On Sun, 13 Mar 2011 12:00:19 -0800, Mark Thorson >
wrote:

>This web site makes the bold claim that most home bakers
>cannot make a cake from scratch better than from a boxed
>cake mix.
>
>http://www.waynesthisandthat.com/cake.html
>
>His reasons are that the ingredients are better measured,
>and they use ingredients that you can't get.
>
>He also says that making certain changes to the recipe
>on the box results in even better cakes. He cites a
>book, _The_Cake_Mix_Doctor_, which agrees with him and
>describes some of these methods.
>
>Most of his page describes the experiments he did to
>verify the tips in that book, and to compare all of the
>boxed cake mixes he could get his hands on. Most of
>the tips didn't pan out, but the modifications he
>developed worked very well.
>
>I think this will come as a surprise to many bakers,
>that making a cake from a box mix gives a better result
>than most bakers can achieve from scratch with butter, etc.

As a market researcher of 35 years' experience, I say hooey to the
broad conclusions.

The major flaw is that most folks were raised on mix cakes - doctored
or otherwise - and that sort of taste and texture is what gets
established as the gold standard in the mind of these beholders. Same
reason that McD's usually wins in French fry contests.

Boron