bake something not particularly season defining because I have black bananas on the counter. Or maybe I'll clean my oven. (grin)

Annie

I prefer the scratch cakes I have made to mixes. But to be honest, I think I need a couple of new to me recipes. I love the chocolate birthday cake the family requests, as well as a zucchini cake and pound cake. I have made Texas chocolate sheet cake, but family prefers the birthday cake version.

I just posted this link on a new thread, it appears that cake mixes are pretty much the same, unless you want to pay $15 for one.

https://www.tasteofhome.com/article/we-taste-tested-the-most-popular-brands-of-chocolate-cake-mix/

Anyway, Sheilajoyce, what kind of recipe would you like? I have a good carrot cake recipe, as does LindaC, and I make a Rose Levy Berenbaum banana cake that even I will eat and I'm not a fan of bananas. Pixiestix used to post here and she was a finalist more than once in the Pillsbury bakeoff, her hot milk cake is my all time favorite.

So, what would you like, I'm sure someone here has a favorite recipe. And how can it be bad, you get to taste test cakes!

Annie

Except that they did not test the BC "Original" which has less ingredients in the mix and no preservatives.

I think they couldn't, Martha, because they wanted a comparison of "like to like", and since no one else has the "original" version yet, they probably couldn't. Although they did throw in the WS "bundt" version.

I do hope the BC "original" isn't really the original, though, because I remember the old cake mixes were somewhere between just-plain-awful and abysmal. Much like those first TV dinners on the metal trays and the Appian Way pizza mixes, there have been a lot of improvements in the past years. People want convenience, but they also want an edible product, which I never believed the first versions were. I remember my Mother, who couldn't make a decent pie crust, buying frozen Pet Ritz and finding that there were actually worse pie crusts than hers. Now she uses the ones that come in a red box, rolled up, in the refrigerator case. Pillsbury, maybe? Anyway, they're better than hers and she happily buys them and uses them. I still make my own, but I render my own lard so I'm definitely going to make my own pie crust. If I'm eating at Mother's though, I only hope she bought that refrigerated pie crust. (grin)

As I've often said, taste is not objective, it's subjective. People like what they like. (shrug) I find it hard to believe that any daughter of mine would use a cake mix, but they do. Both of them. That's fine, I've even been known to eat a slice, while I'm wondering about a possible genetic fluke, LOL. I just thought it was interesting that all the cake mixes were ranked so closely, with one being clearly the worst and one the best, but the rest all smack in the middle of the pack. My real interest, though, was how many people would actually pay $15 for a cake mix!

Annie

I don't know, Annie. The hot milk cake sounds interesting.

Sheilajoyce, the Hot Milk Cake is the one I made for my own wedding cake when I married Elery nearly 10 years ago, it's my favorite. Not too sweet and sturdy enough to be used as the base for strawberry shortcake. I make a brown sugar/caramel frosting that tends to be very sweet and grainy, the texture puts some people off, but I like it. So, if you want the cake sweeter, add a sweeter frosting. My Mother likes it made as a layer cake, with raspberry filling in between the layers, then frosted with cream cheese frosting. That makes it plenty sweet, LOL, but it makes a beautiful cake with that red raspberry filling. Just be sure to beat it long enough in that first step, or it'll be dense, I go at least 5 minutes to make it as light as I want it, using my big KitchenAid. Only 7 ingredients, too, I need to make another one soon.

Hot Milk Cake - Pixistix
Old fashioned, simple, melts in your mouth!

4 eggs
2 cups sugar
2 1/4 cups flour
2 1/4 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. vanilla
1 1/4 cups milk
1/2 cup (1 stick) butter
Beat eggs and sugar well. Combine flour with baking powder and add to egg mixture along with vanilla. Heat milk and butter together until butter melts; gradually add to batter, beating until well blended.

Pour batter into a greased 9x13 pan or two 8 inch round layers. Bake at 350 for 30 to 35 minutes for 9x13, 25 to 30 for round layers.

Very simple with a short list of ingredients. I do use real butter, whole milk and large eggs because there isn't a lot of any other flavor for the cake to rely on.

Annie

Thanks, Annie. My family does not like frosting on cake. I fear I am the only one, in fact, and the only reason I don't make carrot cake is because I cannot imagine having it without Philadelphia Cream Cheese frosting. I do frost my zucchini cake, which is similar to a carrot cake, but I bake it to bring along to pot lucks. Then the family can't complain about the PCC frosting, which is soooo good. So I will try this without frosting and see if it passes family taste tests on its own strength. I like to bake our scratch cakes in an angel food cake pan, so I may try that. Thank you again.

You are very welcome. If your family doesn't like frosting, that just means you can do all kinds of other stuff with it, it's all good. Don't skimp on the vanilla, I usually double it, but I ought to try it with orange or lemon extract or almond, that might be good too.

It snowed here today, cake baking season is nearly here, LOL.

Annie

So, Annie, in the interests of completeness, would you like to share the frosting recipe? I like cream cheese frosting except when I make it (I blame the recipe!). ;)

Both, although the scratch tastes better. I make chocolate bundt with a mix recipe that has been around for decades and tastes great the same day. The next day I notice a chemical taste.

I am not a purist, there are uses for most things, but I concentrate on flavor for others. What I serve at home ( organic/scratch/healthy) is not what I make for the soup kitchen. They wouldn't want my food :-)

Plllog, the frosting recipe came from another prior member of the old
Cooking Forum, CindyNY. Well, actually it's her daughter's recipe. If you want enough to frost a 9x13, double the recipe.

Brown Sugar Topping

1 cup packed light brown sugar
1/4 cup whipping cream
1 T unsalted butter
3/4 tsp vanilla
1/2 cup chopped pecans

Combine the brown sugar, whipping cream & butter in a saucepan. Bring to a boil, whisking constantly until smooth. Remove from heat. Stir in vanilla. Let stand 10 minutes. Whisk until of spreading consistency. Stir in the pecans. Spread over the brownies or cake. Let stand 1 hour or until set. Serve cold or at room temperature. Makes enough for an 8x8 pan.

Just a note, the topping seems pretty runny when you put it on the cake, but it sets right up when cool, so don't worry. Also, I usually leave the pecans out as Amanda can't eat them and most of my family members don't like them. Silly people....

Annie

Annie, have you ever made the Hot Milk Cake into cupcakes? Or do you have another cupcake recipe you prefer? I'm rethinking my idea to use a cake mix for the hedgehog cupcakes.

Thanks, Annie! That does sound different and interesting. What I was really hoping for, though, is a really good cream cheese frosting. You mentioned making it for your mom, and I trust yours to taste good. :)

Interesting BBC article that suggests that the prevalent idea that cake mix took off after they removed the dried eggs because adding eggs made women feel more like they were actually baking is, in fact, a myth:

http://www.bbc.com/future/story/20171027-the-magic-cakes-that-come-from-a-packet

Although I question the idea that canned frosting had anything to do with it. Even back when I was a kid most of the moms I knew used mixes unless it was something special, like angel food or Lady Baltimore. And they all used frosting mix, which wasn't exactly "premade," not with all that butter and beating. And that was many years before canned frosting appeared to darken the dessert world.

writersblock, I will disagree with the BBC store -- or at least, perhaps, it is different in America. Part of my DD's job is gathering information and she does, in fact, find that women think they're cooking if they can "do" something to a mix. Her company has even changed their product so that these women can "cook".

Martha Scott, I don't know how old you are, but I'm 62. I still don't think that adding a cup of water to a package of mix for gravy is "cooking", but I do know that a lot of the younger generation(s) just don't cook at all and this would be a stretch for them. There is such a proliferation of convenience foods and fast/casual restaurants and delivery services available that it seems "old fashioned" to some young people to cook. Unfortunately it's that availability and mindset that brought us a generation of children that think chicken only comes in nuggets and causes us to be the most unhealthy we've ever been. (sigh)

writersblock, maybe it's my age, but none of my aunts, my Mother or my Grandmother who lived with us ever used a package of frosting mix, I didn't know they existed until I was a young adult. The only convenience food I ever saw was canned soup, an occasional frozen dinner, Appian Way pizza and Jiffy Mix which my Grandmother used occasionally for banana bread because it was made in Michigan. They were all terrible, LOL.

Olychick, I have made the Hot Milk Cake into cupcakes, to be used for strawberry shortcake They worked OK, but I was careful not to "handle" the batter too strongly so I didn't reduce the loft I got from beating the eggs. Just remember, this is not a "light and fluffy" cake, so it won't have the cake mix texture that most of today's kids recognize.

Plllog, my cream cheese frosting is simple. A stick of butter, a package of cream cheese, beat it together. Add as much powdered sugar as you want, the more you add the sweeter it gets. I usually use a pound. Add a teaspoon or so of good vanilla and a tiny bit of cream if you need to. You're done, it's frosting. 4 ingredients, maybe 5, less than 5 minutes. Plus you have a bowl worth licking. (grin) A caveat? It doesn't crust, it stays soft.

Annie

I don't think it's age, Annie. My mom and her friends were mostly war brides or a few years either way. There were certain kinds of frosting we made from scratch: boiled frosting, anything involving maple, for instance, but while they didn't use a lot of boxed stuff, pretty much everyone we knew used boxed mixes for regular layer cakes at least some of the time, frosting ditto, and Jiffy Corn Bread/Muffin mix if they hadn't grown up in the South. That was pretty much it, though. Everything else was scratch.

Maybe it's not age, writersblock, maybe it's location. Elery laughed when I told him that my Grandfather came to this county in 1905. My Dad was born here, I was born here, my kids were born here, my grandkids were born here. We just never left, and we were always farmers, although Dad and I both had full time jobs to support our bad farming habit, LOL. Our tiny little town only had one very small grocery store, so the selection wasn't large. Maybe if we had lived in a more populated area with more choices, we'd have used more of those things. Back then we only had one vehicle too, and a "run to Grand Rapids" was a big deal and my Grandmother never even had a driver's license. Now I jump in the vehicle and make the 100 mile round trip drive just to go to Sam's and TJs so that I can avoid WalMart and Meijer, the only choices we have here besides Aldi's and Save A Lot. We don't have an actual grocery store, no small independents, no Kroger or Wegman's or Piggly Wiggly or whatever.

I'm not sure I missed much, though. I remember my first pizza was Appian Way and I thought it was just totally disgusting. Grandma agreed and promptly started using her homemade bread dough for crust, now that would be "artisan". (grin)

I remember making a beaten frosting with egg whites (uncooked too, gasp!) and white Karo syrup. We liked it a lot, I wish I still had that, kind of like a 7 minute frosting but uncooked.

Annie

The women in our family made pies and cookies much more often than cakes but they were always from scratch and I made them the same way but I preferred cooking savory dishes rather than sweet ones. Enter my mother-in-law, who made "doctored up " cake mixes that were always gobbled up when she brought them to family get-togethers. So I began using some of her recipes for bake sales, school functions, etc. and as long as people seemed to like them, I didn't care.

At this point in my life, I'm a hybrid when baking. I bake pies and cookies from scratch but a mix of scratch and mixes for cakes. I baked today for our church's CraftFest tomorrow - a pumpkin chiffon cake and chocolate truffle cookies from scratch but made German chocolate cupcakes from a mix topped with the cooked pecan-coconut topping from scratch.

I don't eat cake often enough to be able to discern a mix from scratch. Some taste better than others but I am not able to correlate "from scratch is good" vs. "a mix is bad", and that goes for savory dishes too.

Ruthanna, my family made fruit based desserts far more than cakes or cookies, which were saved for "special" occasions. Cobblers, pies, fruit dumplings, slumps, grunts, those were common. We'd pick wild berries or fruits that we grew and Grandma would can them, then use the berries or fruits in desserts all winter. I think that was a matter of using what we had, what was available and what was cheap (to us). I still like fruit based desserts best, and most "country people" I know grew up with far more pie than anything else.

I bake enough "fancy" cakes for weddings, birthdays, anniversaries, baby showers, etc. that I can definitely tell the difference between scratch and a mix. In texture, cake mix is difficult to work with and transport, it's just not sturdy enough to hold up all that fondant/buttercream/filling/caramel, it's too light and fluffy.

Annie

It never occurs to me to buy a cake mix, and when I bake a cake, I want to have full control over the ingredients. Since I am semi-retired, I have the time to make things the way I like them, but I think I would rather buy a cake from a bakery than buy a cake mix. I used to bake cakes professionally, but I seldom make them anymore - they are not one of my favorite desserts. I liked them more when I was a child. Today I tend to bake pies and tarts much more often than cakes. I also make cookies and candy more often than cakes. I used cake mixes when I was eight and nine years old and stopped by the time I was ten and was entering cakes in the county fair. I won blue ribbons on my cakes when I was ten and eleven.

Annie, I wonder if the cake mixes that are too fluffy use cake flour rather than AP? When I want that kind of delicate flyaway flurry I use Swansdown. I also have a recipe for a chiffon using potato starch and almond flour that's equally fluffy, even with the nut flour. I use a light AP (Gold Medal) for bundt cakes and others which I want to have a firmer texture and more integrity.

I love cake. Just plain cake, like a bundt with no icing. When I lived abroad and had a gas ring with a "baking pot", I made lots and lots of cakes so we'd always have a sweet. This was the middle of nowhere. We had a chain grocery, so could get decent ingredients, but their packaged food was not only terribly expensive, it wasn't very good. Nothing even to rise to the level of Oreos (i.e., sweet cardboard, which, come to think of it, have that same chemical taste).

Thanks for answering my cream cheese question. That's about what I've done. I guess I just need to experiment with it but I really don't do a lot of frosting.

Plllog, I think they make cake mixes to be like that on purpose, because they've all been varying stages of light and fluffy. That's why the bakers on places like Cake Central use a cake mix but add sour cream and more eggs and a cup of flour and a cup of sugar and butter and some extract. I keep thinking they might as well make a cake from scratch, it would be less work and fewer ingredients.

I actually like Oreos, dunked into coffee. Have to take that filling out of the middle first, though, which kind of negates the point of eating oreos. (grin)

Thankfully, I guess, packaged convenience foods have improved since my childhood in the 60s, but now they mostly taste like salt and preservatives to me.

Annie

I was at Trader Joe's yesterday and they have a vanilla cake and baking mix, so I bought one to try for my aforementioned cupcakes for my grandson's birthday party. I don't think 8 year olds are going to care if they are from a mix or not. I think part of the problem for me baking from scratch anymore (that's all I did for years) is that I almost always use the internet for recipes now, instead of a cookbook or recipe card. I find it onerous to keep it on my computer screen and read it easily. With a mix, I just read it once and it's so easy to have the box in my hand. Eyesight, counter set-up, etc. makes using the computer more difficult. It won't set in my cookbook holder!

Will report back about TJ's mix if anyone is interested to know.