Why does store-bought cake taste better?
Store-bought cakes taste different from homemade ones because they have added chemicals in them. They add stabilizers, preservatives, colorings, and artificial flavors to boxed cake mixes in order to make them last longer on the shelves and look better over time.
Homemade cakes are healthier than store-bought ones because you can control the ingredients' quality. For example, you can use fresh, wholesome, or organic ingredients.
- The only directions to note are that whatever the back of the box directs you to use, you have to:
- Add an additional egg.
- Replace the water with milk, same amounts.
- Replace the oil with melted butter. DOUBLE the amount.
- Cook with the same directions that are printed on the box.
NPR reports that cookies feature a chemical called methylbutanol, which contributes to the toasty flavor we associate with cookies and other baked goods. Dipping cookies into hot beverages release this flavor more quickly into your mouth.
Pastry chefs often soak cakes in a simple syrup made of equal parts granulated sugar and water after the cakes come out of the oven. This step can add sweetness and moisten the cake. In addition to simple syrup, you can also use coconut milk, evaporated milk, or flavored liqueur.
According to Jarosch Bakery, the reason cakes from the supermarket taste much different than cakes from a local bakery is that supermarkets make their cakes in bulk with lower-cost ingredients, so that they can produce larger amounts.
I have worked in quite a few bakeries and the majority of them use a cake mix when making their cakes. The basics of the cake mix is what you find in traditional store box mix, but then there are different added ingredients which make the cake the traditional bakery cake you are used to.
Quality. like margarine, bleached flour(which add uniformity), cake gels which make the sponge moist, dried egg powder, etc homemade cakes use the purest and most simple ingredients, like flour, egg, sugar, water, and butter which assures that the quality remains high.
A cake means a special celebration
A majority of the time, when someone orders a cake, it's to celebrate an accomplishment, birthday, or holiday. We love that we can provide a cake that can help your celebration be a delicious success.
Because emulsifiers hold water and fat together, adding extra egg yolks to the batter enables the batter to hold extra liquid and, consequently, extra sugar. This helps create a moister and sweeter cake that will still bake up with a good structure rather than falling into a gooey mass.
What does adding pudding to cake mix do?
Put some pudding in the mix: Add a small box of pudding mix in with the cake mix. (Don't make the pudding.) The mix adds additional flavor, moistness, and a denser texture.
Milk in cake recipes, generally makes the texture lighter and stronger (thanks to the protein and lactic acid),. Adding the right amount keeps the cake from being dense. Milk (and other liquids) actually activates other ingredients in the cake batter like leaveners (baking soda, baking powder).

Therefore, in the batter, there is less starch competing for access to the taste receptors, diluting the ability of the sugar to reach them. At the same time, the sugar is already dissolved and more readily accessible to the taste receptors.
According to the Institute of Food Technologists, flavors can be enhanced overnight due to chemical reactions, which continue to take place after cooking and produce more and/or new flavor molecules in a variety of ingredients, which is why leftovers can taste so good.
Add Vegetable Oil. While butter will give you the best flavor, vegetable oil will make your cakes moister. I use a combination of salted butter and vegetable oil in all my cake recipes to get the most flavorful and moistest results. Vegetable oil stays a liquid at room temperature, while butter solidifies.
Cake flour, which is more finely ground and contains less protein than its all-purpose counterpart, is a major contributor to how soft and the overall weight of a cake. Since cake flour has less protein, less gluten is formed. Without all of that gluten, the cake becomes less dense, airy, and smooth.
Leavening Agents
Since we're talking about cake and not yeast bread, we'll focus on chemical leavening. The reaction of baking soda or baking powder with the liquids in the batter releases carbon dioxide, which forms air bubbles to help your cakes be light and airy.
If you do a lot of home baking then it works out cheaper, but if you are doing something out of the ordinary and have to go out and buy items every time you want to bake something, then you'll end up spending more. I love baking and decorating cakes, I have to shell out more for icing, colourings etc etc....
Pantry | Fridge | |
---|---|---|
Bakery Cake lasts for | 1-2 Days | 2-4 Days |
Cake with fresh fruit lasts for | -- | 1-2 Days |
Cake with whipped cream lasts for | -- | 1-2 Days |
Fruit Cake lasts for | -- | 3-25 Years* |
It's recommended to place a cake order at least two months in advance. Of course, this window can be subject to change, so getting quotes as early as possible is always a good idea.
Is it better to use water or milk in cake mix?
Milk: Add MILK, not water, when your box mix calls for liquid. The milk adds density, fat and, most importantly, extra flavor to your mix. Egg WHITES: Not adding the yolks to the cake makes the cake fluffy and whiter!
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! It's hard to beat a homemade cake for flavor and texture!
When baking with cake mix, you don't need to use eggs, oil or even water! You just need a can of soda pop. The carbon dioxide bubbles in soda pop act as a leavening agent — the element that makes baked goods rise and makes them light and fluffy.
The first cakes are believed to have been prepared by the Ancient Greeks who baked round or moon shaped cakes or bread sweetened with honey to symbolize the moon. They topped the cakes with candles to please Artemis, the Moon Goddess.
The cake wall, essentially, is built on a turntable. There's a wall in the middle of a circular turntable, and what happens is you build up the displays behind the wall, flip the wall around, and then flip it away again to replace it with a new display. That's the theory of it.
"Processed food" includes food that has been cooked, canned, frozen, packaged or changed in nutritional composition with fortifying, preserving or preparing in different ways. Any time we cook, bake or prepare food, we're processing food.
A good quality cake should have a texture that is smooth and pliable. They measure this by touching the cake. The texture of the cake completely depends on the physical condition of the crumb and the type of grain. A good quality cake will have a soft, velvety texture without weakness, and it should not be crumbly.
A cake is usually associated with a happy event like a birthday or such. So when you give someone cake, it usually brings up those memories. And even if it doesn't bring up a memory, the brain will consider it as a treat or a reward. That will immediately make the person feel happier than they were before.
A cake is essential when it comes to celebrations. It adds more happiness to the occasion, symbolises success and milestones, and makes a perfect gift to warm the heart of the celebrant. Nothing can beat the power of cakes to light up the party and make things extra special.
Beating the eggs before adding them to the batter is very important. This step is often skipped though because many people think it is a waste of time. They just crack the eggs right into the batter and go about mixing. I want to encourage you though not to skip the step of beating the eggs when a recipe calls for it.
What happens if you use two eggs instead of three in a cake?
Overall, changing the number of eggs in your cake recipe can alter the properties of your cake. Too few eggs will yield a cake that is overly compact and doesn't hold together will. Too many eggs can leave you with a spongy or rubbery mess.
Betty Crocker mix says: add the whole egg and don't change anything else. That means 1 egg for every 1 egg white. This will make a softer cake after baked. But it will also yellow the cake mix.
The easiest way to make your box cake taste homemade like Paula Deen's is by replacing the recommended ingredients with juicer ones. Therefore, instead of water, you can add more fat and milk, and double the number of eggs in the mixture.
When it comes to baking, substituting butter for oil is simple. Most cake mixes call for oil, but butter will bring in amazing flavor. To substitute butter for oil in baking just melt the butter, measure it, let it cool, and add it as you would the oil.
Sour cream adds moisture without thinning your batter the same way that a liquid would. That fact that sour cream delivers moisture without further thinning out a batter results in a cake with a very tender, very fine crumb.
We're glad you asked. Betty Crocker SuperMoist cake mixes already have pudding in the mix. If you want to add pudding, we recommend using only Betty Crocker recipes that have been tested with added pudding.
Vanilla pudding mix is basically cornstarch, sugar, and artificial flavorings and coloring. So to replace it in a recipe, you need cornstarch and sweetener and vanilla flavor. A standard vanilla pudding recipe contains: So thats 1 part cornstarch to 2 parts sugar.
The easiest way to make your box cake taste homemade like Paula Deen's is by replacing the recommended ingredients with juicer ones. Therefore, instead of water, you can add more fat and milk, and double the number of eggs in the mixture.
A cake that is overly dense typically has too much liquid, too much sugar or too little leavening (not excess flour, as is commonly thought). A cake that bakes too slowly takes longer to set and may fall, causing a dense texture.