Cake Month: Boxed Mix or Scratch Recipe?
One of the most important decisions you’ll make about your DIY cake, and one that tortures many a would-be DIY cake maker, is what kind of cake to make. In a later post we’ll go through flavor and filling options but this one’s devoted to the boxed mix or scratch dilemma.
There are few debates as heated in the cake world as the use of boxed mix versus scratch cakes. While I am a strong advocate of the latter, I do want to give a fair look at both sides to help you discover which option is best for your needs.
Box Mix Pros:
- Convenient, pre-mixed packages mean little measuring and no guesswork with ingredients yielding a pretty consistent result from cake-to-cake.
- Packages can be purchased way ahead of time and stored until needed.
- Box mixes are inexpensive, especially when purchased on sale.
- Most people are very familiar with box mix flavors and have fond associations of those kinds of cakes (reminds them of childhood, for example).
Box Mix Cons:
- Limited flavor, texture, and “weight” options.
- Box mixes use a lot of chemicals for stabilization and preservation.
- Some mixes have a chemical taste to them.
- You’ll need to buy a lot of boxes to feed your wedding guests; it’s harder to scale to feed large groups.
- Box mixes are not always less expensive than baking from scratch.
Pros of Scratch Mixes:
- Unlimited flavor options. If you can dream it, there’s likely a perfect cake flavor waiting for you to discover it.
- You control the ingredients and can add to or modify recipes to suit your needs. Wheat allergies? Vegan? Organic ingredients only? Carrot cake without nuts? No trans fats? Diabetic options? No problem!
- Freshness. Made-from-scratch cakes don’t need chemical stabilizers or preservatives. (Take a look at the ingredients on a box mix cake.)
- Scratch recipes often yield cakes with more body and substance – better for wedding cakes.
- Pride. There’s definitely a satisfaction that one gets from making something that takes creativity, patience and skill that can’t be experienced with shortcuts.
Cons of Scratch Mixes:
- Baking from scratch requires measuring ingredients accurately.
- Some argue that scratch mixes are faster; over at The Kitchn, they they proved that wrong.
- Baking from scratch doesn’t yield standardized results.
- Depending on your ingredients, scratch cakes can be more expensive to produce.
- Scaling recipes up or down is easier than with a box mix.
As for cake mix being less expensive than scratch, you may be surprised at what we found in the DIY Bride Test Kitchen. That’s another post, though.
My best advice is for you to do a taste and bake test with scratch cakes and box cakes to find the ones that fit the taste, texture, and budget that you’re aiming for. (Check back for the DIY Bride Test Kitchen results.)
Remember: a wedding cake needs to taste great, no matter how clever or fancy it looks.
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I feel like I'm becoming a regular (or a nuisance!) here.
Depending on the flavor, I do some scratch mixes – but more often than not, I buy a lot of boxed cake mixes when they are on sale, and use the book The Cake Mix Doctor by Anne Byrn to 'doctor' it up. (Don't bother with her followup books, the first one has everything you need, the others have a lot of repeats.) Her buttermilk chocolate cake is my default chocolate cake these days; you can use a red velvet box mix to make it visually prettier. (Red velvet is just chocolate with a lot of red food coloring.)
A good recipe for a basic white wedding cake is: http://www.recipezaar.com/recipe/White-Almond-S… I used this one and even my pickiest “I don't like anything but vanilla” cake eater loved it.
I feel like I'm becoming a regular (or a nuisance!) here.
Depending on the flavor, I do some scratch mixes – but more often than not, I buy a lot of boxed cake mixes when they are on sale, and use the book The Cake Mix Doctor by Anne Byrn to 'doctor' it up. (Don't bother with her followup books, the first one has everything you need, the others have a lot of repeats.) Her buttermilk chocolate cake is my default chocolate cake these days; you can use a red velvet box mix to make it visually prettier. (Red velvet is just chocolate with a lot of red food coloring.)
A good recipe for a basic white wedding cake is: http://www.recipezaar.com/recipe/White-Almond-S… I used this one and even my pickiest “I don't like anything but vanilla” cake eater loved it.
Sara, your input is more than welcome! I'm definitely more in the scratch camp but totter over into box mixes in a pinch. I've heard mixed things about The Cake Doctor – so glad you offered it up as a recommendation.
Sara, your input is more than welcome! I'm definitely more in the scratch camp but totter over into box mixes in a pinch. I've heard mixed things about The Cake Doctor – so glad you offered it up as a recommendation.
Such a helpful post! I love this blog
Such a helpful post! I love this blog
I think that you have summarized the pros and cons very well.
I am definitely in the Scratch Mixes camp. There are two reasons for that. First, I love to experiment when making cakes. There are so many variations that you simply miss out if you limit yourself to the box mixes. Obviously there is a downside to experimenting – the results are not predictable. So if I bake a cake for some important occasion I would have a trial run first and bake a small cake just for the family. If we all like the cake, then I would follow the recipe to the letter while baking for the big occasion (this for me is the most difficult part as I am always tempted to make some minor changes to the recipe).
The second reason is that I quite often have to bake without milk and eggs – something that is close to impossible with the ready mixed cakes.
I think that you have summarized the pros and cons very well.
I am definitely in the Scratch Mixes camp. There are two reasons for that. First, I love to experiment when making cakes. There are so many variations that you simply miss out if you limit yourself to the box mixes. Obviously there is a downside to experimenting – the results are not predictable. So if I bake a cake for some important occasion I would have a trial run first and bake a small cake just for the family. If we all like the cake, then I would follow the recipe to the letter while baking for the big occasion (this for me is the most difficult part as I am always tempted to make some minor changes to the recipe).
The second reason is that I quite often have to bake without milk and eggs – something that is close to impossible with the ready mixed cakes.
Hot tip for improving boxed cakes:
use a cup of buttermilk INSTEAD of the water called for
use same amount of oil that is called for
use 4 eggs
I guarantee you will get a more desirable taste and texture!
Hot tip for improving boxed cakes:
use a cup of buttermilk INSTEAD of the water called for
use same amount of oil that is called for
use 4 eggs
I guarantee you will get a more desirable taste and texture!