Make or Buy? Cake Mix vs. Homemade (2024)

FAQs

Make or Buy? Cake Mix vs. Homemade? ›

While cake mixes have a certain nostalgic comfort-factor, they typically taste flat, sugary, and vaguely chemically while the texture leaves a lot to be desired. Cakes made from scratch just taste better: rich, buttery, and moist with lots of sweet flavor nuances that make it hard to stop eating more.

As a professional baker, I don't often use boxed mixes, but I appreciate how easily they bring a cake together. I think premade mixes are great for beginners gaining confidence around the kitchen and also for last-minute cake "emergencies."

Turns out, whilst baking from scratch at home is still cheaper than buying a cake from a professional bakery, it would actually be cheaper to Fake Bake. You don't need to turn on the oven, saving you on energy.

In addition to the variety of options available when baking your own cakes, there are also numerous health benefits to consider. Homemade cakes allow for control over the ingredients used, making them a healthier alternative to store-bought options which often contain preservatives and artificial ingredients.

Scratch cakes have a distinctively different crumb and mouth-feel from box mixes because box mixes contain ingredients like emulsifiers that are not readily available to the home cook.

The box mix is about $1.50 cheaper and requires less effort, energy, and attention. And really, the flavor isn't that bad…just not that remarkable. Homemade cakes can sometimes be fussy, especially if you don't make them very often, but dang!

Cakes can be expensive because of the ingredients, labour, and equipment used to make them. However, there are ways to save money on cakes without sacrificing quality or taste. For example, choosing a smaller cake size can save money on the cake itself and the decorations.

With sometimes thousands of customers coming in daily, most grocery stores don't have the luxury of baking each cake from scratch. Many stores have premade cake layers and frosting shipped to them in bulk, which they then assemble on-site. This allows for cost-saving and a more streamlined process.

As for the taste, fresh eggs, butter, and high-quality ingredients produce a tastier cake than the artificial flavor and texture you get from store-bought or packaged cakes. That's what gives homemade cakes a homey and delicious taste that is incomparable. Baking cakes from scratch can be a fun experiment.

Why do my cakes never taste good? ›

Most common reason is when the oven door is opened too soon and the cake hasn't set up and baked properly. The mixture could be too soft due to not enough ingredients or if there is too much liquid added. Using too much raising agents can make the cake rise too much too quickly and it implodes on itself.

Thanks to specialized ingredients like hydrogenated vegetable shortening, box cakes remained moist, with a soft, buttery crumb, yet were sturdy enough to stack in layers. For many bakers, the tender-crumbed texture of a box cake is now the cake ideal.

"I never use boxed cake mix in a professional setting UNLESS I am specifically developing a cake that calls for one, like an old-fashioned strawberry poke cake," Jessie Sheehan told Food Republic — Sheehan is a recipe developer, baker, podcast host, and cookbook author of "Snackable Bakes: 100 Easy-Peasy Recipes for ...

While their convenience can't be denied, the reality that they're not homemade hangs over them. That's where doctoring up boxed mix comes in—not only can it make the cake taste better, but it also makes people feel like they're baking.

Use Butter Instead of Oil

My favorite swap and also the easiest: add melted butter instead of canola or vegetable oil, which most boxed cake mixes call for. Butter adds moisture and fat just like any oil, but it also has that unmistakable butter flavor that we all know and love.

Metal bakeware is often preferred because of its ability to heat up quickly, produce evenly baked goods, and cool down quickly. The nonstick surface is convenient, especially for novice bakers and cooks. Finally, the metal may be able to withstand a higher temperature than other options in glass or ceramic.

Boxed cake mixes are so convenient, but never as good as cake made from scratch. Luckily there are plenty of ways to upgrade boxed mix so that your cakes taste homemade. There is so much to love about boxed cake mix. They are easy to bake, guaranteed to be delicious, and for many of us, full of nostalgia.

Commercial cakes are usually made using a batter prepared from fat, wheat flour, eggs, sugar, water, milk powder, flavourings, raising agents (sodium carbonate) and preservatives (sulphur dioxide). The ingredients are mixed thoroughly using either the flour or sugar batter methods.

Pastry flour is the middle ground between cake flour and all-purpose flour. Professional bakers love that it's finely milled with a protein content that hovers around eight to nine percent, striking the perfect balance between flakiness and tenderness while maintaining structure.