# How do you get your cake?
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-get-your-cake/623339
**Category:** In My Humble Opinion
**Created:** [May 28, 2012, 11:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-get-your-cake/623339 "2012-05-28T11:55:57Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@flodnak](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/flodnak)
#### Post date: [May 28, 2012, 11:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-get-your-cake/623339/1 "2012-05-28T11:55:57Z")
When you want a cake, for a party or dessert or just because you want cake dangit, which of the methods in the poll do you most often use to get your cake?
Caaaaake.
I usually make it from scratch, although I started this poll because I noticed that I had a box of cake mix in my pantry that had a code date of June 1st, and I made it, because, well, cake. The nuns taught me that wasting food is a sin, so wasting cake must be a very bad sin indeed.
I know it would have been just fine in a couple of weeks or months. But it’s cake, dangit.
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### Author:  [@panache45](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/panache45)
#### Post date: [May 28, 2012, 12:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-get-your-cake/623339/2 "2012-05-28T12:07:30Z")
We don’t have cake on my planet. We are the planet of the overweight and/or the diabetic. But occasionally we’ll have a small piece of cake on someone else’s planet.
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### Author:  [@Khadaji](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Khadaji)
#### Post date: [May 28, 2012, 12:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-get-your-cake/623339/3 "2012-05-28T12:36:58Z")
I don’t like cake (except cheesecake!) so unless it were for someone else’s benefit, I would not get it at all.
Then I would get it from the local supermarket.
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### Author:  [@MsRobyn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MsRobyn)
#### Post date: [May 28, 2012, 12:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-get-your-cake/623339/4 "2012-05-28T12:38:36Z")
> [@panache45](#):
>
> We don’t have cake on my planet. We are the planet of the overweight and/or the diabetic. But occasionally we’ll have a small piece of cake on someone else’s planet.
There is no cake on my planet, either. It affects the gravitational pull of my abdomen and/or butt. 🙂
However, I recognize that other people do have cake on their planet, and that I am expected to procure it. I get it at a supermarket on the way to the event. It’s easier and I don’t have cake mix in the house.
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### Author:  [@Blackberry](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Blackberry)
#### Post date: [May 28, 2012, 12:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-get-your-cake/623339/5 "2012-05-28T12:43:09Z")
I prefer storebought cake, so I buy it. Well, I haven’t in a long time now because I want to lose a few pounds, but I go through phases of buying cakes fairly often, and then the checkers always have to be all, “What’s the occasion?” or “Aww, is it your birthday?” to my daughter, and then I have to admit that the only occasion is we felt like stuffing our faces with cake. It’s not fair, no one questions you if you just buy a mix!
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### Author:  [@vix](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/vix)
#### Post date: [May 28, 2012, 12:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-get-your-cake/623339/6 "2012-05-28T12:55:49Z")
I chose make from a mix. The cake I make most often is adapted from a mix, but with a few added ingredients (on top of what the mix calls for). Also, I make a kickass frosting from scratch.
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### Author:  [@carlotta](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carlotta)
#### Post date: [May 28, 2012, 1:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-get-your-cake/623339/7 "2012-05-28T13:31:44Z")
I’ve even made my own birthday cake on occasion. Since I’m such an accomplished cake baker (for reals, used to work in a bakery), I’ve gotten used to my own cake, and extremely fresh cake. I’ve been disappointed too many times by purchased cake.
I’ve made cake so many times, I could do it in my sleep. I’ve got everything I need. The course of least resistance is just to make it.
I think for my next birthday though I’m just gonna stick a candle in a pint of Ben and Jerry’s Coffee Heath Bar Crunch.
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### Author:  [@Antigen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Antigen)
#### Post date: [May 28, 2012, 1:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-get-your-cake/623339/8 "2012-05-28T13:39:06Z")
I use a box mix. I’ve been told by a few friends who dabbled in baking that for a normal flavored cake, like vanilla or chocolate, the difference in quality between a box cake and a scratch cake is not worth the extra effort required for the scratch cake.
I will make a scratch cake myself, at some point, just to see if I agree, but for now box mixes are cheap and the results plenty tasty to my palate.
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### Author:  [@MandaJo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MandaJo)
#### Post date: [May 28, 2012, 1:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-get-your-cake/623339/9 "2012-05-28T13:49:34Z")
I buy cake because you can buy a piece. A nice big piece of cake is a wonderful indulgence that can be worked into a sensible diet. A nice big cake, on the other hand, is more difficult. And I will eat the whole thing.
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### Author:  [@Moonlitherial](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Moonlitherial)
#### Post date: [May 28, 2012, 1:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-get-your-cake/623339/10 "2012-05-28T13:50:51Z")
I chose I make it from scratch but to save my world from the ravages of cake related gravitational issues I only bake it when going to someone elses world so they can share in the good and the bad. Since I repress my baking tendancies until these occasions I have become famous for amazing desserts. They don’t look like anything special because decorating is not my forte but flavour combinations - I’m there 🙂
Last event was almond meringue layers with grilled pineapple and white chocolate ganache.
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### Author:  [@BrotherCadfael](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrotherCadfael)
#### Post date: [May 28, 2012, 1:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-get-your-cake/623339/11 "2012-05-28T13:56:11Z")
My son came home from college yesterday, and I have a nice cake baked for his 19th birthday today.
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### Author:  [@AaronX](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AaronX)
#### Post date: [May 28, 2012, 2:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-get-your-cake/623339/12 "2012-05-28T14:14:36Z")
The cake is a lie.
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### Author:  [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)
#### Post date: [May 28, 2012, 3:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-get-your-cake/623339/13 "2012-05-28T15:01:05Z")
I make it from scratch. I don’t really see the point of packaged mixes. Cakes aren’t difficult or inconvenient to make.
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### Author:  [@Alessan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alessan)
#### Post date: [May 28, 2012, 3:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-get-your-cake/623339/14 "2012-05-28T15:17:49Z")
My wife once asked me what “scratch” meant. I told her it was American for “ingrediants”.
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### Author:  [@Siam\_Sam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Siam_Sam)
#### Post date: [May 28, 2012, 4:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-get-your-cake/623339/15 "2012-05-28T16:05:16Z")
When come back, bring pie.
This feels like a good place to mention that Cake is a not-uncommon girls’ nickname in Thailand. The English word Cake. This has led to many lewd comments about “having your cake and eating her too.”
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### Author:  [@Digital\_is\_the\_new\_Analog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Digital_is_the_new_Analog)
#### Post date: [May 28, 2012, 4:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-get-your-cake/623339/16 "2012-05-28T16:13:36Z")
If I’m in a rush - I buy it at the store.
If I have time - I make it myself.
If it’s a really special occasion, I call a friend of mine who is a professional cake decorator. her stuff is AMAZING.
I don’t eat the stuff myself. Blood sugar and stuff like that.
ETA: A handful of us met at our favorite bar for my last birthday. They bought me a beer stein and paid of all the beer I wanted that night.
-D/a
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### Author:  [@ZenBeam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ZenBeam)
#### Post date: [May 28, 2012, 4:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-get-your-cake/623339/17 "2012-05-28T16:58:01Z")
I’m the first one to have someone make me my cake? My wife likes to bake, and likes challenges, so that’s where my cakes come from, both scratch and mix.
I don’t even have to whine.
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### Author:  [@Siam\_Sam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Siam_Sam)
#### Post date: [May 28, 2012, 5:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-get-your-cake/623339/18 "2012-05-28T17:12:41Z")
I don’t think that I can take it, 'cause it took so long to bake it, and I’ll never have that recipe again. ☹
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### Author:  [@Nametag](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nametag)
#### Post date: [May 28, 2012, 6:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-get-your-cake/623339/19 "2012-05-28T18:47:26Z")
I’ve done all of these. As an apartment-dwelling single man most of my life, I rarely have ingredients for baking from scratch, but when I was married, and my wife was pregnant (and had gestational diabetes), I made a low-sugar cake for her birthday, and I’ve made cake-like desserts for potlucks. For routine cakes like birthdays I make cake from a mix. I’ve bought cakes from the supermarket, and these are fine, and much more nicely decorated than mine. I’ve bought specialty cakes from bakeries, and those are often amazing. Of course, I’ve had all of these provided by others, because I have birthdays too.
But mostly, yeah, it’s the mix. Homemade pie is well worth some extra effort; homemade cake, not so much. It takes a lot of extra effort to make a cake that special, and most of us don’t have the time, the know-how, or the routine access to ingredients, to start down that road.
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### Author:  [@Ruken](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ruken)
#### Post date: [May 28, 2012, 6:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-get-your-cake/623339/20 "2012-05-28T18:51:22Z")
I don’t have cake very often, but I strongly dislike box and grocery store cakes, so I’ll bake one, preferably with a baking buddy.
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