Ask the Cake Lady: “Can a Cake Made from a Doctored Cake Mix Taste Like One Made from Scratch?”
Well, we have two very adamant teams that go head-to-head routinely in this debate. It’s a battle of wills, belief systems, tradition versus modernity…It’s quite the contested topic. But what it really comes down to is this: Is the flavor, taste, and experience the same? Every argument I’ve watched unfold (or have partaken in) comes around to that basic question rather quickly.
“Well, it’s what my customers like, and I’m in the business of making what they like,” argue many cakers.
Exactly. It really is all about what sells and what our customers—the “Eaters of the Cake”—enjoy most. And many customers truly like mix-based baked goods because that’s what we’ve become accustomed to eating. Win for the customer—they get what they want. Win for you—you sold another cake and they enjoyed it.
But let’s get to the heart of the debate: do they taste the same?
I’m going to weigh in with a resounding NOPE. Cakes made from mixes, with all their additives, chemicals and artificial flavors thrown in, will never taste like cakes made from scratch, even if the mixes were doctored. They just won’t. They are different species of cake, just like lions and house cats are both the same kind of animal, loved equally for different reasons, but are still separate species.
You can be a lion or a house cat, a scratch baker or a mix baker, and still sell your cakes to hungry bellies and earn a buck. There’s room for all of us in the caking kingdom. So retract the claws, grab your spatulas and get baking! Someone somewhere needs a cake.
