You Mine
I'll Show
Me Yours
You Show
If
Cake Mix vs. The Scratch Cake
By Lauren Kitchens
(If you bake your cakes from scratch, this article is not for you.)
Shortly after graduating college, in an effort to take my cake
obsession to the next level, I got a job at a cake supply store. I
ran the cash register, restocked cookie cutters, and listened to
the mesmerizing conversations of the women who shopped and
attended classes at the store.
The one topic that always came up was the controversy over cake
mix versus a cake made from scratch. The tone was always secretive,
in an "I'll show you mine if you show me yours" kind of way.
At the time, around the mid-90's, there was a lot of shame
associated with cake mixes. If a cake decorator of any merit
admitted to using a cake mix, the reaction was extreme. Either a
frown of judgment or a sigh of relief would come from the person
observing this secret information.
As a budding cake artist, I never thought using Duncan Hines
would be such a fatal flaw. "I'm a cake decorator," I thought to
myself. "I'm not a pastry chef." I was on a mission to find an easy
and fast way to bake my cakes so I could get down to designing
and decorating, which is what I love about cakes in the first place.
When I was starting out, baking a cake from scratch was tiresome
and pricey with unpredictable results. The glorious cake mix was
cost effective with reliable moistness and deliciousness. Why all
the shame?
I continued on my path of cake-discovery and attempted to bake
a scratch cake. But time and time again, my clients preferred the
soft, sweet cake mix. However if I ever told a client they were
eating Duncan Hines cake doctored up with extra ingredients and
decadent flavor compounds, they would probably cancel their order
simply because it was a cake mix.
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And there was the cause of the Cake Mix Shame: the idea that
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