Do you bake from scratch or right out of the box?

[hereyago]

Do you hang it upside down on a bottle after in comes out of the oven until it is cool?

I have it written down without bottle,just flip it over. But that isn't working So like a glass bottle and leave it on there? Ok, I am going to try tomorrow.thanks. My grandmother didn't write recipes down so my aunt tried to recall and wrote it down. Thank you!

 

[kcool]

I have it written down without bottle,just flip it over. But that isn't working So like a glass bottle and leave it on there? Ok, I am going to try tomorrow.thanks. My grandmother didn't write recipes down so my aunt tried to recall and wrote it down. Thank you!

Yep, just on a glass bottle! I hope that works for you! I love angel food cake!

 

[Bob NC]

One of the funniest things I ever heard was when my kid was little. One of his little neighbor friends was over and he said "Here, try a piece of the cake my Dad made, he made it out of scratch"

Now we use that term ALL the time.

 

[nancycg56]

I do both but more from scratch than box

 

[LJSquishy]

I've never had brownies from scratch I don't think. I love the taste of boxed brownie mixes. (I only have them maybe once a year at most).

I can no longer stand boxed cake mixes/frosting. My MIL used to make wedding cakes so once I started dating my husband I quickly got used to having cakes made from scratch, including the buttercream icing. I have one SIL who makes boxed cupcakes & cakes and uses canned frosting and while her intentions are good and it's "homemade", it is all so gross. My other SIL is more like I am and likes to make things as natural and healthy as possible. She recently made a deliciously moist chocolate cake that included carrots, spinach, and bananas in the cake mix. It was super moist and I loved it...only the banana flavor came through. She topped it with whipped cream & sliced strawberries.

I'm actually not a big cake fan. I especially dislike gobs of frosting. I usually make my husband an ice cream cake for his birthday with a cookie/fudge crust. No cake in it.

 

[Shyvioletisme]

exclusively from scratch. I don't like mixes, plus I like the idea of knowing specifically everything I'm putting in there. It is so easy to make stuff from scratch and to me it just tastes so much better.

 

[MrsPete]

From the box cakes aren't worth the effort or the calories. On the rare occasion that we have one here, no one eats it. If you're used to good, homemade cakes, boxed cakes just don't taste good (no, not even those with mix-ins of this or that type).

A from-scratch cake doesn't take more than ten minutes to mix up, if you have things organized in the kitchen. Some hints on doing it well:

- set out all your ingredients an hour before you start, and let them come to room temperature
- use fresh baking powder; if it's been sitting in your cabinet for a year, it's probably lost its effeciency
-margarine is not butter . . . Most recipes are best with butter, but I have a couple that call for margarine . . . Sticks of spread have almost completely replaced margarine, and they are mostly oil; they should never be used in baking
- if you're making biscuits, mix the ingredients just 'til they're incorporated -- ideally, you stir no more than 30 times . . . A cake, in contrast, requires lengthy beating to incorporate air and make it light and fluffy -- so a stand mixer is ideal
- measure carefully
- follow directions -- don't do what my husband does and figure you can skip steps or leave out ingredients without consequence . . . This includes using the correct size pan
- check your oven to see if it's accurate, and don't put the pan in 'til it's up to temp
- when the cake is done, set it out on a cooling rack and cover it with a towel . . After ten minutes, flip it out of the pan -- more time, it may stick to the pan, less time, it isn't ready to support itself and will lose shape around the edges

 

[Scornelius]

A from-scratch cake doesn't take more than ten minutes to mix up, if you have things organized in the kitchen. Some hints on doing it well:

- set out all your ingredients an hour before you start, and let them come to room temperature

I love that step one in your ten minute process takes an hour.

 

[Pembo]

I do both. I prefer baking from scratch but occasionally use a box mix. Usually make my own icing too.

I'm not as precise as MrsPete. I set out the ingredients before I start, just to make sure I have them all, so seconds on the counter not an hour. I buy the margarine sticks, never had a problem. I do measured carefully. I have no idea if my oven temp is accurate. I've been known to put things in before the oven is fully heated. And I've been known to flip a cake out hours after cooling with no problems.

 

[SandrA9810]

I have it written down without bottle,just flip it over. But that isn't working So like a glass bottle and leave it on there? Ok, I am going to try tomorrow.thanks. My grandmother didn't write recipes down so my aunt tried to recall and wrote it down. Thank you!

Are your eggs collapsing before baking or is the cake collapsing after baking?

Ideally, you want to place your cake upside down to cool and a glass bottle works well for this.

If your eggs are falling before you bake, then it's your mixing.
You want your eggs to come to a stiff peak in the mixer. I add the cream of tartar, salt, and vanilla during this step.
The flour and sugar is folded in after you get done whipping the eggs. DO NOT DO IT IN THE MIXER. I use a rubber spatula, and gently mix it in, in thirds. I don't always get it thoroughly beaten like you would a regular cake. But I get most of it.

It should fill the bundt pan and only rise slightly higher during baking. I don't always have a bottle on hand, and I just set the cake on the stove, on a burner since cool air can get underneath it. It should be light and fluffy, and some bounce to it. BTW, it is a sticky mess, but never grease the aluminum pan. I go around mine with a butter knife on the sides, then place my hand along the outside and gently pry it out of the bottom. Soak the pan overnight with some water, and go at it with an SOS pad to keep it shiny. The pans I use are my grandmother's old thin aluminum pans. Never tried it with any of the newer coated pans like Nordic Ware.

Here's one I made last night. It's taken everything out of me not to eat the whole thing in one sitting.

 

[mhsjax]

Not sure if this is exactly what you are looking for but it's what came to mind when you asked

Recipe:
1/2 cup butter
1/4 cup cocoa
1 tbs milk (I usually add another or 2))
16 oz powder sugar (4 cups)
1 tsp vanilla

Bring butter milk and cocoa to a bubble. Beat in sugar. Last add vanilla. Should almost be pouring consistency.

The cake I make it with you are supposed to "pour" it on when the cake is still hot.

Reminds me of fudge when cooled.

HTH

I bet this is it. I seem to remember my mom pouring it on. Thank you so much.

 

[disneychrista]

Nearly everything we bake is scratch. Everything must be vegan (no eggs or dairy) and box mixes are very expensive. It is not that much harder than the box anyway.

 

[Maleficent Dragon]

I am a "from scratch" baker and come up with a lot of my own recipes. I do both gluten free and non-GF items. I like to know what it going in it and I like organic products. It tastes so much better.

I make amazing real buttercream and have had people beg me for the recipe each time I serve cupcakes or cake. I wont share it though...it is my secret. LOL I plan to open a bakery and would like to keep my recipe mine.

 

[Maleficent Dragon]

For those who do make cakes from boxes, here are some tips to make it taste more like homemade.....

Use 1 stick of melted butter instead of oil.
Use Milk instead of water.
Add vanilla to the mix.
Add a box of pudding, sour cream or cream of tarter to the mix.
Add 1 more egg than the recipe calls for.


You would be surprised, but many professional bakeries use cake mixes and this is what they do.

 

[poohguys]

I always make brownies from scratch. A few weeks ago I decided to try a box mix and hated it. Scratch ones are so easy. Use boxed cake mix, but usually make home made butter cream icing. Only use pre made if really in a rush. Cookies are always from scratch. The one thing I can never get right from scratch is pie crust

 

[hlg22]

Everything from scratch. We avoid processed foods and I don't really find cooking from scratch much harder; we even bake all our own bread.

Same here, I can't even remember the last time I bought a box mix. I always have basic baking ingredients on hand, so if I get a craving for brownies, I can whip them up and have them in the oven in 10 mins., so it's not even like a box mix would be that much faster.

I recently made a "funfetti" cake from scratch for a birthday party that people went nuts for...I kept getting questions about what "brand" I used because it was soooo much better than the one they usually bought...

 

[eliza61]

For those who do make cakes from boxes, here are some tips to make it taste more like homemade.....

Use 1 stick of melted butter instead of oil.
Use Milk instead of water.
Add vanilla to the mix.
Add a box of pudding, sour cream or cream of tarter to the mix.
Add 1 more egg than the recipe calls for.

You would be surprised, but many professional bakeries use cake mixes and this is what they do.

Which always tickled me because why not just bake from scratch if you are making all those substitutions?

 

[tasha99]

From scratch except for brownies. I'll bake them from either a mix or from scratch, but I've found the mixes to be simple and quite good.

 

[luvsJack]

I rarely bake anything but when I do its a mix with a little tweaking.

My granddaughters love the cookies from pillsbury that are just break apart and bake--Turtle chocolate chip, walnuts and chocolate chips, etc--so that's what I get. Dd's bff told her mom she should bake these, so the child asked for my recipe. You should have seen her face when the steps were 1. go to WalMart 2. look in the dairy case. . . But I gave her a hug and sent her home with a package from the fridge.

Years ago I worked for a restaurant that was famous for good old southern home cooking "just like grandma". They had some wonderful desserts, but all of the cakes were mixes with some tweaking to it and some special things done with the icing and topping. Chocolate cake mix (she added something, , maybe sour cream ? and added walnuts) with cream cheese frosting--made a bundt cake, sliced it after frosting and then on each slice, placed a cherry from a can of pie filling with a little of the filling to drip down the cake slice. People LOVED it and were always asking for the "secret" recipe.

 

[MrsPete]

I love that step one in your ten minute process takes an hour.

Are you really going to sit and watch them come to room temperature?