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.

I have read that in many places. So back when I used to bake cakes, the
only one I ever made from scratch was chocolate tweed because there was no
such mix. But now that I think about it, I'll bet if I were to add grated
chocolate to a yellow cake mix, it would taste the same.