Do you use ready made cake mixes?

JAS_OH1 said:
I buy cake flour when I bake a cake from scratch, which is rare. I generally use a box mix because I am completely lazy with baking sweets.
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Some recipes even call for the box cake mix (yellow / vanilla) to be jazzed up, especially when making a Rum Pecan Cake. I used to make it back in the '80's. :whistling:
 
Sometimes I do use them.

As I’ve documented here before, I seriously struggle with being able to bake the simplest of cakes from scratch. I can get things to go wrong with a cake that no one else has ever had happen.

That doesn’t keep me from periodically trying, though. I probably haven’t cracked the code because I try just once or twice a year, instead of taking a week off of work and baking cake after cake after cake.

When I need a cake that someone else is actually going to eat, I’ll use a cake mix, and if it’s a specialty cake I’m making that doesn’t have a mix, I’ll start with the box mix and then doctor it up using the recipe I’m trying to duplicate.
 
When we were in Cinci over Xmas, we bought some Betty C cake mixes. Easy peasy - even I could manage them without screwing up.
But now that I think of it, the last time we were in Caracas, I bought a mix called "Renata", which I think comes from Brazil. Cheaper, and even better.
Just like TR, I occasionally decide I´ve got to give it a go; stubborness sets in and I say "I´m not going to let this stupid cake defeat me! No! Have at you, damned cake!!" and I trundle off to get the ingredients, religiously follow the instructions, make the cake...
and it´s awful :hyper: :hyper:
In lockdown 2 years ago, I made a Carrot Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting. The cake itself was dry and the teeth-tingling amount of sugar in the frosting kept me running around the garden for a week. even the dog wouldn´t eat it!
 
Sometimes when I am tired and want a guaranteed result. As an ex caterer I can tell you that lots of catering places use premade mixes too. It saves time and a whole lot of prep and the result is usually just as good.

If I am really tired, I might make a cake from a box if I expect guests. However, all the cakes I post on here are ones I made myself. Otherwise I'd feel like I've cheated.
 
My oma used to make all kinds of dishes from scratch. As I recall she never looked at a recipe or cookbook (they would have been in German), as she didn't speak or read English). One of my favorite meals that she made was sauerbraten, kartoffelkloesse und rotkohl (sour beef, potato dumplings and red cabbage. She always made extra dumplings to be sliced and fried in butter for fruhstuck (breakfast). there should be umlauts over the 'u's.
 
TastyReuben said:
As I’ve documented here before, I seriously struggle with being able to bake the simplest of cakes from scratch. I can get things to go wrong with a cake that no one else has ever had happen.
Click to expand...

:laugh: I find it easiest not to make cakes at all. I can turn out a decent sponge but that's about it.
 
JAS_OH1 said:
[Mod edit: posts moved to form new topic (MG)]


I buy cake flour when I bake a cake from scratch, which is rare. I generally use a box mix because I am completely lazy with baking sweets.
Click to expand...
You aren't the only one! A lemon cake box mix is a nice handy little treat.
It can be improved by using fresh lemon juice etc.

Not everything has to be full-value, full-on effort, am I right?
 
I'm no expert baker, but I don't think I've ever used a box cake mix. I'm intrigued though....all the cake mixes I've seen you have to add eggs, fat and water, so what exactly do you get in the box apart from flour, baking powder and flavourings?
 
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