We grew up in the suburbs of Kansas City, and yes, our moms participated in the cake-mix frenzy of that time. Roxanne’s mom was a busy working mom and loved to tease her dad that the cake she was serving was from scratch. That is, she would exclaim, “I scratched the label off the box!” Make no mistake, she was a great baker from scratch but as her working demands and the busy schedule of raising children became jam-packed, cake mixes were part of her repertoire.
Kathy’s mom was also a busy working mom and the time crunch interrupted her scratch baking. For birthdays and holidays she often used those old family recipes, but cake mixes were favored for everyday dinners. All of those desserts she took to the church potluck dinners and the refreshments for scout meetings were lovingly made with cake mixes. Then she took a cake-decorating class and cake mixes saved the day, for she made a decorated cake each week—just for practice.
So, there is a time and place for mixes! While baking mixes first came on the market during the Depression, companies you still recognize today, including Pillsbury, Betty Crocker, and Duncan Hines introduced cake mixes after WWII, in the late 1940s and early 1950s. The popularity of cake mixes increased, especially in the 1960s and ‘70s, and look at what was happening in the our culture. More women were working outside the home and time was of the essence. Plus the quality of cake mixes improved. New flavors came on the scene and food magazines (with their glossy food ads) shared new recipes.
Fast-forward to current times. Yes, we do use cake mixes but we also like to replicate old-fashioned, no-packaged-mix cooking in our kitchens. These are recipes we turn to time and time again.
Cake mixes or scratch baking? Which do you prefer? The choice is yours and, either way, baking a cake is the first step toward making a delicious poke cake.