Cake kits take the guesswork (and the waste) out of baking

Denisse Horan hates to bake but has always loved the bonding experience of making a cake from scratch with her two children. The actual baking part? That’s a different story. “I tried and tried, but the cakes never came out right. Sometimes it was a disaster,” she says. “It takes perfect chemistry to make a perfect cake, and if you have one thing wrong, it won’t work.” She was also bothered by the expense and waste of the leftover ingredients.

Now Horan is appealing to other non-bakers with a product line she recently introduced: Damask Cakes baking kits. The Amesbury-based company ships to your door and offers dozens of kits to make cakes, cupcakes, and cake pops, with premeasured ingredients so there’s no waste. The kits include pouches of flour, sugars, unsweetened chocolate bits, cocoa powder, and more, plus parchment paper rounds (use your own eggs and butter). You can whip up a chocolate, red velvet, or espresso cake or cupcakes, or a bouquet of raspberry cake pops, regular or glutenfree. Horan collaborated with a team of European pastry chefs to develop the recipes and spent a year hunting for fine and all-natural ingredients: Madagascar vanilla, Dutch chocolate from the Netherlands, and others without preservatives, such as dye-free sprinkles. “We went the extra mile to source ingredients,” she says. Ethically made products and recyclable packaging was also a priority. The directions are easy to follow and come with photographs. “We’ve done the hard part for you, so moms, dads, or grandparents can have the experience of baking with the children.” Kits cost from $15.60 to $25.99 and are available at www.damaskcakes.com, where you will also find baking tips and cake decorating techniques.