Scratch cupcake divas Julie Hasson and Elinor Klivans squared off with Anne Byrn in a recent article by Natalie Haughton. Hasson and Klivans both author cupcake cookbooks touting only scratch recipes while Byrn has been made famous by her easy recipes using cake mix.
In the article, Byrn insists that cake mixes are terrific and convenient for busy cooks to keep on hand -- and lots of Americans make cupcakes with a mix. You can gussy them up and make them incredibly sophisticated. Klivans retorts that it is just as easy to make (cupcakes) from scratch - a minute or two difference. Hasson adds that cupcakes from scratch taste much better.
I've made cupcakes from scratch and I've made them using a mix. Which was better? It depended on the recipe. I think gussying up a cake mix can be fun and carefree. Working from scratch has its own rewards though. You can tell yourself (and everyone else) that you made these from scratch. That's something you don't hear often enough. Starting from scratch also makes you feel more like a creator. You have more ownership in the finished product. With a mix, you have to share ownership with Duncan Hines or Betty Crocker.
And the idea of using a mix to save time doesn't really hold true unless you go strictly by the box and by the box will never produce a cupcake that tastes as good as one from a scratch recipe. To transform a cake mix into cupcakes that taste as good as scratch, you have to gussy them up as Byrn suggests. It's this time spent trying to mask the mix that makes it nearly as time consuming as a scratch recipe.
Cupcake Cookbooks
Cupcakes! by Elinor Klivans
Cupcakes! From the Cake Doctor by Anne Byrn
125 Best Cupcake Recipes by Julie Hasson
