I am opening my own small home-based bakeshop. I have been using your books and recipes for sometime now and love everyone. My question may have already been asked but I could not find it. My wife is saying if I am going to be baking and selling cakes and cupcakes I have to bake totally from scratch and quit using a cake mix. My take on it is that it is nothing more than having the dry ingredients in a container like just making it all from scratch and boxing it up for future use. Does anyone have an opinion. Oops, should not have asked that as everyone has an opinion. I just do not see what the difference between beginning with cake flour and adding the dry ingredients has over getting it out of a box. It is what you do with the ingredients in the box is my opinion. Please let me know what you think.

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Cooking is a passion, but baking is a science.

It is really hard to get a good scratch cake when you are baking in large batches like a bakery. Find a good commercial mix and doctor it as we do here. There are some really good ones. They come in big (50 lb.) bags with a basic formula printed on the side. A good baking supply rep. would be helpful. Once you have the basic formula you can play with flavors etc. I have always had a hard time getting a moist flavorful cake from scratch even baking for my family at home, I prefer cake mixes for the consistency of the results and the ability to get creative with flavors.
birdy

Thanks for the reply to my post. I am a small bakeshop. If I do 20 cakes a week and maybe 100 cupcakes it will be a very, very busy week. My goal is just to subsidize my social security check. A 50 lb bag would probably last a long, long time for me. I really do appreciate the response and will print it up to show my wife I am not the only one who believes a mix is the way to go

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Cooking is a passion, but baking is a science.

I used to bake and decorate cakes for a small home business including wedding cakes and I always used doctored mixes and my cakes always got great comments. I think most people don't care if it's a mix or homemade if it's a good tasting moist cake. Good luck with your venture!

thanks for the reply. I finally have my wife convinced using a mix is alright. It is what I do with the mix is what makes it good.

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Cooking is a passion, but baking is a science.