Grocery store vs bakery cake

So why go to a bakery or home baker instead of using a boxed mix or getting one from your local grocery store? With the many choices available in your local grocery store, a boxed mix surely makes it easy (and cheap) to whip up any flavored cake. From vanilla and chocolate to carrot and german chocolate, most mixes are under $2 per box. Then for another $2, you can get a can of pre made frosting including shelf stable and non-refrigerated cream cheese frosting? Add some oil, eggs and water and presto, you have a cake. But, have you looked at the ingredients in a box mix?

In a world where so many of us are concerned with processed foods and high fructose corn syrup, I am amazed at the amount of people that still opt for boxed mixes. Here is the list of ingredients off a box of Betty Crocker chocolate cake mix: enriched bleached flour, sugar, corn syrup, cocoa processed with alkali, baking side, sodium aluminum phosphate, mono calcium phosphate, corn starch, modified corn starch, nonfat milk, partially hydrogenated soybean oil and/or cottonseed oil, propylene glycol mono and diesters of fatty acids, salt, distilled monoglycerides, dicalcium phosphate, sodium stearoyl lactylate, xanthan gum, cellulose gum and artificial flavor. Phew! I think I counted 21 ingredients... For a cake... Not including the oil, water and eggs. Not including the frosting or any fillings. I'm curious what ingredients are in the cream cheese frosting.

Can I tell you what goes into a Frost This chocolate cake? Unbleached flour, sugar, baking soda, baking powder, vanilla, brown sugar, butter, eggs, milk and cocoa powder. 10 ingredients. And we try to use local, fresh ingredients when available. That's just one of the reasons...

If you get your cake at your local supermarket, yes, you will save a few bucks. You can pick up a dozen cupcakes for $6 where you are looking to spend atleast $20 from your local bakery. So why spend the extra funds at a bakery when the supermarket is just so cheap? Because you will get the personal touch. If your son is really into science, do you think the local grocer will take the time to research science cakes, find out their favorite flavors and colors and make it come to life like this cake?

Or if your unique 10 year old has an odd obsession with rubber ducks, mustaches and the color purple, will the local baker take the time to make this cake?

The local supermarket has one or 2 decorators that need to whip out 50 cakes, that all look the same and the most personalization you will get is happy birthday (insert name here)

On those occasions that are special enough to you that you want to celebrate with cake, why not choose someone that can help you make your child's face light up with excitement, or your dad be even more excited to retire.

Fondant vs buttercream

Wedding season is coming! One of the most frequent questions I get asked when meeting with brides is, "what is fondant?" Fondant is sugar and water mixed with gelatin and food-grade glycerine, which keeps the sugar pliable and creates a dough-like consistency. It's basically an edible sugar play dough.

So how does fondant work? I don't make my own fondant (yet) I buy it pre-made, called rolled fondant. (It's called rolled because you have to roll it out like pie crust to use it). You have to really knead it to make it soft and pliable. You can color it any shade using gel colors, but for wedding cakes, most brides opt for white. Once the fondant is rolled out large enough to cover the cake, it is placed gently over the cake, then smoothed over, removing the excess. The cake itself has a thin layer of buttercream frosting to allow the fondant to adhere to the cake.

Most people think fondant is the only option when it comes to decorating cakes, especially wedding cakes. From Cake Boss to My Fair Wedding, every cake show on TV uses fondant on their cakes. But fondant isn't the only way to go.

I am finding more and more brides are opting for buttercream or cream cheese frosting over fondant because fondant really doesn't taste that good. Although it is edible, fondant should really be treated like an orange. You peel the orange peel back and eat what is inside. This is the same with fondant. You peel the exterior fondant back and eat the moist cake and buttercream frosting inside. Why aren't cupcakes covered in fondant? Because people like the sweet creamy taste and texture of frosting.

For anyone that doesn't know, buttercream frosting is confectioners sugar and butter or shortening mixed with a few other ingredients. Choosing buttercream or any other frosting over fondant is usually a good way to help save money and stay within your budget. Fondant is more expensive than buttercream, costing $20 for a 5 pound box from your local craft store. Sometimes using fondant is more difficult than buttercream because of the physical work of kneading and rolling it out, causing prices to increase. Ombré cakes are all the rage right now and it's very easy to pull this look off using buttercream instead of fondant. Using buttercream is an affordable way to personalize your cake and make it unique.