But wait- you PRE-SOFTENED your butter! If you're making a cake without pre-planning, as box mixes allow, you wouldn't have pre-softened butter. That adds a LOT of time to your prep work. Box mixes use oil, which is always liquid, thus cutting out the whole softening butter issue.

Also- did both of these cakes bake at the same temp and for the same time? Box mixes tend to bake at the same temp and time regardless of flavor, not so with many scratch cakes.

I make both, and for spur-of-the-moment cakes (especially vegan or kosher pareve ones) box mix almost always wins out as I don't need to do any shopping (oil and egg replacer/applesauce being always on hand) and they don't require my prepping anything time consuming, like softening butter.

Ether -
This cake mix calls for softened butter. I admit that using a cake mix with oil would have cut down the time. But, as we were going to compare both flavor and timing, we went to the store with a specific recommendation from a friend.

Both of these cakes baked at the same temp, for the same amount of time.

In addition to my above comment- you're also not counting the time and effort of pulling out the stand mixer, and then clean up. Box mix uses a wooden spoon or maybe a whisk, and a bowl. Scratch needs the mixer. For anyone who has a small kitchen, stand mixers are generally hidden away elsewhere and are pulled out only when needed. I think in order to really judge if something is faster, you need to do start to finish timing- including prep, cleanup, and factor in if any shopping or pre-planning might have to be done in order to allow for the cake to be made.

Well, by that standard, you'd have to add 20 minutes for the cake mix. I have flour, sugar, eggs, and baking powder as pantry staples, but I had to make a special trip to the store.

I never make box mixes, but this one said to use the mixer, so I did. I followed directions exactly, trying to make it as fair as possible. To be honest, I thought the box mix would beat the scratch cake by a couple of minutes at least. But I was surprised!

Oh, and I bake enough that the stand mixer sits on my counter, right next to the flour and sugar canisters.

That should say "a special trip to the store for the box mix." LOL.

See, I keep a few box mixes on-hand for making vegan- or kosher-pareve cakes on short notice, and I think that people who tend to bake from box mixes also tend to have one or two in the cupboard most times.

I bake plenty- but I generally gravitate towards things I can do with minimal dishes and by hand, as I have a tiny kitchen (the the cure flickr gallery for pictures from martygreene to see my kitchen) with a small sink and no counter space.

I think, all in all, it will vary greatly based on what people generally have on hand. The nice thing with box mixes is the only real perishible is the eggs, and those can easily be subbed out. From scratch you have to make sure to plan ahead and have egg and butter on hand. Making vegan cakes from scratch is a whole 'nother ball of wax, same with kosher-pareve. That would entail my having a whole separate stand mixer just for pareve foods!

Did you guys have stuff out on the counter before you started the timer or did you have to pull it out(i.e. flour, measuring cups, etc)? I think you need to time all of the prep. Also I'm impressed with the DIY Yellow Cake mix recipe itself, much of what I find "difficult"/time-consuming about cakes from scratch are the need for cake flour and the typical instructions to sift all the dry ingredients in one bowl and combine all the wet in another. I haven't made any box mixes since the transfat thing came out which is a shame because I really enjoyed all the concoctions in "The Cake Mix Dr." I'll have to try subbing the DIY recipe, is there a chocolate version?

@Sally
Good point there- I hadn't even looked at the DIY recipe yet. A cake recipe sans-sifting and sans-wet/dry separate bowls will really cut back on time. Also right about the digging out stuff prep.

As far as the chemical taste is concerned, I think it's very much a question of what you've taught your taste buds to expect. If you never use mixes, or generally keep processed foods to a minimum, you really notice the chemical taste. For instance, I bought a jar of Skippy peanut butter recently and I found it incredibly salty and unnatural (Rename to Skippy's Salt Butter?). I don't think wouldn't have bothered me ten years ago.

No, I started the timer, then I pulled out a measuring cup and measured the flour. I've got my kitchen set up for convenience. The canisters of flour, sugar, and salt sit next to the stand mixer. All of my other baking supplies are grouped together on a shelf, with the baking powder and vanilla at the front, since I use those most often. The measuring cups and spoons are all stored together, at a convenient arms reach.

The joys of a small kitchen! you don't have to walk very far!

I did get the butter and eggs out for both recipes ahead of time. I like all of my ingredients to be as close to room temperature as possible.

(similarly, I started the timer, then opened the box and cut open the inner package.)

If you have a microwave that you can change cooking power on, you can easily soften butter for 30-60 seconds at 10%.

I think it takes me, personally, a few minutes longer to cook a scratch cake than a box, but that's only because I'm slow about measuring. Personally, I prefer the taste of scratch, and as you noted, I usually don't have a dome to negotiate for decorated cakes.

This is a great feature. Love it!

A box mix probably is slightly easier if you have no ingredients in your house (like flour,sugar, etc). But if you have to go to the store to buy the box mix then why couldn't you pick up flour and sugar? Anyhoo - I prefer to bake a cake from scratch. It just seems so much more natural and comforting to me.

Sally - we have a recipe for dark chocolate cake. It doesn't even call for softened butter!

This post obviously won't sway anyone who has done their own comparison baking and come to conclusions based on their experience and setup. But it is valuable for people who have just been assuming that mixes are quicker.

(I prefer scratch, myself, and am comfortable with the process.)

I tried this test twice about a year ago.

With yellow cake (boxed and a recipe from Mark Bittman's How to Cook Everything), my college-student-aged friends preferred the cake mix on average. My friend Luke, who is not native born or raised, was the only one to prefer the cake from scratch (besides myself, of course!) There's something very American about the cake mix, right down to the chemical aftertaste.

The second time I used angel food cake. This time, people noticed the cloying sweetness of the box and the chemical aftertaste it had much sooner.

I'll just second OneWall

I find it pretty ridiculous that someone would point out not counting time to soften butter as a way to negate the results. I mean wow, all that time it takes to put a stick of butter on the counter and let it sit until you need it. Or as the above poster said, you can soften butter quickly in the microwave.

Also about ingredients kept on hand--really? Really, you don't think most people have eggs and butter on hand?

I also have my stand mixer out, and baking ingredients grouped together, I would've taken this challenge but I don't do boxed mixes anymore and don't like dessert going to waste!

Another above poster is probably correct with the assumption that this isn't going to change anyone's mind as most people are set in their ways, I just wish that those who are so quick to defend the box would consider the actual timing of this challenge, and READ the label on most boxed mixes to see what lovely chemicals you're unnecessarily feeding your families.

@ Ether Maiden - I forgot to say before that I understand what you mean about vegan and pareve cakes. I was vegan for a few years in college, and certainly using a mix was easier than finding vegan ingredients in a small town.

Our friends who keep semi-kosher are almost all vegetarian, so we just make everything dairy. But then again, they knowingly eat things that are made in our non-Kosher kitchen, so perhaps that's neither here nor there!

Excellent, thanks I will have to try it out.

I'm not to going to break out the "liar liar pants on fire" routine, but is this true? You let the scratch cake mix for 3 minutes, meaning it took you 2.5 minutes to measure and get everything in the mixing bowl. Meanwhile, you let the box cake mix for only 2 minutes, meaning that it took you 3.12 seconds to open the package and pour.

Sooo... you're saying that it took you almost a minute LONGER to open the box, pour into bowl, and add some eggs than it did to measure all 6 of the scratch ingredients individually and add them? Was this cake mix in some kind of child-proof box that you had to struggle with opening it for a full minute before you could begin combining ingredients? :)

Sorry, but I've made cakes from scratch and I've used mixes and yes, using the mix was MUCH faster. Wish they'd do a mythbusters on this one, lolol.

I have thought for a while that packet mixes of most kinds are not really convenient in the making, but actually are just a crutch for people who don't know how to cook, i.e. the recipe is on the box - they don't need to know what to put in anything while shopping, or think about or plan what they are going to make before going to the store.

up until the last year i had only ever made cakes from mixes. i wrongly thought that making one from scratch would be really hard. aside from the taste of the scratch cake, which i prefer, i like it that there are a few more steps when not using a mix. it makes me feel like i actually baked a cake instead of just opening a box and adding oil. i get more satisfaction when i make it from scratch.

mh330 - I had the same thought you did when I finished the mix cake, and looked at the timer. How could that be?

I was careful to watch the clock for the mixing part, and follow directions, even though my usual inclination is to mix just until it is fully blended.

And yes, it was a tricky package. I even had to pull out my kitchen shears! But no, it certainly didn't take a minute to open it.

My only thought is that it took longer for the cup of water to fully incorporate. With the scratch cake, there's no water, and the sugar probably helped everything to blend together more quickly.

But if you don't believe me, try it yourself! I'm about to edit the post to include how you can submit the results of your own tests!

Also, mh330 I did measure the dry ingredients while the sugar and butter were creaming. Every little second counts, I suppose!

I think for a truly fair comparison, you should also have used an inexperienced baker. One of the reason self-described nonbakers like boxes is that they are vastly more forgiving with mixing times, etc., than a scratch cake. They are actually designed to accommodate a wide range of under and over mixing, and it's very difficult to mess one up. Not so with most scratch cakes, and an experience eye will know when the butter and sugar are sufficiently creamed, know just when to stop the mixer after adding the dry ingredients, etc..

Also, an inexperienced baker probably won't have the super-fast measuring chops that Nina seems to possess. Even if the same amount of time was used in the process, the results might have varied (most likely a dry scratch cake).

And I think an inexperience baker is the proper tester because it's just hard to imagine why an accomplished baker would use a mix at all. But if s/he did, they'd probably have a specific reason for it, such as the general American's palate conditioned for mixes. I've seen on other baking sites, many times, people pose the question, how can I get my scratch cake to taste more like a mix?

I also have the same question as mh330: how did it take over 3 minutes to put the mix ingredients into the bowl? I can't imagine it taking more than a minute, minute and a half.

We need a videotape!

All that being said, I am a big proponent of scratch cakes (and everything else). But if there were no mixes, all my childhood birthdays would have had grocery store cakes, which aren't really even worth eating. And I love cake, so that makes me sad.

Further afield, has anyone else read how, when cake mixes were initially developed, they only required adding water to produce the same result? But housewives wouldn't buy them, for the reason Cassiopia described they felt too disconnected from the process. So they changed it to require adding an egg, and they were massively successful.

In Europe cake mixes are very unpopular, because usually everyone has butter, eggs, sugar and flour on hand. We always have coffee and cake for breakfast, so I bake two cakes a week. I have never timed the preparation, but I think it takes me 3 minutes and not more. I use only one wooden spoon and one bowl. This is my recipe:
1/3 cup of sugar 1 cup of flour 1 egg 1/2 cup of plain yogurt 1/2 cup of melted butter 1 tsp baking powder pinch of salt and pecans, raisins, chocolate chips or whatever I have on hand to make things more interesting. Mix and bake for 1 hour. voilà

I know from my own experience, as someone who always bakes from scratch, the few times I've chosen to use a box mix seemed to take just as long as my scratch baking. Perhaps this was because, like with many skills, the most efficient thing for me is the one that I'm most used to (in this case from scratch). So the time thing doesn't seem all that odd (maybe this is along the lines of what renata is saying above).

Also, for the most part, whatever I bake is vegan, which may have some effect on the times being similar (shorter mixing time, etc). and to say - I never need special ingredients etc so long as i know how to sub for eggs and milk

I commented on the first post; the reason I didn't take you up on the offer to do the comparison was that then I would have two cakes in the house!

I usually bake from scratch. I keep a few boxed mixes in the house for the other people who live here.

That box-mix yellow is almost certainly due to tartrazine, which is a highly-allergenic colouring. Ick.

OK, so I just made the chocolate, it a total time of 19 minutes and 1 second. The dry ingredients took 9 minutes and 39 seconds, after that I assume the time would be similar for a box mix. Time includes wiping up spilled flour and cocoa. I usually spill some of the box mix too, but that's only one ingredient I have to deal with. I think its all in the kitchen organization unfortunately I don't have the counter space for canisters. The batter is thin for a cake so I doubt you could do many modifications such as including mini-chocolate chips for extra chocolate flavor (they would sink). I used Hershey's cocoa for this because they designed the recipe but in general I find I like other cocoa powders better and that may be why I just didn't find it chocolatey enough though it is still nice. The cakes were really hard to get out of the pan but they didn't tear which is always a plus. So this was no 5 minute cake for me but it was still fast and pretty tasty.

My no-fail quick chocolate cake recipe follows...

Bring to a boil in a medium saucepan:
1 c water
1 c crisco
1/2 c Fry's cocoa

Take off heat and stir until crisco is melted.

Add 2 c sugar, 1/2 tsp salt.
Add 2 c flour, 1 tsp baking soda.

Whisk well to get out all lumps.

Stir in 3 eggs and 2/3c sour cream or plain yogourt.

Bake in 9x13 pan that's been greased and floured for 35-40 mins at 375 ° F (or until toothpick comes out clean).

This is a VERY forgiving recipe and it doesn't make a ton of dishes. I've used 1/3 c milk when I didn't have yogourt or sour cream. I have cooked it in a bundt pan and as cupcakes and in little mini-tube-pans (obviously adjusting the timing for different sizes of pans).

Not all scratch cake recipes are created equal in terms of time requirements. My standard cake is the six minute chocolate cake recipe from Moosewood. It is a vegan cake. It literally takes 6 minutes or less and I prefer the taste compared to a mix. But some recipes are more complicated and therefore take longer.

I also wanted to throw out there that not all box mixes are alike. There are "box" (actually bag) mixes like Bob's Red Mill and such which have far FAR fewer chemicals and such than things like Duncan Hines and Pillsbury. Just because it's in a box (or bag) doesn't mean it's plastic food. There are organic options out there.

i make scratch and box cakes. i don't make box cakes because i can't cook, because i can. i make box cakes because it's easier and faster to whip THREE ingredients out of the pantry/fridge (mix, egg, oil) than the eight or more most of my scratch cakes call for. no, i do not always have powdered cocoa on hand. i almost never have milk on hand. sometimes i don't have butter. sometimes i don't have enough sugar. sometimes i don't have the chocolate chips called for in brownies, or the carrots called for in carrot cake. but if i preemptively have a box mix on hand, that means when i'm out of the other stuff, i can still whip up a cupcake or brownie to take to a potluck. and the boxes don't go bad, the way a carrot kept preemptively would.

and yes, it takes longer to do setup for scratch baking if you're not superwoman. it also takes longer to do cleanup.

ideally you make your own "box" mix during a time when you do have all the right ingredients and you store it in your pantry. but life is rarely ideal.

I don't make a lot of cakes-- not much of a sweet tooth here. But for my birthday, my husband (who doesn't cook. Period.) decided to bake me a cake. He did tons of research through my cookbooks, read all about sifting and measuring, and then consulted his best friend, who does cook.

His friend suggested that my husband just use a mix, "because it tastes better. Everyone knows that."

Lucky for me, my husband at this point decided to consult me. I don't like cake mixes. To me they are too sweet and I'd much prefer a deeper taste from a cake from scratch. Plus, it would mean so much more for my husband to go so far out of his realm of comfort and do it from scratch. And he did. It was delicious! :)

Extra effort or not, if you're going to bake a cake I think you should just go all the way.

I know this is a stupid (another one) question but what does "cream" the butter mean?

Aggie927,

Not stupid at all. A lot of why baking has an unnecessary mystique has to do with processes that are easy to do (and demonstrate), but not so easy to figure out just from reading.

You mix the butter (and usually sugar) either by hand or with an electric mixer to incorporate tiny air bubbles into the butter which ultimately make for a better cake.

Often the end result is described as "fluffy", which is a bit of an exaggeration, it's not fluffy in the way whipped cream is, but it's fluffier than what you started with. It also lightens in color, so you should look for that.

This is actually a pretty good photograph (and explanation) of what you're aiming for,

http://www.glutenfreecookingschool.com/archives/how-to-cream-butter-sugar/

this post has gotten me to unlurk, so please pardon (or skip :) ) the lengthy comment:

there's some apples-to-oranges going on in a few of these comments. of course a box mix is easier than a complicated cake that takes 9 ingredients, but it doesn't get much easier than a 1-2-3-4 cake, which is what box cakes are imitating. i made perfectly good 1-2-3-4 cakes as a kid, with little to no oversight from an "experienced" baker beyond the joy of cooking. lots of things about my cooking have improved with time and practice, but those cakes were pretty decent to begin with. cake is just not that hard.

other people have said this already, but i'm one more vote for the convenience (for me) of scratch cake -- i don't have to go to the store for any of those ingredients, but i would have to shop for cake mix. my kitchen is very small (too small for a stand mixer, btw, and i make plenty of scratch cakes without one), so i'm not going to store box mixes that only have one purpose in place of flour, sugar, and other staples that are used in lots of foods. as for perishable ingredients -- butter in the freezer (in plastic bags) and eggs in the fridge keep a LONG time. i've got milk for coffee anyway.

finally, unless you absolutely can/don't eat dairy at all, there's no excuse for substituting oil for butter in baking. yuck. without butter, what is there left for the cake to taste like but sugar?

Another de-lurker here. I'm really a non-baker, having made zero scratch cakes and only a few mix cakes. One major reason: butter ALWAYS requires a special trip to the store, and milk often does. We are a traditional Asian household that uses very little of those two ingredients in everyday cooking. I think we probably go through 1-2 sticks of butter -annually-. Someday I definitely want to try an oil-based scratch cake, but the recipes remain intimidating.

Another caveat on the original experiment: measuring dry ingredients while creaming/mixing other ingredients REQUIRES a stand mixer, and that's a non-insignificant amount of time.

To those who make special trips to buy butter: Always keep some butter on hand in the freezer. It has never 'gone bad' on me. Problem solved.

I used to buy boxed mixes to keep on hand "in a pinch". I ended up never using them and then they would eventually become expired and I'd have to get rid of them... So no more boxes for me!

Also, creaming DOES NOT require a stand mixer. Often, hand mixers are more convenient and take just a few seconds. Besides, I've made plenty of delicious cakes which call for "creaming" ingredients with hand whisks and (heaven forbid!) even forks. The other day I was left with under an hour to leave the house and head over to a friend's birthday lunch. I whipped up some delicous almond/marzipan blondies in < 30-40 minutes (including picking out a recipe and baking!) with a good 20 minutes to spare to cool.

Cupcakes take even less time (to bake) due to their increased surface area.

There are plenty of super simple recipes out there that take nearly no baking skills and only 'pantry' items.

I suppose you'll end up with one extra (smaller) bowl to clean (due to separating wet/dry ingredients -- if you even bother) but that seems like a minor inconvenience.

I don't use mixes because of all the crappy ingrediants in them. Plus, it's a mark of a true baker to not use a mix-at least to me it is.

I love baking from scratch; I've come to taste the "chemical" difference as I've switched to natural foods over time. One thing I did to help was to purchase a microwave with a "soften" button and a "melt" button. Both are programmed for 1, 2 or 3 sticks of butter, making perfectly soft or melted butter less than a minute away. This allows me to bake spur-of-the moment and takes the guess work out of perfect butter.

curious: what nasty chemicals are in cake mix, anyway?