Speed Scratch Cakes

"Speed Scratch Cakes - What's that ?" Making a "speed scratch" cake is starting with using a boxed cake mix as your base and then adding your own special touches. Since their grand entrance in the late 1940's, boxed cake mixes have become a part of American culture and baking. Boxed cake mixes have been around for over 50 years. Tastes have changed over the years, and some cake mix companies have reformulated some mixes to be more denser and moister versus high and light. There's a great article " Cake Mixes Keeping Up With The Times " at: http://www.chapelhill.com/Issues/1998/11... that gives some interesting history of cake mixes.

These "speed scratch" cakes can be a big help to cake decorators. Since the ingredients are pre-measured it does help with time efficiency and also uniformity of results. Some extra ingredients that can help a boxed mix are sour cream, mayonnaise(for chocolate cakes), apple sauce, more eggs, butter, etc. to name a few. There are some excellent sites where you can view some recipes for "doctoring up" cake mixes. One is aptly named "Cake Doctor" who is actually Anne Bryn, an author whose book has a compilation of recipes for making boxed mixes taste homemade. You can see some recipes which may whet your appetite for purchasing her cookbook at her website : http://www.cakemixdoctor.com . There is also an article from the Seattle Times that features Anne Bryn and some helpful hints at : http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/news/li... .

Another place to go to for recipes and excellent suggestions is Earlene's Cakes at : http://www.earlenescakes.com/recipes.htm - there are many yummy selections to try. Earlene Moore is an experienced cake decorator whose web site has many tremendous tips for cake decorators.

Some other web sites to see :

Features some interesting selections : http://www.seattletimes.nwsource.com/new...

For a carrot cake that doesn't taste like a box mix , scroll to the end of the article(it follows a scratch mix recipe) at: http://www.fosters.com/dining/articles20...

This site has some recipes for "glamorized cake mixes" - there were a few I'm thinking of trying: http://busycooks.about.com/food/busycook...

The following are some places where to purchase some international cake mixes:

Greek Cake Mixes and Pie Fillings - featuring Revani (Walnut Cake) and Mille Feuille Cake http://www.greekgrocers.com/baking.htm

Polish Cake Mixes - featuring Apple Cake, Baba Cake , Karpatka Cake, etc http://www.polstore.com/html/cakesjuices...

Traditional German cake mixes http://www.germandeli.com/bakingmixes.ht...

Using a pre-made product as your base in a recipe isn't a cop out and perhaps could be the help you're looking for in your baking endeavors. If you do "doctor up" cake mixes and have a recipe you'd like to share or a site you know about that does this drop me an email .

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