Are homemade or store bought desserts better?

ra_mom

Thu, Feb 03 2011, 1:52 pm

Mirabelle wrote:

yo'ma wrote:

It mostly depends on who your company is. I would go for simple homemade.

Business associate (or potential business associate) for my husband's job.

Jewish, traditional, but not frum per se.

Mirabelle wrote:

Anything I make/buy anyway is either going home with the babysitter or coming to work with me as I CANNOT have this stuff in the house.

Store bought

lamplighter

Thu, Feb 03 2011, 1:58 pm

I say bakery. You get something fancy and its from a bakery so it's not personal or up to personal taste etc.

Homemade is personal and debateable about if it tastes better.

Tamiri

Thu, Feb 03 2011, 2:37 pm

Debatable. While I consider myself a very good baker, I just don't have the patience to decorate the way a store would. So when a birthday rolls around and we want a parve fancy bday cake, it comes from the bakery. We know the cake won't taste as good as we are used to, but it will be pretty.
Most people do not know the difference anymore. They don't bake at home, and what they get from the bakery tastes "right".
If this is a business affair, what will you achieve by killing yourself baking? Do you think they will know the difference? If not, save your koach and buy something nice. So, you won't get a million compliments on your talent, but you also will not have been standing and measuring and mixing and baking and washing utensils for hours.
When you invite me, please serve homemade but don't patchka LOL

grace413

Thu, Feb 03 2011, 2:43 pm

You said you have good baking skills. I think homemade is nice precisely because a lot of people never get it, so that makes it special. Everybody loves brownies and cookies and cake. I'm definitely more into taste than presentation so that colors my opinion.

You could also have variety - something you make plus buying a type of pastry you wouldn't make.

Marion

Thu, Feb 03 2011, 3:36 pm

Homemade. I don't eat bakery cakes and cookies due to allergy issues, so if I was the business associate and you put out bought items I wouldn't touch them even to taste.

Mirabelle

Thu, Feb 03 2011, 5:16 pm

Hello friends,
Thanks so much for all your feedback. In the end I went with store bought from a nice bakery. I got a strawberry shortcake, chocolate rugulach, and a dried fruit platter. Good enough?

Chocoholic

Thu, Feb 03 2011, 5:41 pm

Seems good to me, but there is only one thing missing: chocolate!!! Also make sure that the coffee is good coffee. Enjoy!

Mirabelle

Thu, Feb 03 2011, 6:14 pm

Chocoholic wrote:

Seems good to me, but there is only one thing missing: chocolate!!! Also make sure that the coffee is good coffee. Enjoy!

ooh, the rugulach are chocolate! Chocolate inside and chocolate drizzled outside...that's why I didnt go with a chocolate cake..

nylon

Thu, Feb 03 2011, 6:20 pm

The quality of many bakeries has gone down lately (and finding good dairy pastries/cakes is a particular difficulty--I grew up with lots of dairy baking so having it is a treat I enjoy). So it really depends on your local bakeries. In many places, homemade will be better quality if you are at all good at baking.

We don't have a good bakery here so if I want to serve anything nice it has to be homemade. Mine won't look as good as what you can get from a patisserie in Paris, but I do pretty well.

DefyGravity

Thu, Feb 03 2011, 6:22 pm

Depends on the bakery and your baking skills. I prefer most homemade stuff to the Bakeries here in my hometown. There are a few in NY that I love.

Chocoholic

Thu, Feb 03 2011, 7:13 pm

Mirabelle wrote:

Chocoholic wrote:

Seems good to me, but there is only one thing missing: chocolate!!! Also make sure that the coffee is good coffee. Enjoy!

ooh, the rugulach are chocolate! Chocolate inside and chocolate drizzled outside...that's why I didnt go with a chocolate cake..

I know but a piece of good quality chocolate is very different than rugelach filling. It can just be a few pieces broken on a nice little cute plate.

octopus

Thu, Feb 03 2011, 8:13 pm

hey, you can't go wrong with rugelach in my book. And it's definitely worth to buy those than to make it as it is a potchka. I am just curious about the posters saying that homemade can be made to look fancy. Part of the perk of home made(at least my home made stuff) is that it is not dolloped with cream and such. Not everyone loves whip cream, or cream in general on a cake. Some of us are plain cake lovers.

Sweet Valley Gal

Thu, Feb 03 2011, 8:18 pm

I would buy a few things and then its nice to have something homemade too. You can make peanut butter rice crispy treats and cut into small squares and arrange prettily on a plate. Cant go wrong with that.

jemappelle

Fri, Feb 04 2011, 1:05 am

another vote for home made...I have yet to taste something better than homemade from a bakery...and that includes NY, NJ, misc other states , France & Israel....no wait, there is one pastry from maafiyat naama in E"Y that is amazing but thats about it!
Maybe I grew up spoiled but my mother always baked and anything store bought tasted too commercial....

pobody's nerfect

Fri, Feb 04 2011, 1:10 am

Mirabelle wrote:

ooh, the rugulach are chocolate! Chocolate inside and chocolate drizzled outside...that's why I didnt go with a chocolate cake..

you're killin me here! I need a BAKERY! stat!!!!

Mirabelle

Fri, Feb 04 2011, 6:31 am

pobody's nerfect wrote:

Mirabelle wrote:

ooh, the rugulach are chocolate! Chocolate inside and chocolate drizzled outside...that's why I didnt go with a chocolate cake..

you're killin me here! I need a BAKERY! stat!!!!

Don't wanna make this worse for you, but they look really really good and my whole family is mad that I am not letting them touch it until the guests come!! I guess I should have bought more!

flowerpower

Fri, Feb 04 2011, 11:25 am

Homemade is always better. I started baking a different cake every week and since then can't eat bought cake-okay some that are really good are still tempting.

Mirabelle

Tue, Feb 08 2011, 6:33 am

Thanks for the help/advice everyone.

I think the store bought stuff on nice platters looked nice and went over well.

Mission accomplished!