On 3/13/2011 10:00 AM, 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.

My favorite cake does indeed come in a box but it's a frozen Pepperidge
Farms coconut three-layer cake. It's tasty and delicate and the right
size - small. My mom used to buy frozen cakes back in the old days but
it never occurred to me do such a quaint thing. I don't know what the
hell they put in those cakes but I'm pretty much hooked. The lemon cake
is good too. :-)