Pro’s of Cheat Baking! (Shhh!)

I have always encouraged my daughter to join me in my hobby by taking her to baking groups (my son is nearly four and given up on that one he hates it) and personally I see no issue with packet mix to from scratch because depending on what you’re making you can save either time or money. Below is a video of my son actually joining in on cheat cookie baking which was a case of pour, mix with butter, shape and bake. Boom!

Cake mix sparks a lot of debate, it seems! On the one hand, it’s fast, convenient, and reliable. On the other hand, homemade isn’t really that much fussier and it tastes a whole lot better. Or does it? Baking time is similar in time so about half an hour and both should cool for about 15 minutes before eating or frosting.

Since the preparation time for both cakes is nearly the same, it’s hard to argue that one is more convenient than the other based just on the ingredients or time saved.
Where we feel like the cake mix gets an edge over homemade is when it comes to peace of mind. We know that cake mix is going to work exactly the same every time and it will taste the same every time (plus, we typically dirty fewer dishes with boxed!) Unless you bake cakes frequently, it’s hard to get that same kind of consistency with homemade cakes.
Here is where the homemade gets its turn! While cake mixes have a certain nostalgic comfort factor, they sometimes taste flat, sugary while the texture leaves a lot to be desired. Cakes made from scratch just taste better: rich, buttery, and moist with lots of sweet flavor nuances that make it hard to stop eating more. Probably why I get so chubby! Once you have all the ingredients in it does work out I feel depending of course on the cake.
When you get down to the fine print on those cake boxes, you’ll see a handful of ingredients that don’t seem to belong. Things like polyglycerol esters of fatty acids, partially hydrogenated soybean oil, cellulose gum, and modified cornstarch. If healthiness is a big factor in your cake consumption this might be a winning argument for you for homemade over boxed mix.
I could go either way with this one. The box mix is cheaper and requires no effort, energy and attention (flavours can suck depending on mixes you buy!) Homemade cakes can sometimes be fussy, especially if you don’t make them very often, but it’s hard to beat a homemade cake for flavour, texture and thought.
Verdict – there’s a time and place for both

– cake is cake!

Some of our VLOGS below:

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Baking with Betty Crocker mixes:
Chocolate brownie pizzas – in 3 parts I didn’t know how to edit!

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Betty Crocker icecream cones:

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Morrisons cake mix section Sainsburys Cake mix section Asda cake mix section

oven time

home made scones

tasted ace

cookies

trialling

betty crocker

yum

brownie